The news came down about an hour before game time. No Jimmy Butler on Saturday night. No Jamal Crawford.
No problem.
Well, not a huge one anyway.
With Andrew Wiggins flying around Target Center from start to finish, with Karl-Anthony Towns responding to a frustrating first half spent mainly watching, with a Wolves bench rising to the occasion, the Wolves beat the Toronto Raptors 115-109 to run their home winning streak to nine games. Given their upcoming road trip, this was a big win. Given the quality of the opponent, this was a big step.
"We talked about it before the game," Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said. "If you're in this league, you're a great player. So when someone is out, it's an opportunity for someone else to step in. If we play hard, we have a chance. Our guys did that."
In order:
• Wiggins. He scored a team-high 29 points on 11-for-21 shooting. He had five rebounds, three assists. If not for him in the first half — when he scored 22 of the Wolves' 54 points — Toronto's eight-point lead would have been much bigger.
• Towns. He finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds in less than 28 minutes. Sitting on the bench for all but eight minutes of the first half ("I was rested," he said), Towns came out with amazing aggression to start the third, drawing fouls, scoring 12 points with five rebounds as the Wolves turned that eight-point deficit into a four-point lead.
• The Wolves bench. Playing against the Raptors (31-14), one of the league's deeper teams, the Wolves bench outscored the Raptors bench 37-29. Leading the way was Marcus Georges-Hunt, who played 29½ minutes, scored 12 points and had three rebounds. He scored six in the fourth, including two free throws with 24.8 seconds left that put the Wolves up by five.
Put that all together and it was enough to offset the Raptors' brilliant backcourt of Kyle Lowry (40 points) and DeMar DeRozan (20).
The Wolves pushed that lead to 10 on Wiggins' two free throws with 7:10 left. But the Raptors responded with an 11-0 run to take a 103-102 lead on Lowry's 15-foot fade with 3:54 left.
But, ultimately, the Wolves wouldn't let this one go.
Down two, Wiggins hit a three-pointer with 2:25 left. After the Raptors scored, Towns hit another three to put the Wolves up four. Lowry hit two free throws to make it a two-point game, but Toronto got no closer.
Thanks, again, to Wiggins. He went high for a defensive rebound of Lowry's miss with 51.8 seconds left. Then, after Georges-Hunt missed a jumper, Wiggins battled for the offensive board, feeding the ball to Georges-Hunt, who was fouled and made those two game-sealing free throws.
"All you can do is wait and be ready," said Georges-Hunt, whose minutes and points were career highs. "When somebody is down, when your name is called, you have to be ready."
He was. As were Gorgui Dieng and Tyus Jones (nine points each) and Shabazz Muhammad (seven).
The Wolves held the Raptors under 40 percent shooting in the second half, outscoring Toronto 61-47.
"We have a lot of guys who know how to play,'' Wiggins said. "That's the NBA for you. Someone's injured, the next one steps up."
Just in time. The win ended a two-game skid. And it comes with the Wolves poised to head out for consecutive road games against the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland and Golden State.
"Our bench? An amazing job," Towns said. "Everyone contributed to this win."
