Karl-Anthony Towns’ 35 points, 22 boards lead Minnesota Timberwolves over Chicago Bulls, 111-96

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Playing for the third night in four days, and in three different cities, the Minnesota Timberwolves found an approach to win to beat the short-handed Chicago Bulls.

Minnesota rebounded, defended and got a boost from its reserves.

Karl-Anthony Towns had 35 points and 22 rebounds, Derrick Rose scored 22 points off the bench and the Timberwolves pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 111-96 victory on Saturday night.

Dario Saric added 19 points and 14 rebounds in a reserve role for Minnesota, which won for the fifth time in seven games since trading Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia. Both the Timberwolves and Bulls were playing the second game of a back-to-back and their third game in four nights in a listless, sloppy affair.

"We want to make the right plays, play to each other's strengths, cover up each other's weaknesses and play tough," Minnesota coach Tom Thibodeau said. "On the nights in which you don't shoot well, hopefully your rebounding and your defense can carry you through."

The Wolves held a 58-40 rebounding edge and had 21 offensive rebounds, leading to 29 second-chance points.

"They got every rebound tonight and we turned it over," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. "They take 103 shots to our 80, it's hard to win when that happens."

Zach LaVine scored 28 points and Jabari Parker had 27, keeping their streak of 20-point games intact. Both players have reached 20 points in the past three games, but Chicago lost for the sixth time in seven games.

Justin Holiday had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Bulls.

Neither team led by more than six points until Minnesota slowly started to pull away in the fourth. Towns scored eight points as the Wolves started the period on a 12-2 run. Chicago had five turnovers in the fourth and shot just 4 of 16.

"We have a stretch and we do some things out there that just, I know you guys see it, it makes you turn your head like, 'What the hell are we doing?'" LaVine said. "So, you know, I wish we didn't do that."

Minnesota started the game 3-of-12 shooting. Towns picked up the Wolves with 22 points in the second half.

"He was terrific in so many different ways," Thibodeau said. "He mixed it up. The post was terrific. Playmaking was terrific. All-around game, the rebounding again. He's on a roll rebounding-wise. We played through him and we got a lot of good stuff off of that."

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