The Minnesota Timberwolves aren't known for their stingy defense, but Saturday night they held one the league's best offenses to one of their worst shooting nights of the season, beating the Houston Rockets 92-79. The win snapped a five-game losing streak for Minnesota. Meanwhile, the loss was the seventh in a row for the Rockets after winning five in a row before that.
Ricky Rubio had one of his best games since returning to the Timberwolves lineup, scoring seven points and dishing out six assists in 30 minutes of action. Andrei Kirilenko scored 21 points and the Timberwolves got a surprise 15 points and six rebounds from Chris Johnson, a recent D-League call up.
James Harden led the Rockets with 18 points and seven rebounds, his second game in a row scoring lower than 20 points after scoring 20 or more in the 22 previous games he played in. The Rockets shot 32 percent from the field and made only eight of their 31 three-point attempts.
The Rockets next head to Charlotte to play the Bobcats, while the Timberwolves travel to Atlanta for a Monday afternoon tip-off with the Hawks.