Wolves offense in good hands with D’Angelo Russell

Points might be easy to come by for the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.

Before the All-Star break began on Feb. 14, Minnesota was scoring 112.4 points per game. Since then, the Timberwolves have logged 119.4 points per contest, which is the fourth-biggest increase among NBA teams since the break.

Push it back to Feb. 8 — the first game of this “new era” of Minnesota basketball after the trades for Malik Beasley, D’Angelo Russell and a flurry of other players — the Timberwolves rank second in the NBA by putting up 121.0 points per contest.

Of course, the biggest different in this increase of scoring has been the 3-ball.

No team has been better at shooting the 3-pointer since the Timberwolves made their big trades. Minnesota has drained 13+ 3-pointers in 11 straight games, the longest active streak in the league. Dallas sunk 13+ 3-pointers in 15 consecutive games from Dec. 7, 2019-Jan. 6, 2020 to grab the longest run this season.

Russell and Beasley have developed into a scary 1-2 punch for the Timberwolves offense while Karl-Anthony Towns nurses a wrist injury. Beasley has scored 211 points in 10 games, which ranks fourth among Wolves players over their first 10 games with the franchise. Russell, meanwhile, sits just three points back of Beasley at 208 but has only played nine contests.

Minnesota can look to Russell to do some damage against Orlando on Friday night. Since the 2018-19 season, Russell is averaging 28.4 points per game vs. the Magic.

While Orlando’s offense has been thriving – it’s posted 117.1 points per game since the All-Star break – the Magic have allowed 10 consecutive opponents to score 110+ points.

Throw in a poor defense to the Wolves’ sudden offensive resurgence, and another big night for Russell and the Wolves’ top scorers could be in store.

We’ll break it all down on a Friday night edition of “Wolves Live.” Tune in to FOX Sports North at 6:30 p.m.

Statistics courtesy Sportradar, basketball-reference.com