Two very strange things happened in this game for the Timberwolves:
-Jarrett Culver scored 26 points (which is strange because he’s not a good scorer)
-Andrew Wiggins got a triple-double (which is strange because he’s not a good anything-er)
Those two strange things combined to form a very ordinary Timberwolves occurrence: a loss. Oftentimes one career-best performance is not enough to secure a win against a better team, but two career-best performances should be enough. I guess not. At least not when Karl-Anthony Towns fails to really show up in terms of scoring.
It may be time to reassess the validity of the “he’s not a good scorer” statement with regards to Culver. At the beginning of the season, it was definitely true, but we are now looking at an 11-game streak of double-digit scoring performances him. That’s a really good streak; I bet there’s a ton of actually good scorers who have never been on such a streak. I don’t even care if it’s like James Harden’s 30-point streak from last year where he statpadded a bunch in blowouts to get there (though I doubt Culver, even if he wanted to, is capable of much in the way of statpadding). I’m impressed.
Culver did most of his damage tonight in the first quarter, where he hit some nice triples and probably got whatever fans are still around (I imagine most of them perished after the latest embarrassing Vikings playoff loss) a little bit hyped. But just a little bit. It’s Minnesota after all; revelrous excitement is frowned upon except when at a potluck in a Lutheran church basement and Betsy brings out her famous tater-tot casserole.