Prolific scorers Beasley, Russell off to historic starts with Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves are the only team in the NBA to have three players averaging 20+ points per game in 2020-21.

Karl-Anthony Towns (22.0), D’Angelo Russell (20.7) and Malik Beasley (20.2) have given Minnesota consistent offensive production all season.

Indiana would’ve been the only other team to have three 20+ scorers — Malcolm Brogdon, Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis — but the Pacers traded Oladipo to Houston earlier this week. And Brooklyn’s new core of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving has yet to play together.

Beasley and Russell, who each were acquired in separate deals by the Wolves near last year’s trade deadline, are off to two of the best scoring starts in franchise history.

Minnesota’s 118-107 loss to Memphis on Wednesday was Beasley’s 25th game in a Timberwolves uniform. He’s poured in 512 points for Minnesota, averaging 20.5 per contest. Beasley still has yet to best his single-game career high of 35 points, set Feb. 1, 2019 with Denver, but he’s logged four games of 28+ points with the Wolves, compared to just one in 206 matchups with the Nuggets.

Russell has racked up 488 points in 23 games with the Timberwolves, an average of 21.2 points per contest.

Only Michael Beasley (537) and Al Jefferson (518) totaled more points than Beasley in their first 25 games with the Timberwolves. Beasley, who the Timberwolves traded for in 2010, logged four games with 33+ points in that span. Jefferson, the main piece in the Kevin Garnett trade, registered three contests of 30+ points.

In order to surpass Beasley, Russell would have to average 24.5 points over the Timberwolves’ next two games — a rematch with Memphis on Friday and a road test against Atlanta on Monday.

NOTABLE

— The Timberwolves have allowed 40+ points in four different quarters. That’s only one behind Washington, which is yielding the second-most points per game in the NBA (121.3).

— Memphis scored a franchise-high 80 points in the paint Wednesday night, the most by any team this season. The Timberwolves hadn’t allowed 80 points in the paint since 2012.

— Karl-Anthony Towns has notched a double-double in all four contests he’s played this season. Since his rookie season in 2015-16, Towns has logged the second-most double-doubles (264), only trailing Andre Drummond (304).

Statistics courtesy Sportradar