Parker's Bucks get best of Wiggins' TWolves in battle of top picks
The top two picks in the 2014 NBA Draft faced each other for the first time in the regular season Wednesday night.
Neither produced their best statistical game of the year, but round one of the personal battle goes to the No. 2 overall selection Jabari Parker.
Parker's Milwaukee Bucks also came out on top, dropping the Andrew Wiggins-led Minnesota Timberwolves 103-86. The contest was closer than that, and it wasn't until late in the fourth quarter that things unraveled, as Milwaukee used a 14-1 run to blow the game open.
The Bucks beat up on Minnesota in the paint, outscoring the Timberwolves -who are without center Nikola Pekovic - 54-38.
Jason Kidd, in his first year as head coach of the Bucks, has his team playing good basketball in the early goings of the season. The Bucks have had some trouble scoring, but are a surprising 9-7 and sitting in the middle of the pack in a weak Eastern Conference.
Wiggins played a game-high 39 minutes but wasn't able to build off the best game of his young career. The 19-year-old was coming off a career-high 29-point performance but failed to repeat it, while his struggles from the field continued in the loss.
| Player | FGM-A | PTS | REB | AST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wiggins | 4-14 | 14 | 8 | 4 |
| Parker | 5-12 | 11 | 7 | 3 |
But Wiggins, who turned the ball over a season-high six times, reminded Parker in the third quarter that he can play on both ends of the court with this emphatic block:
He provided a nice little two-handed alley-oop slam early in the contest, too.
Parker was quiet in the second half, but the small forward was active on the glass again, and trails only the Philadelphia 76ers' Nerlens Noel in rebounds per game among rookies. And he's scoring, too.
Just like their draft spots, Wiggins and Parker are the top two rookie scorers in the NBA. They will have a little more time to refine their games before facing off again in January.