The Minnesota Timberwolves turned up to a rock fight with a pistol. With that in mind, the fact that they won that war should come as no surprise. However, through 48 minutes of madness, this was far from a stroll in the sun. The Miami Heat were more a Miami Scrap Heap rather than their usual band of sturdy veterans and gritty stars, but they continued to launch their rocks relentlessly. Minnesota didn’t escape the carnage unscathed, but they did escape with their fourth straight win.
The game ends 105-101. Twists and turns. Deficits and leads. Whistles and technical fouls. Buckets and stops. A game with every shade of basketball splattered across an enormous canvas. Perhaps it wasn’t the purest display of the beautiful game — certainly nothing to be included in any futuristic textbooks — but this was the tough-nosed hoops that Minnesota has often sidestepped this season. In this one, they dove headlong into it.
Of course, before they could complete the gutsy comeback, they had to stink the Target Center out. The Heat, down Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro among a host of others, simply outworked them and out-executed them. Minnesota couldn’t break down Miami’s zone defense and, even when they did, they shot 12 percent on their 25 first-half 3-point attempts. Twelve. Even if the Wolves did play their best defensively and out-hunt Miami on the glass — they didn’t — it’s hard to win shooting a soccer score from deep.
But, then it all changed. Like a tectonic plate shifting underneath the hardwood. The shots started falling, and with them the crowd started roaring. The defense sharpened, and they found a level of intensity for rebounds and loose balls that has been rare this season. The Wolves wiped their 13-point halftime deficit in a matter of minutes, and spent the majority of the remaining game time making timely plays on both ends and clutching on to a minuscule lead.
Minnesota, strapped with their pistol, should have always won this rock fight. Still, it was gratifying to watch them do so with such desperate eagerness. They earned this one.
D’Angelo Russell: 5/10
The late-game twirling mid-range jumper and clamp show on Max Strus shouldn’t take away from the fact that he was Casper the Annoyingly Fucking Absent Ghost for most of the evening.
It almost does, though.
The jumper was so timely, so crisp, so unbelievably important to the end result. The stop was something else entirely. He slides laterally with the kind of verve that we’ve rarely, if ever, seen from him. He gets skinny through a screen and he contests the ensuing trey attempt. He oozes want-to.
Still, before that he was hardly spotted. He is clearly trying to tiptoe the tightrope between out-of-the-way floor spacer, scoring ball-handler, and high-usage playmaker. Unfortunately, he is plummeting to his doom far more than he is performing highwire tricks.
Finished with 3 points (27.6% TS), 3 rebounds and 5 assists in 28 minutes — -5.3 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 9/10
At some point, the boomlets are going to have to become loud, thunderous and consistent. The boomlets are going to have to be full-blown booms. For now, we will have to settle for the second-half bonanza we witnessed in this one. We shouldn’t forget the first-half dud, but we will always remember the bonanza that followed.
And where do you start? Stuffing Strus’ shot and taking him on a merry jig for a step-back triple on the other end? Spinning Caleb Martin like a fucking top before nailing another trifecta? The driving dunk? The loose ball recoveries and steals? The soaring rebounds? All of the above?
He grabbed this game by the balls and molded it into his own. He showed us, once again, that he is the jazz fingers and clicking heels of this squad. The dazzle, the shine, the fucking boom(let).
Finished with 22 points (51.3% TS), 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals in 39 minutes — +2.5 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 10/10
Continued to grow. Where that growth ends is anybody’s guess. He is quickly forming into a unicorn. Or a centaur. Or fucking Pegasus or some shit. The uncontainable defensive potential is clear. It smacks you in the face every game. It beats you half to death every moment he is on the floor. In this game, he wields his powers in the face of Kyle Lowry, swallows up Strus when those two stood opposite one another, and even put in short spells against Bam Adebayo and Dewayne Dedmon.
It’s the offensive stuff that is starting to become an every-game thing. There was once a time where he couldn’t be trusted to even handle the ball, but now he is having nights like this one regularly. Now, he’s a slithering basilisk on that end, too. He gets all the way to the rim in isolations or off cuts, he is absolute money from the short mid-range area, and he knocks down important 3-pointers.
It’s no coincidence that the Wolves have improved dramatically since he started to really find his feet. He is so unfathomably important.
Finished with 18 points (62.3% TS), 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 32 minutes — +30.5 net rating.
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