The Wolves got even thinner as the night went on. Terrence Shannon Jr., questionable going in, was ruled out with the hip. Donte DiVincenzo is still out with the Achilles. Then Joan Beringer was ruled out for the second half with a nasal fracture, so Minnesota had one fewer big for the stretch that decided the game. New Orleans was without Yves Missi again. The Pelicans' biggest storyline was Trey Murphy III playing on 2 sore knees, but he isn't in the reporting on this game. The guy who carried New Orleans early was someone else.
That was Karlo Matkovic, who scored 16 points in the first half. The Pelicans won the 1st quarter 30-27, got outscored 30-21 in the 2nd and went to the half down 57-51. Then they won the 3rd 28-20 to take the lead back. It was an NBA Cup group-play game, and for 3 quarters the Pelicans looked like the team that had come back on Utah. They just couldn't do it again in the 4th.
Jonathan Kuminga closed it out. He finished with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists and made 4 3-pointers, a lot of it coming late when Minnesota pulled away. That's the third piece the Wolves needed next to Dosunmu and Ball without Edwards: a forward who can space the floor and also do the dirty work on the glass. The Pelicans scored 30 in the 4th, which is plenty, and still lost the quarter by 8.
For New Orleans, 109 is the number that matters. The Pelicans had scored 120 or more in each of their 4 straight wins, and their comebacks came from outscoring teams late. This time they didn't get enough points to do it. The streak is over, and they're at 4-5.
Minnesota is 7-3 and has won 3 straight, 2 of them on the road. All of that came after losing a player who was averaging 33.3 before his knee surgery. Next up is the injury report: Beringer's nose and Shannon's hip are now part of a backcourt-and-frontcourt list that keeps getting longer. So far the Wolves keep winning the 4th quarter anyway.
