Wolves beat Pistons despite Griffin’s return
(Field Level Media) Forward Andrew Wiggins poured in 33 points and the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves spoiled the return of All-Star forward Blake Griffin with a 120-114 win over the Detroit Pistons yesterday.
Wiggins, who surpassed the 8,000career point mark in the first half, added six rebounds and five assists.
Karl-Anthony Towns supplied 25 points, eight rebounds and six assists, while Jake Layman contributed 16 points off the bench. Treveon Graham added 13 points and six rebounds.
Griffin missed the first 10 games of the season due to hamstring and knee injuries. He had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists in 23-plus minutes.
Luke Kennard led the Pistons with 25 points and seven rebounds. Langston Galloway tossed in 18 points off the bench while Tony Snell chipped in 16 points and Andre Drummond added 11 points and 12 rebounds.
The Timberwolves, who scored 41 first quarter points, made nine of 16 3-point attempts in the first half and raced to a 6651 halftime lead. The barrage came one day after Minnesota made just six of 45 shots from long range in a home loss to Denver.
Layman scored 11 points off the bench and made all three of his 3-point tries. Griffin kept his team from completely losing contact with 16 points in 10 minutes. (Field Level Media) Jaren Jackson Jr. scored a season-high 24 points and Dillon Brooks added 21 as the visiting Memphis Grizzlies outlasted the San Antonio Spurs 113-109 yesterday in the Alamo City on the night the Spurs retired the jersey number of longtime standout Tony Parker.
Jae Crowder’s second-chance 3-pointer with 1:48 to play gave the Grizzlies a 111108 lead and the Spurs would never recover. LaMarcus Aldridge hit one of two free throws with 55 seconds left for San Antonio before Brooks canned a pair from the charity stripe with 14.6 seconds remaining to push the Memphis lead to four points.
Jonas Valanciunas added 18 points and took 12 rebounds, and Brandon Clarke scored 14 points off the bench as the
Grizzlies (3-7) snapped a two-game losing streak and won for the first time in four tries on the road this season.
Aldridge led the Spurs with 19 points, with Rudy Gay hitting for a season-high 18, Derrick White adding 15, Bryn Forbes scoring 14 and DeMar DeRozan contributing 12 points for the Spurs (5-5), who have lost two straight and four of their past five games.
Memphis led or was tied for all but 22 seconds of the first half on the way to a 57-54 advantage at halftime. Jackson paced the Grizzlies with 15 points in the half, and his total included a 3-pointer from the top of the key with two seconds to play to grant Memphis the lead at intermission.