Field Level Media -Thursday night\u2019s matchup between the host Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves will pit two teams in the top five in the NBA in average 3-point attempts per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minnesota is familiar with another kind of depth, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m lucky,\u201d Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. \u201cI have eight starters. Really spoiled for choice there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, the top eight players in the Minnesota rotation played between 21 and 30 minutes during Monday\u2019s 114-93 home victory against the Charlotte Hornets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While that transpired in part due to inconsistency with the starting five, it\u2019s a reality that is developing into a luxury for the Timberwolves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEarly part of the season as coach, you\u2019re not sure what to trust about your team yet,\u201d Finch said. \u201cYou know what\u2019s in them, but you have to see it all the time to really trust it. But that was our most sustained effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 13-2 run early in the second quarter helped the Timberwolves begin to create enough distance to pave the way for first-round draft picks Rob Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr. to make their home debuts in the fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naz Reid flirted with a double-double to lead Minnesota, contributing 25 points and nine rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the beautiful thing about him is he can get it off the board, push it himself, so you can just take off, get to the corners, and he\u2019s going to find you,\u201d teammate Donte DiVincenzo said. \u201cHe also can score the bucket better than a lot of other people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sparked by Reid\u2019s 5-for-7 effort from beyond the arc, the Timberwolves shot 18-for-38 from long range. Anthony Edwards connected on four triples en route to 21 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chicago has lost three straight games after winning three of five to start the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bulls are coming off a 119-99 road loss to the defending Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps the Timberwolves will offer a salve. Chicago has won seven of its last 10 games against Minnesota while averaging 125.4 points in the past five contests. The Bulls enter Thursday\u2019s game with a three-game winning streak overall against Minnesota and boast five straight victories at United Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bulls leading scorer Zach LaVine didn\u2019t play against Dallas, missing his second game in a row with a right adductor strain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chicago committed 23 turnovers that contributed to 28 points for the Mavericks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nikola Vucevic had 14 points and 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double in eight games. Rookie Matas Buzelis, meanwhile, had career highs of 13 points and nine boards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bulls trailed by as many as 30 points late in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vucevic said this week the Bulls are \u201cnot where we need to be (defensively) to win games\u201d as the team struggles to \u201cget stops consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reserve guard Lonzo Ball remains sidelined with a sprained right wrist. Chicago was set to re-evaluate Ball on Thursday, but coach Billy Donovan said there\u2019s no timetable for his return with Ball still in a splint. Donovan said the Bulls \u201cdodged a bullet\u201d with the injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Field Level Media -Thursday night\u2019s matchup between the host Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves will pit two teams in the top five in the NBA in average 3-point attempts per game. Minnesota is familiar with another kind of depth, as well. \u201cI\u2019m lucky,\u201d Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. \u201cI have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":288329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=288328"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288369,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288328\/revisions\/288369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/288329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=288328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=288328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=288328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}