The Timberwolves took on the Magic at Target Center on Friday night looking to pick up their third straight win after beating the Pelicans and the Bulls back-to-back early in the week. On the other hand the Magic, which defeated the Wolves at Amway Center on February 28th, had lost all their last three games since then against the Spurs, Trail Blazers and Miami Heat. This way, the Timberwolves looked to take revenge on the Magic to continue their winning streak and improved their record while the Magic needed to meet again with the win on the race for the Play-Offs in the East Conference.
And with this scenario, the Magic took the lead early thanks to their ball movement with the approach to find Nikola Vucevic under the rim as the Wolves were unable to connect most of their shots in the first quarter with only 10 out of 24 from the field.
The game got tied-up in the second quarter as the Wolves improved on rebounding led by Juancho Hernangómez, and the check in by Jarrett Culver and Jake Layman to give some fresh air. However, the Magic had a 14-4 run in the last four minutes of the quarter, mostly boosted by Markelle Fultz and Terrence Ross, who both stood up offensively. As a result, Wolves trailed by ten at halftime, but good news for them were that their last two wins occurred in the same circumstances, but that did not happen this time.
The second half did not get better for the Wolves as the Magic continued their momentum and started the third quarter increasing their lead to a 14-point game, which forced Ryan Saunders to call for time-out immediately. However, Magic´s effectiveness offensively kept going thanks to Fultz, who led his team all the way to their largest lead of the game by 19 points.
Timberwolves biggest issue so far was the fact that only Malik Beasley and Jake Layman had double digits on scoring. Moreover, the Magic were fired up as they dominated on transitions and headed into the last quarter with the same 19-point lead they had built early in the quarter.
Last quarter confirmed Magic´s superiority since the beginning of the game as Vucevic and Aaron Gordon took care of securing the win. The Wolves were unable to manage Magic´s frontcourt players continuous cuts and screens that turned into assists and points to keep the Wolves away in the scoreboard until the end of the game.
Up next the Timberwolves will host the Pelicans on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 PM ET and the Magic will visit the Rockets on Sunday at 7 PM ET.
