The last time the Minnesota Timberwolves visited Oklahoma City, they were run out of the gym. In the 20-point loss, coach Sam Mitchell left his young stars on the floor till the final buzzer so they would learn to hate the feeling of losing.
It seems it worked.
Ricky Rubio buried a three-pointer with 00.2 left in their game on Friday (Saturday AEDT) to give the Timberwolves a 99-96 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
"This was a big win for us," Andrew Wiggins said. "It's the first time we've beat them in a long time. It's huge. It'll do a lot for our confidence going into the next game."
Gorgui Dieng scored 25 points to lead the Timberwolves. He was seven of 12 from the field and 11 of 11 from the free-throw line. Wiggins scored 20 points and Ricky Rubio posted 12 assists and 13 points, including the game-winning three-pointer as the Timberwolves improved to 21-45 for the season.
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"We just talked about it. We have got to start competing better against some of the better teams in the Western Conference," Mitchell said. "I'm proud of our guys."
Kevin Durant scored 28 points on 11 of 20 shooting for the Thunder. Russell Westbrook added 26 points and eight assists. Enes Kanter came off the bench to pour in 17 points and 14 rebounds. But it was not enough as the Thunder fell to 44-21.
Oklahoma City racked up 24 turnovers on the night and that led to 26 points. Durant, who had six turnovers himself, took the brunt of the blame.
"That's all on me," Durant said. "It's contagious. I'm the leader. Everyone expects me to be on my game every night. So I take full responsibility. I have to better at every part of the game."
In some of the other matches played earlier on Friday, Miami beat Chicago 118-96, Charlotte beat Detroit 118-103 and Memphis beat New Orleans 121-114 in overtime.
