Wolves

Wolves notes: Gorgui Dieng embarks on another durability streak

By Jerry Zgoda and

Kent Youngblood

November 20, 2017 at 4:47AM

Gorgui Dieng (Brian Wicker — Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

His streak of consecutive games played ended last week at 175, Timberwolves reserve center Gorgui Dieng has started another.

Two and counting after Sunday's game against Detroit at Target Center.

Every lengthy streak starts somewhere, and Dieng is back at the beginning after he missed three consecutive games because of a sprained index finger on his shooting hand before he returned to play Friday in Dallas.

Until a Nov. 11 game at Phoenix, Dieng hadn't missed a game since he missed the final nine games of his second NBA season because of a concussion and its lingering symptoms. He played all 82 games the past two consecutive seasons, the first 11 games this season and took great pride in doing so.

"Absolutely," he said. "That's always something I wanted to do, play 82 games, to show durability, that I can play so long. But you know, injuries like that, nobody wants to get hurt. But you have to be out … It's not fun watching games, man. The tough part is only basketball can get you in basketball shape."

Dieng said he never kept track of the exact number during that 175-game streak. He just knew he never missed a game for two-plus seasons.

"I don't track stats and stuff," he said. "I just like to play and I just play."

Dieng injured his index finger in a Nov. 8 game at Golden State when Warriors guard Nick Young hit his hand hard and chipped a bone in that finger. He said Friday he expects to play through pain the rest of the season until the finger can fully heal after the season ends.

"Durability is important and he's very durable," Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said. "He takes care of himself. We have a lot of guys with durability. I know Gorgui. If he can play, he's playing. He doesn't like to miss practice. He doesn't like to miss games."

Sunday's game against Detroit was his second consecutive game. And so another streak begins?

"That's the plan," Dieng said.

Three Wolves play on

While on the subject of durability, three Wolves players own the NBA's longest active streaks for consecutive games started: Karl-Anthony Towns started his 180th consecutive game on Sunday, Andrew Wiggins his 173rd and Jeff Teague his 166th.

"There's a lot of pride on the line when it comes to that," Towns said. "We all love to be as durable as possible. Obviously, we've been very blessed to just find health. That's a very, very rare thing to find in the NBA."

More threes

The Wolves set season highs in three-pointers attempted (30) and made (13) in Friday's victory in Dallas. Still, they still are way below average in both categories in the league, ranking 27th in three-pointers made per game (8.7) and 29th in three-point shots (22.8); even the 30 they took Friday wouldn't put them in the top 10. But the team is eighth in the league — and third in the Western Conference — in three-point shooting at 37.7 percent.

Thibodeau continues to stress the importance of taking more.

"I liked the shots we had, even in the first half when we weren't making 'em,'' Thibodeau said of Friday's game. "I thought they were the right ones. We have to try to get two on to the ball, force the defense to collapse and make the right read and the right play."