Player Ratings: Game 16 | Memphis Grizzlies
Wolves handle the shorthanded Grizzlies on the road.
The acrid smell of karma hung thick in the FedEx Forum air. This wasn’t the same Memphis Grizzles that pranced and gloated their way into a couple of blustering playoff exits. This was a mere smattering of fans, a decrepit skeleton of a roster, and another notch in the loss column. Nobody will tell stories of this night in years to come, but the Minnesota Timberwolves need to take care of business whenever a night like this presents itself. If they want to keep pace with the league’s elites, they can’t slip on any banana skins.
The game ends 119-97. These nights can easily become regrettable ones. We’ve seen it before, we’ve felt the dagger sliding into our collective faith, we know what it’s like to both watch an injury-ridden team suffering in the doldrums of the league and what it’s like to lose to one. Much like that depressing FedEx Forum air, this Wolves squad has a different atmosphere surrounding it. In a contradictory way, they treated this game with the respect it required and the contempt it deserved.
A wire-to-wire win is what that mingling of emotions concocted. Memphis attempted to make things interesting after Minnesota barreled out of the gates early and they gave it another prod in the fourth quarter, but a bead of sweat barely needed to be shed all evening. This was an ever-growing giant against an ever-shrinking minnow. A snarling lion chasing down an injured gazelle. A wolfpack surrounding a bear cub.
Mike Conley: 10/10
Even at his usual level, which is quite brilliant, his touch on the game is always a delicate one. It’s the kind of touch generally reserved for handling a butterfly or tending an orchid. It’s necessary, it’s extremely important, but it’s almost imperceptible. So, when he grabs a game by the balls and ragdolls the fucker into submission, it’s an out-of-body experience.
Maybe it’s just the pixie dust of his old stomping grounds or just a willingness to bounce back from what was a poor game against Sacramento, but Conley was the shining light in this one. It wasn’t just the half-dozen silky triples he threw in, but his playmaking and his defensive output were phenomenal.
He ran the game in the pick-and-roll, particularly in those empty corner actions. When the roll-man sprung free, he nailed them with a teardrop dime or a dazzling laser. On the other end of the floor, he made the right rotation every trip down, he was stringent in his gap help, and he held his own consistently on the ball.
Bite bite bite bite bite. He’s exactly what this team needs.
Finished with 18 points (81.8% TS), 4 rebounds and 10 assists in 32 minutes — +10.6 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 8/10
It’s important to note how lucky we are to have him. Not just because he’s a godly bucket-getter, an improving playmaker, or a hyena as a point-of-attack defender when he wants to be, but because he shows up. Every night. When a bout of back spasms plagues other stars, they gleefully watch on in street clothes. He shows up. He strikes his name from the injury report. Then he produces.
It wasn’t his best night on the whole, but he was still a thorn piercing the organs of the shoddy Grizzlies. It did seem like his troublesome back limited his rim-attacking tendencies, but he made hay from the mid-range with a number of gorgeous jumpers and, once again, found a way to rack up the free throw attempts.
Most importantly, on the very rare occasions when things were beginning to go a little haywire, he stepped up. When Memphis stormed back in the first frame, he was the one who made a pair of jumpers and transformed an offensive rebound into a Shake Milton triple. When things tightened up in the fourth, he subbed back in, cleaned up on the defensive glass, and scored a quartet of game-capping points.
We’re lucky to have him.
Finished with 24 points (70.3% TS), 5 rebounds and 7 assists in 34 minutes — +4.6 net rating.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker: 9/10
The only real problem the Timberwolves had to face in this game was Desmond Bane. Short-armed, box-headed, weird little fella Desmond Bane. Looks like a cardboard cutout. Looks like a fucking fridge. Instead of being the all-world shooting phenom that he could be, Alexander-Walker’s dogged defense turned Bane into a walking roid rage.
That’s what he does. He hassles and he hounds and he constipates on-ball studs. Bane spent the entire night running marathons to find an opening, so much so that when he did discover a sliver of space, he could only brick the shot or turn it over in hilariously dopey fashion.
Minnesota’s human alphabet wasn’t at his role-playing best offensively, but he was able to knock down a couple of deep-balls and continued to competently run the offense when Conley took a breather.
Minnesota just need to keep getting through games until Jaden McDaniels returns and this was another night where Alexander-Walker made that process incredibly smooth.
Finished with 9 points (58.3% TS) and 3 assists in 34 minutes — +24.6 net rating.
Karl-Anthony Towns: 7/10
Just one of those nights where foul trouble nips at his heels. I think he’s doing a better job of playing like his usual productive self in the gaps between the foul-induced bench stints, but he’s never going to leave his mark fully on a game when he is fouling incessantly.
They also didn’t really need him to. When he was in, he made shots, grabbed rebounds, and helped the offensive gears spin. That’s all they needed. In retrospect, a lower minute total will only help his fatigue levels going forward and this wasn’t a game where his foul trouble made any significant noise in the result.
Finished with 18 points (73.1% TS), 8 rebounds and 2 assists in 38 minutes — +11.0 net rating.
Rudy Gobert: 7/10
Like Towns, he was the ire of the referees. Unlike Towns, that’s rare for Gobert. It’s so underappreciated how much heavy-duty defending he does while consistently staying out of foul trouble that a night like this does seem jarring. He had to operate in fits and spurts, but he also did his thing in the sporadic minutes that he did get.
He defends the living fuck out the rim. Always. Jaren Jackson Jr. tried and tried and tried, but he’s a cowardly scorer in the paint against anybody and Gobert isn’t just anybody. He’s the best around. If he’s not swatting shots, he’s deterring them. If he’s not deterring them, his aura is forcing would-be scorers to seek other avenues.
Offensively, he is growing into the season. He’s catching way more lobs, he’s finishing with more grace, and he’s generally out of the way a lot more. It’s like everything just nestled into place for him this season. He’s an every-night, every-game, bankable asset. Foul trouble can’t stop that.
Finished with 13 points (74.2% TS), 4 rebounds and 2 blocks in 25 minutes — +36.4 net rating.
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