The Wolves shot 60% in the first half but had nine turnovers, which enabled Brooklyn to hang around. Coming out of halftime, the Wolves were getting some separation on the scoreboard for the first time all night, but McDaniels picked up his fourth foul as the Wolves took their largest lead of the night at 12.
Brooklyn came back to take a one-point lead later in the quarter before the Wolves took a 91-88 lead in the fourth quarter as coach Chris Finch leaned into his bench. DiVincenzo also had four fouls through three quarters.
Once they returned to the floor, Finch switched to zone with a frontcourt of Randle, Reid and Rudy Gobert, and that slowed down Brooklyn’s scoring while the Wolves kept humming. After leaning on his bench to get by most of the third, Finch relied heavily on his starters and Reid to close out the night.
Multiple times last season, Randle flirted with a triple-double without ever getting there. He had one game with 10 assists all last season but had seven rebounds in that one. In three games he had nine assists, he had 10 rebounds or more.
Randle was stuck on nine assists for most of the second half and fourth quarter Monday until one of his final plays of the night got his that elusive 10th assist. He found Reid for a corner three with just over three minutes to play, and shortly after that, Finch emptied his bench.
The Wolves weren’t quite ready to play from the tip. They had six turnovers in the first six minutes of the game, with Gobert accounting for three of them.