Minnesota 117, Houston 107 at Toyota Center. A game with 26 lead changes and 15 ties, tied 57-57 at halftime and sitting at 84-82 Houston after three, broke open in the fourth: LaMelo Ball scored seven points in a 10-2 run, Ayo Dosunmu led the Timberwolves with 21, and Jonathan Kuminga hit the two late threes that finished it. Six Timberwolves scored in double figures with Anthony Edwards out. Sengun's 13th career triple-double (17 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) and Kevin Durant's 21 went to waste as Houston fell to 7-2; Minnesota improved to 6-3.
The fourth quarter was Ball's
For three quarters, nobody could hold this game. It changed hands 26 times, the halftime score was dead level, and Houston walked into the fourth quarter up two with the home crowd behind it. Then LaMelo Ball decided the game was his.
Ball scored 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter. With the Rockets up two midway through the period, he scored seven points in a 10-2 run — a three-pointer, an assist on a Jaylen Clark three, and a driving layup — that put Minnesota in front 104-98 with 4:53 to play. Houston kept coming: Sengun split a pair of free throws and Fred VanVleet hit a three to cut it to 104-102. But the closing sequence belonged to the other two Timberwolves who ran this night.
Jonathan Kuminga hit a three to stretch the lead, and after a Dosunmu steal, Kuminga's second-chance basket made it 111-104 with about two minutes left. Durant hit two free throws, and Kuminga answered with one more three in front of the visiting bench — 114-106, under a minute to go, and done. Kuminga finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists, every one of his late baskets arriving exactly when Houston threatened to take the game back.
A game that would not sit still
The tone was set early. Minnesota closed the first quarter in front, 33-30. The teams combined for eight ties and 14 lead changes in the first half alone, and it went to the break tied at 57.
It stayed physical, too. In the second quarter, Kuminga was called for a flagrant foul 1 after an elbow caught Sengun in the jaw and put him on the floor — a flashpoint in a game where the two frontcourts never gave each other room. Houston edged the third quarter 27-25 to lead 84-82, and the Rockets' biggest lead all night was only five. Minnesota's was 11, and it came when it mattered.
Depth did what a star usually does
Minnesota played this game without Anthony Edwards, who is out for up to two months after arthroscopic knee surgery, and without Terrence Shannon Jr. (bruised hip) for a second straight game. The box score reads like the whole rotation refused to let that matter.
Dosunmu's 21 points came on 10-of-20 shooting with six assists and two steals. Ball added 20 with six assists and four threes. Bones Hyland gave the bench 19 points in 16 minutes, hitting four threes of his own. Jaden McDaniels had 14 points and eight rebounds, Jaylen Clark added 10, and Rudy Gobert anchored the middle with 11 rebounds and four blocks. Six Timberwolves in double figures, and — the number that explains the night — 33 points scored off Houston's turnovers. The Rockets gave the ball away and Minnesota ran with it.
Houston's stars produced. It still wasn't enough.
Sengun was excellent in defeat: 17 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for the 13th triple-double of his career. Durant matched Dosunmu's game-high with 21 points, VanVleet added 18 and Reed Sheppard scored 14 off the bench. But Houston watched its two-point third-quarter lead dissolve in the fourth, and lost for just the second time this season — at home, with its two best players both producing. That is the kind of loss that lingers, because the Rockets did most of the things they do and it still did not hold.
Ball and Dosunmu won the guard duel
The guard duel is where the game turned. Ball and Dosunmu combined for 41 points and 12 assists on the road, and Ball's fourth quarter — 12 points in the period — outscored every Rocket by himself when the game was decided. Sengun's triple-double was the night's fullest individual line, but Minnesota's two lead guards owned the fourth quarter outright — the one quarter that decided the game.
The full match record lives on this game's Game Center page, and the rest of the league lives on Previously's NBA hub.
New Orleans Friday, Phoenix Saturday
Minnesota visits New Orleans on Friday night. Houston visits Phoenix on Saturday night.
Sources: ESPN box score and summary, event 401909930; Associated Press game story (Kristie Rieken) via Hearst and Nexstar syndication; Reuters / Field Level Media game story; Sportradar match record.
