The Minnesota Timberwolves take their new look from Southern California to Northern California when they help the Sacramento Kings open their 2024-25 season on Thursday.
Newcomers Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo combined for 26 points in their Timberwolves debut Tuesday, but the defending Western Conference finalist fell 110-103 on the road to the Los Angeles Lakers on the James family’s historic night.
With the former Knicks combining to shoot just 8-for-21 overall and 3-for-11 from 3-point range, the Timberwolves struggled on offense against a team they beat three times last season, scoring an average of 117.7 points in those games.
Randle said the lackluster performance was somewhat predictable.
“I didn’t think it was going to be pretty. It’s the first game,” he said. “We didn’t get the job done and we got a lot to clean up and a lot of room to grow.”
Featuring Karl-Anthony Towns at the time, Timberwolves struggled on defense against the Kings last season, losing two of three. Sacramento put up 124 points in each of its two wins.
However, the Timberwolves did prevail in their only trip to Sacramento during the 2023-24 campaign, getting 34 points from Anthony Edwards plus 21 points and 17 rebounds from Rudy Gobert in a 110-98 win on Dec. 23.
The Kings also will feature a different look this time around, with DeMar DeRozan scheduled to make his Sacramento debut.
The runner-up to Stephen Curry in the NBA Clutch Player of the Year balloting last year, DeRozan joins De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis on what could be one of the league’s most potent offensive teams.
Fox, who averaged a career-high 26.6 points last season while shooting his lowest percentage (46.5 percent) since 2018-19, has already seen the advantages of having another high-scoring teammate.
“He commands so much attention, especially when he has the ball,” Fox said. “Even when he does command that attention, he still is able to get to his spots, still put the ball in the basket. And when three or four guys collapse, you get a lot of open shots.”
The Kings and Timberwolves flip-flopped positions in the Western Conference standings over the past two seasons. One year after Sacramento finished third in the West after winning six more games than Minnesota, the Timberwolves moved up to third last season, leaving the Kings 10 games behind.
The game will feature not only a head-to-head matchup of Edwards and DeRozan, but also a duel of two of the league’s double-double machines — Sacramento’s Sabonis and Minnesota’s Gobert.
Sabonis led the NBA in double-doubles last season with 77 in his 82 games, with Gobert placing fifth with 54 in his 76 outings. Both were 3-for-3 in double-doubles in their head-to-heads, with Sabonis averaging 17.3 points and 12.0 rebounds, while Gobert went for 16.3 points and 14.7 rebounds.
Since Sabonis joined the Kings from the Indiana Pacers in 2022, both he and Gobert have recorded double-doubles in each of their seven meetings.
Gobert took the early lead in this year’s race with his 13-point, 14-rebound outing in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
