Timberwolves at Raptors
A tight loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers sent the Toronto Raptors into a brief tailspin last month, and they hope a second doesn't lead to the same fate in December. The Raptors will try to bounce back and win for the seventh time in eight games when they host the Timberwolves on Thursday.
Toronto's 121-117 setback at Cleveland began a stretch of four losses in five games leading into Thanksgiving week before the Raptors settled themselves with seven wins in a row. The team was again not quite up to the level of the defending champions in Monday's 116-112 home setback, which squandered a chance to move into a tie for first place in the Eastern Conference and gave the Cavaliers a leg up in any potential tiebreak scenario. The Timberwolves would like to be seen as a playoff contender as well but dropped eight of their last 10 to drop nine games under .500 after a 105-91 home loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday. "You have to stick with your team, you have to understand what your job is, then you have to do your job," Minnesota Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters. "When you randomly make it up, the results aren't going to be good. That's where we need to grow and improve."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, TNT, Sportsnet (Toronto)
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (6-15): The one positive to come out of Wednesday's setback was the play of rookie point guard Kris Dunn, who scored a season-high 15 points in 17 minutes off the bench. Dunn is 11-of-15 from the floor in the last three games and is putting pressure on starter Ricky Rubio. "Always had minutes, always been the guy to take all the shots," Dunn told the Pioneer Press. "But now, coming off the bench, I've got to get guys involved first, and then try to look for my shot second and just try to make plays and be aggressive at the same time."
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (14-7): Center Jonas Valanciunas went 1-for-8 from the floor on Monday and finished with four points to post six or fewer points for the fourth straight game. The Lithuanian big man did not log more than 25 minutes in any of the last five contests, though coach Dwane Casey suggested it was just the matchup that led to increased playing time for backup Lucas Nogueira on Monday. "I thought Lucas (Nogueira) did a little bit better job of guarding (Channing) Frye, which is a hard matchup for any (center) in the league, not just Jonas and Lucas," Casey told reporters. "He’s really a four playing the five and that’s why we decided to go small, that kind of got us going a little bit toward the end but, again, you give up something."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Minnesota C Karl-Anthony Towns went 3-of-16 from the floor on Tuesday and is 18-of-56 in the last three contests.
2. Raptors PG Kyle Lowry is 27-of-42 from 3-point range in the last six games.
3. The teams split the two meetings last season, with Toronto earning a 114-105 win at home on Feb. 24.