There’s a fine line in deciphering nights like this. It’s a tricky gambit parsing whether they’re an aberration worth brushing upon only briefly and then moving on or the start of something more worrisome. What is undeniable is that nights like this do happen, to every team in every season in every sort of way, and Minnesota’s stroll through the Milky Way was always going to end in a drop back into the earth’s atmosphere at some point.
The game ends 133-115. Fall they certainly did. Even for a team proving to be as menacing as Minnesota is, there was a lot of scheduled loss voodoo encasing this one. Coming off a couple of dramatic wins in San Francisco, they rolled into Phoenix for their third road game in four nights on a red-eye flight and promptly left the game with the Suns with a pair of black eyes. None of it really felt that surprising. The Suns can be an offensive buzzsaw and Minnesota’s road-withered squad walked directly into their path.
Outside of a few very early sparkles, this one was over as fast as it begun. Minnesota’s tired legs and creaking minds clearly played a part in their first loss for over two weeks, but the despondent acceptance that this night was never going to be theirs was a dark cloud just creeping into the sunny sky.
This was more a general gist kind of evening than a breakdown all the granular details one; the Timberwolves got blown off the park. In every way, shape and form. Their league-topping defense was non-existent, they tried to fight fire with fire and didn’t have the offensive juice to do so, and they never really scraped themselves off the canvas for any considerable amount of time.
These nights happen. It’s important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater; this team is extremely good until proven otherwise for more than a single night. They can’t let this be the beginning of the end, though.
Mike Conley: 7/10
Sometimes professionalism and experience trump tired legs. While the rest of his teammates looked like they were running in fucking porridge, he was gliding across the court and making plays as both a nifty scorer around the rim and a playmaker. At least he was doing so offensively. Like the rest of his teammates, he was a step slow on everything defensively and spent the night getting blown by like he was nailed to the fucking hardwood.
Still, among a batch of rotting fruits, he was at least edible.
Finished with 14 points (94.5% TS), 2 rebounds and 3 assists in 22 minutes — +18.8 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 1/10
Sucked. Just fucking sucked. It’s strange when the spiritual and emotional leader of the crew sucks, because everything else kind of crumbles below him. It’s easy to forget how young he is and how easily these nights can creep up on a young player considering the tough circumstances, but he’s vaulted himself into a special pantheon of players and the judgment of a night comes differently at that level.
So, unfortunately, when his shot isn’t falling, when the ball is sticky, and when he gets flatlined by every ball screen that comes his way defensively, there’s no escaping the fact that he fucking sucked. Fortunately, we know what he’s about and it’s not these kinds of nights.
Finished with 13 points (36.6% TS), 4 rebounds and 4 assists in 31 minutes — -47.9 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 5/10
For a night where the offense often felt stodgy and constipated, he was a breath of fresh air at times. Getting the win was a pipe dream from early in proceedings and that gifted him a little more leash to slither downhill and attack in isolation. He missed some open looks from deep, but he had a pretty nice night in general offensively.
Strangely enough, it was his defensive presence that went missing. Kevin Durant will do that to you. Devin Booker will do that to you. He was pissing in the wind all night and it wasn’t surprising when checking the two megastars saw him dripping in it by the end of the night. He repeatedly got burned in ball screen actions, couldn’t stay in front in isolation, and was a sluggish with his off-ball rotations. He had his usual complement of fouls, to boot.
It was still nice seeing him get some buckets, if nothing else.
Finished with 13 points (62.3% TS), 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals in 23 minutes — -8.1 net rating.
Karl-Anthony Towns: 9/10
Not sure you can get full marks when your team gets waterboarded into oblivion but he went about as close as one can. He was exemplary, glittering in the eye of the storm as the rest of the team was whisked away.
From the opening tip to the time where he was mercifully carted off, he was the only viable high-usage scoring option out there for Minnesota and he was gracefully slicing up Phoenix’s defense in a way that nobody else seemed bothered even trying to do.
Ultimately, this game won’t be remembered and Towns’ night will drift into the void of forgettable nights, but he was excellent and that might be one long-lasting benefit from the evening.
Finished with 25 points (65.1% TS), 7 rebounds and 2 assists in 31 minutes — -23.7 net rating.
Rudy Gobert: 2/10
Shite. Like the rest of them. Didn’t have any of his usual pop defensively and that only made his offensive bumbling more prevalent. Whereas he’d been holding the fort around the rim all season, he seemed nailed to the floor in this one. He hardly contested anything and when he did he was a beat late.
Wipe this one from the memory.
Finished with 4 points (40% TS), 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks in 25 minutes — -53.2 net rating.
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