Wins are wins. Wins are wins whether they come in blowout fashion or in a sphincter-tightening manner. Wins are wins against teams with a roaring stable of stars or teams fighting off the snapping jaws of the injury bug. Wins are wins if they come clean or dirty, stylish or ugly, crisp or messy. Wins are even wins when the opponent’s lone star player is being ushered to the free throw line by a pack of confused zebras all night long.
There has been plenty of time to lament a variety of winds swirling around this Minnesota Timberwolves season, but those lamentations should be shelved after a win. Wins are wins, and the Wolves need all the wins they can get.
The game ends 112-109. In the short spaces between screeching whistles and absurd Joel Embiid flops, everything that the Wolves want to be and everything they don’t want to be permeated through different parts of this one. Overall, the good outweighed the bad, and the Wolves managed to crawl over the finish line after a patented fourth-quarter meltdown.
Before that meltdown, things were flowing with the sort of molten gold flow that we’re beginning to see more often. Those offensive pillars that we’ve been waiting to coalesce are finally coalescing. The intention to swing the ball to the right man at the right time continued, the determination to get out in transition and run the Philadelphia 76ers ragged was evident and, with those mantras pulsing through the night, the shots were falling.
Mixing in with those gold flakes was a more switch-heavy scheme that gave the Sixers problems, forcing the ball out of Embiid’s hands as much as they could and rotating ravenously back to shooters. Philadelphia made a lot of tough shots, and even then they still finished with an offensive rating (103.8) would rank in the 27th percentile for all games played this season. They also rebounded excellently — keeping Philly to just four second-chance points — and won the points in the paint battle comfortably.
The meltdown was real, however, and it’s a bubbling burden that this team needs to free themselves of quickly. All of the free-flowing glamor that was coursing through their performance dried up and they were left with a sticky mess. While the Sixers found their offensive groove, the Wolves launched bad shot after bad shot and filled the gaps between with unforced turnovers. But they hung on. They clung to whatever last bits of fiber they had left. They won, and wins are wins.
D’Angelo Russell: 7/10
So far this season, he has had two speeds. Fucking terrible and fucking awesome. Most of the time, those have come about in different games. In this one, they amalgamated, fusing together within the one night to produce one the most confusing nights in one of the most confusing individual seasons.
The good was really good. His hands were far less sticky early on and his decision-making was far more sturdy, making several understated-but-sick passes out of Spain pick-and-roll and other set plays. The open shots were dancing a merry jig with the rim’s twine — a low bar that he has struggled to clear this season — and he parlayed that success into an increased willingness to get around screens and play the trickster in passing lanes.
All of that was just a massive improvement from his regular programming this season. But the fourth quarter wasn’t. The fourth quarter was a slimy and stinky regression. His floor general work went out the window, replaced by ball-hog field goal attempts and boneheaded turnovers. They still need more from him, but the level he needs to be on seems much more attainable than it did previously.
Finished with 19 points (68.4% TS), 2 rebounds and 7 assists in 34 minutes — -6.9 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 7/10
Much like Russell, he ebbed and he flowed. He found the highs that paint him as some sort of undiscovered Norse God. But the lows were evident, too. And those lows were too low to go unnoticed. They come in the form of a few woeful pull-up jumpers during Minnesota’s fourth-quarter collapse and a fistful of turnovers throughout the night.
But the highs felt even more impactful. The first-quarter boomlet that shook the Wells Fargo Center to its core and almost buried the undermanned Sixers under a barrage of talent. The eagerness to switch and contain all night long defensively. The wing trifecta that stopped the late-game rot. The big-stones free throws. The track-back, leap, wall-up, and game-winning stop that really did bury the Sixers. The Norse fucking God shit.
The execution wasn’t always there, but the willingness to win was. The tenacity was palpable. Right now, they rely on him to be the shepherd that leads this flock. And lead he did.
Finished with 25 points (50.1% TS), 5 rebounds and 5 assists in 36 minutes — +3.8 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 8/10
With the win streak and the explosions from Minnesota’s star-level players along the way, McDaniels has been floating under the radar lately. But floating under the radar doesn’t mean he hasn’t been excellent. He is just the sturdiest version of himself that he has ever been. Every night, he gives you a spot-up triple or two, he gives you a smattering of sweet finishes around the rim, some offensive rebounding punch, and he is a hellhound defensively — an underworld guardian sent to pester ball-handlers and wreak havoc on would-be scorers.
In this game, he just did those things. Again. That’s what we’ve come to expect. Reliable yet remarkable.
Finished with 11 points (79.9% TS) and 3 steals in 32 minutes — -6.0 net rating.
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