The last time the Minnesota Timberwolves won a game without Ricky Rubio, it was their final win of 2014-15, an overtime victory over the Utah Jazz in which Sean Kilpatrick played nearly 20 minutes. It is a good reminder of just how bad things got, and how much better they are this season. Rubio did sit out, but merely as a precaution, and the the Wolves led the entire second half in a relatively comfortable 101-91 win over the Sacramento Kings.
For a second straight game, the winning stretches of the game were not played by the starting lineup but by the increasingly solid bench.