Winners of 11 in a row at home and 3-0 against the Pelicans this season, the Wolves were looking to extend a couple of streaks in this contest.

They jumped out of the gate early, holding an eight-point lead after the first quarter and 13 point lead at halftime. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Davis were having a spectacular back-and-forth battle early on. Davis scored 19 points in the opening quarter and Towns had a double-double by halftime with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

The difference was the Wolves had a number of other players who showed up to the game, while Davis was on an island all by himself.

Jimmy Butler had a prototypical Butler game, Tyus Jones stepped in off the bench with his usual energy and it translated into points on the scoreboard. Gibson chipped in his typical line and Wiggins picked up a few baskets along the way.

Outside of Davis, who scored 38 points, only Nikola Mirotic was able to come in and make an impact. This was Niko’s first game for the Pelicans and he stepped right into his Boogie Cousins-lite role, finishing with 18 points, 12 rebounds, four steals, two assists, one block and three 3-pointers.

Mirotic came off the bench, but ended up playing 35 minutes after it was abundantly clear he was a better fit on the floor than Dante Cunningham.

For the Wolves, they weren’t fazed by the frontcourt explosion because they were locking down everything else on the perimeter. They held the Pelicans to 24.2 percent shooting from 3-point range (8-of-33) and 41.6 percent from the field overall.

They did well containing Jrue Holiday, holding him to 3-of-13 shooting and nine points. He did add nine assists, five rebounds, two blocks and a steal.

The Wolves played a better game than the final score indicates. They won 118-107 but controlled most of the game and just had a few slip ups that let the Pelicans appear to hang around.

Minnesota shot 50.5 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from 3-point range (10-of-21).

Towns ended up finishing with 22 points, 16 rebounds, one assist, one steal and three 3-pointers. He shot 8-of-16 overall and 3-of-3 from the arc.

Butler scored 30 points with eight rebounds, seven assists, two steals and two 3-pointers on 11-of-21 shooting.

Tyus finished with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

Minnesota had to be looking forward to get past this game. It was the final game in a tough stretch where they played 20 games in 35 days and went without consecutive off-days throughout. In addition to that, they only had two series of more than one game at home during that stretch, meaning they were constantly traveling on their single off-day.

Tonight’s game was the final point in that stretch and with the win they finished 12-8. There were high points and there were some low points, but at the end of the day the Wolves will be able to look back at that stretch and overall feel comfortable with the results.

Now they can soak in these next few off days and enjoy the Super Bowl which, by the way, is being played right in their back yard.

They’ll be rested and ready to take on the Cavs in Cleveland next Wednesday.