Short-Handed Wolves Drop Series Finale to Clippers, 123-116

DES MOINES, Iowa – The short-handed Iowa Wolves dropped the series finale to the San Diego Clippers, 123-116, on Monday night at Wells Fargo Arena in front of 3,927 fans.

Iowa (4-19), which had eight available players, got a career night from Will Baker off the bench. Baker finished with a career-high 19 points to go with five rebounds. El Ellis nearly posted a triple-double with 33 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.

San Diego (9-11) just had too much firepower for the Wolves as seven Clippers scored in double figures. Jaelen House and Los Angeles two-way Jordan Miller were the leading scorers with 24 points each.

After never leading in Sunday’s game, Iowa held nine-point lead in the second quarter. San Diego came back to hold a slim two-point advantage at halftime, 58-56, helped by 14 points in the quarter from Patrick Baldwin Jr. Iowa held Baldwin Jr. to just two points after halftime. 

Twice in third quarter, San Diego held seven-point leads but Iowa answered both times to tie the game at 87-all going into the fourth quarter. The Clippers opened the fourth with six consecutive points as the Wolves were forced to play catch up. 

Iowa’s fight continued through the final period as Nojel Eastern’s layup at the 4:52 mark made it a two-point game at 102-100. Another Clippers run, this time seven unanswered points, helped put the game away as they would lead by as many as 10 in the final two minutes. 

Eastern finished with 17 points while Skyler Mays had 20 points. Sy Chatman scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds in his second career start.

Iowa hosts the Osceola Magic on Friday for Timberwolves Day, presented by the Iowa Lottery, at 6:30 p.m. CT. The team will wear statement edition specialty jerseys with the proceeds from the jersey auction benefitting the Minnesota Fastbreak Foundation. Timberwolves alumni Christian Laettner and Sam Mitchell will be in attendance with a pregame meet & greet open on the south concourse open to ticket holders that starts at 5 p.m. Timberwolves Game Entertainment, including their mascot, Crunch, and the Timberwolves Dancers will be on hand.