More minutes for Towns, Dieng put Wolves on two-game winning streak

After he carefully measured his big men's minutes this season, Timberwolves interim head coach Sam Mitchell called upon both Karl-Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng to play 41 minutes or more in Saturday's comeback victory over Chicago.

They did so because Kevin Garnett and Nikola Pekovic remain sidelined and Nemanja Bjelica and Adreian Payne remain out of the playing rotation.

With two games to go before a nine-day All Star break and his team on a two-game winning streak, can he keep doing that?

"We're going to find out, aren't we?" Mitchell said. "They've got seven days to rest. We're going to find out. That is a concern, but those two have been playing so well together."

The Wolves play Anthony Davis and New Orleans tonight and Toronto on Wednesday, both at Target Center.

Nine days after they combined for 52 points and 27 rebounds in a game at Utah, Towns and Dieng together had 50 points and 30 rebounds against the Bulls.

After keeping Towns minutes to 30 or fewer many nights this season, Mitchell played him a season-high amount on Saturday, one more minute than Towns played in a Dec. 26 game against Indiana.

But this...?

"It was different, definitely different," he said. "I hadn't played 40 minutes in my whole entire career. It was cool, something new to get used to."

Towns said he could feel the difference the next day. "It's OK, it's something new to me," he said. "Next time, it won't feel like that. It'll feel like something I'm already accustomed to."

Dieng said he felt no effects Sunday after playing 41:29 on Saturday.