There are no caveats this time.
There were no huge injury-induced holes in the Indiana Pacers roster. No heavily-depleted starting unit that looked like a page out of a G-League catalog. The Pacers were in front of their boisterous crowd and by no means are they aren’t a bad team, either. Like the Minnesota Timberwolves, they were on a roll. Coached hard with a bevy of talent that is headlined by fledgling superstar Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana had won five straight, seven of their last eight and 10 of their last 12.
There were no caveats this time. Over Minnesota’s four-game win streak there have been those caveats, but this was just old school win. A win with as many style points and hustle plays. A win where the sugar was shared and the spoils were too. A win that was more impressive than any we’ve seen so far this season.
The game ends 115-101. The Wolves weathered every storm their opponents conjured up and returned with thunderclaps and lightning strikes of their own. It wasn’t wall-to-wall perfection, but against a team who’s running hot, this was about as professional as it gets.
That professionalism started from minute one. It permeated through the night, but it was the first quarter that reeked of suit and tie. It stunk of briefcases and midmorning meetings. It was the smooth and decisive ball movement, it was the slick cutting and slices around screens into shooting pockets, it was the stringent rim-protection and menacing perimeter stopping. It was everything we envisioned about this team before this topsy-turvy season unfurled.
Of course, it didn’t stay that way. Again, the Pacers are feisty, and they didn’t wither without a fight. They managed to claw back Minnesota’s 17-point lead and actually slip in front for a moment, but the Wolves were professional. They professionally took back their lead, they professionally found those aforementioned two-way traits that built it in the first place, and they strolled professionally to the win in the end.
All without a caveat.
D’Angelo Russell: 10/10
This was it. He has had the outlandish highs and the sorrowful lows, but this was it. This was the sweet spot. That warm little space in the gaps between getting off his own looks, throwing silky dimes so others can get theirs, and weaving it all together with hustle plays and a whole lot of give-a-shit on defense.
This was just different from what we’ve seen this season. He was aggressive getting to the basket and pushing pace, his passing was so genuinely fucking exceptional that it’s nigh on impossible to pinpoint one to talk about, and his defense was … actually really good?
By now we know we aren’t going to get this game-breaking version of Minnesota’s icy-veined Rubik’s cube every night, but he is ever so slowly creeping closer to that sweet spot mean.
Finished with 15 points (75% TS), 3 rebounds, 12 assists and 3 steals in 28 minutes — +28.0 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 8/10
Like Russell, this is where he needs to be on nights when he isn’t going full nuclear explosion. It can’t always be molten lava and supernatural tendencies. Sometimes he has to ride with the current. He needs to ride the waves of the flowing team. And that’s exactly what he did in this one.
I mean, he was a strong arm and a stubborn rim away from burying Myles Turner so deep in the earth’s crust that he would be maggot food for centuries — you can’t keep the atomic bomb dormant forever — but apart from that he was the best kind of subdued.
That doesn’t mean he was bad. Oh, he was still really fucking impactful. He nails a trio of treys, he makes a couple of sick passes to Rudy Gobert, he rebounds ferociously all night long, and he gets to the rim enough to keep Indiana’s defense firmly on their heels when he’s holding the pumpkin.
Make this the baseline. Make this the underwhelming kind of night. Then, we will have something truly saucy simmering away.
Finished with 19 points (63.8% TS), 7 rebounds and 2 assists in 36 minutes — +14.5 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 10/10
Somebody needs to do a study on him. He is a scientific marvel. And he might be the linchpin holding this whole fucking thing together. There is a world where everything falls apart if he isn’t out there doing his thing on both ends. Luckily, he is out there. He is doing his thing. Destroying worlds and birthing new ones. Just doing scientific marvel things.
It’s hard to start anywhere but his night on the defensive side of the ball. He shackles Tyrese Haliburton from the first whistle. Like a dog with a fucking bone. Hassles and hounds and gnashes at the heels of the floor general all night long. Every screen was slithered through, every shot was contested, every drive was smothered. He finishes the night with a fistful of blocked shots, but the tendrils of his defensive brilliance extend way past the box score.
Then, there was the other end of the court. The end where he is just stacking great performance on top of great performance. The end where his career-long inconsistencies have become big booming consistencies. A reliable shooter from deep, a floater-range assassin, and absolute cutting machine with a dunk-fucking-everything mentality. This kid is the future and the present.
Finished with 18 points (81.8% TS), 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 blocks in 31 minutes — +36.8 net rating.
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