Jan 6, 2019 3 min read

The Minnesota Timberwolves fired coach Tom Thibodeau on Sunday, halfway into his third season with the team that began with the turmoil surrounding the eventual trade of All-Star Jimmy Butler.

Thibodeau was dismissed about an hour after the 108-86 victory over the LeBron James-less Los Angeles Lakers .

Scott Layden will remain the general manager overseeing the basketball operations and assistant coach Ryan Saunders will be the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

“We would like to thank Tom for his efforts and wish him all the best,” Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said in a statement. “These decisions are never easy to make, but we felt them necessary to move our organization forward.”

The Athletic first reported that Thibodeau, who was also the president of basketball operations with full authority over the roster, had been let go. Saunders is the son of the late Flip Saunders, who’s the winningest coach in club history.

Thibodeau finished 97-107 with the Wolves, who returned to the NBA playoffs last spring after a 13-year absence. As Butler, Thibodeau’s prized acquisition who played for him in Chicago, forced his way out of Minnesota, however, he found himself in a tenuous spot.

The Wolves barely reached the postseason, needing to beat Denver in overtime at home in the final game of the regular season, and were beaten by Houston in five games in the first round. Butler pushed the organization into a corner when his stance that he wouldn’t sign a new contract with the team became public two weeks before training camp began.

The insistence of Thibodeau and Layden to hang on to Butler as long as possible, shrugging off the distraction as simply part of life in the league, backfired as Butler protected his health by playing in only select games. The Wolves started 4-9, and after a winless five-game road trip, the awkwardness was too much for even Thibodeau and Layden to ignore. Butler was sent to Philadelphia in a package that brought Robert Covington and Dario Saric, two promising players who’ve fit relatively well in the rotation.

Brooklyn 117, Chicago 100: D’Angelo Russell is on a roll, and so are the Brooklyn Nets.

Russell scored 28 points, DeMarre Carroll had 20 points off the bench and the Nets beat the Chicago Bulls 117-100 on Sunday for their third straight victory.

Jarrett Allen added 19 and six rebounds as the Nets improved to 12-3 in their last 15 games, matching their best 15-game stretch since moving to Brooklyn in 2012.

Russell topped 20 points for the fourth straight game and is averaging 26.5 points in the span.

“D’Angelo is just taking it to a whole other level,” Carroll said. “He’s getting everybody involved, he’s scoring the ball when he needs to.

“He’s got a complete game right now and I think that’s what we need from him in order to go far and go deep.”

Brooklyn (20-21) didn’t win its 20th game last season until Feb. 26, also against Chicago. The Bulls (10-30) lost their fourth straight overall and fifth in a row to the Nets.

The Nets, who finished 28-54 last season and in 12th place in the East, are in the running for their first playoff berth since 2014-15.

L.A. Clippers 106, Orlando 96: Tobias Harris scored 28 points and the Los Angeles Clippers overcame a slow start to beat the Orlando Magic 106-96. The Clippers have won 11 consecutive games against the Magic, a streak that goes back to the 2013-14 season.