It’s all feeling a bit trivial, isn’t it? When the minnows of the league traipse into Target Center they get sent scuttling away with their tail between their legs. Almost invariably. This time the Minnesota Timberwolves faced their own adversities, namely missing Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels, but they’re a robust squad whose ideologies are enough to buttress them against major slip-ups. They don’t fall down the trapdoor this season.
The game ends 101-90. Not one for the ages. Not one that will glimmer in the history books. Not even one that will stand out in the lore of this season alone. With the Timberwolves missing Edwards and McDaniels and the Utah Jazz sans Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson, this was simply a game that the Wolves needed to professionally handle and then sweep aside. There will be meaner beasts to slew this season, sharper fangs and louder roars, but that doesn’t mean that these wins count for any less.
For a second there, it seemed like missing their effervescent superstar would prove too much for the Timberwolves to handle. Just for a second. A brief moment of apathy that threatened to permeate through the night but, in the end, never really had much substance. The Jazz came out firing and Minnesota came out stammering, but these Wolves seemingly know better than to let a stumble out of the gates stop them from running the race.
The Jazz took a 12-point lead early in the second frame, prompting a grumpy timeout from Chris Finch, and then the Wolves rediscovered themselves. They’re a many-layered tapestry, a dozen enticing traits are woven into the fabric of their game. They don’t need perfection to overcome the grim bones of this Utah roster. They just needed to start tugging on a couple of the threads that make up that tapestry.
It’s always the defense that fires up first. It’s who they are. Once the motor is running on that end of the floor, they can translate it into energetic and efficient offense. Without Edwards, they needed a jumpstart offensively and it was their ability to turn Utah over and race up the floor for easier buckets that did it.
Once the defense stoked the embers, it was a chain reaction of spot fires that burnt the Jazz to a crisp. Now the 3-point shooting is percolating, and the halfcourt offense is finding pressure points in the defense, and the crowd is into it, and the Jazz are toast.
It’s important to take a minute to bask in this team. They’re phenomenal. They’re everything we’ve dreamed of.
Mike Conley: 7/10
With a shorthanded roster, there might have been an expectation that he’d gobble up some scoring usage, but he didn’t need to. His former team is a shell of the feel-good upstart that they were when he was manning the vehicle. Now he sprinkles his stardust onto our souls instead and fuck it feels good.
So, he just cruised through the evening. A catch-and-shoot jumper here, a precise lob pass there. He was stingy defensively, as he always is, and astute with ball in hand, another constant in his game. He didn’t try to press his former glories onto the night, he just received what the game gave him with grace and sage wisdom. That’s all they needed from him.
Finished with 8 points (58.1% TS), 3 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals in 29 minutes — +8.4 net rating.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker: 10/10
This recounting could’ve been scripted in an entirely different tenor if he wasn’t who he was in this game. While the rest of the team waltzed into proceedings with an air of overconfidence, he sprinted into it with a slavering jaw and a fiercely competitive disposition. Imagine a swarm of hornets, stinging and buzzing and rampaging. He always plays like someone just kicked the fuck out of his nest and he’s out for their blood.
The team always needs that, but they needed it most in those sleepy beginnings. He was rifling around defensively, swarming again. Buzzing and pestering and generally just fucking shit up. He drew a fat fistful of offensive fouls simply by wanting it more than anybody else on the court, and he racked up an astounding amount steals and blocks with his extra effort mentality.
It was a defensive masterclass. In the truest sense of the word. As good as any we’ve seen this season and his teammates are Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels.
The confidence he garnered from his defensive dominance translated so smoothly into his best offensive night of the season. Like icing rolling over a freshly-baked cake. Like a waterfall cascading into a picturesque cove. We’ve seen him defend his socks off before, we’ve never seen him provide this level of offensive punch along with it.
He knocked down four of his eight 3-point attempts. All of them as silky as his funky jump shot can be. But he found himself operating within the arc, too, nailing nifty pull-up jumpers and finishing hard at the cup. He augmented his scoring with a really nice night as a passer. His running behind-the-back party-starter in transition the pick of a blooming and beautiful bunch.
What a performance.
Finished with 20 points (62.5% TS), 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals and 2 blocks in 36 minutes — +20.3 net rating.
Troy Brown Jr.: 8/10
He’s just what the team needs. Not just this team, by the way, any of them. Plug and play kind of shit. Malleable to the point where his lack of elite skill can hurt him, but perfect on a night where you just need solidity in the absence of a star. He’s not a Michelin-star restaurant, he’s just a hearty soup. Everybody loves soup. Nobody has a bad word to say about fucking soup.
So, he soups out all night. Warm and brothy and soul-cleansing. He makes his shots from deep, he makes the right pass, he has Collin Sexton in the seventh circle of hell on defense, and he continues to rebound with a ferocity and efficacy that belies his size.
He’s in the rotation now, has to be. This team has all of its delicacies on the menu already, it needs some soup.
Finished with 8 points (66.7% TS), 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 29 minutes — +33.1 net rating.
Karl-Anthony Towns: 10/10
John Collins can’t guard him.
Remember when he was a trade target for the Timberwolves? We all would have loved for him to be the power forward of the future. Talk about dodging a fucking missile. It would have been us watching him stand around like wet flannel all night, getting sauteed within an inch of his life. John Collins can’t guard Karl-Anthony Towns. I don’t think we need any more evidence of that.
So, even with some early foul trouble, Towns roasted him over an open flame all night. He beat him with long-balls, he torched him off the bounce, he monstered him in the post. Three level domination from tip to buzzer.
When Towns wasn’t raining buckets on Collins’ head like he was stuck in a nightmarish hailstorm, he was snorting up rebounds, using his scoring gravity to make the right playmaking reads, and continuing to defend with purpose.
They needed him in this one. Without Edwards, they needed him. Thankfully, the scripture was engraved into stone as soon as Collins walked onto the hardwood to accompany him.
Finished with 32 points (66.1% TS), 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals in 37 minutes — +13.7 net rating.
Rudy Gobert: 10/10
Watching petrified drivers flee from his defensive atmosphere never gets old. If, on the odd occasion, Minnesota’s perimeter defenders get scurried past, Gobert simply steps into the mind of the ball-handler and warps it into insanity. It’s a telepathic transference of infinite power. Try and score on me, you tiny little fucker, step into my web.
Occasionally they do, they fight their deep-seated urges to run as far away from him as humanly possible. That’s when he swats and alters shots, further cementing the reputation he holds, further ingraining the fear into his would-be challengers.
He does that in this game. Over and over again. To be fair, he does it every game. Over and over again. He’s a consistent powerhouse defensively and that’s fueling these remarkable Wolves. After a slow-ish start to the season offensively, he’s blossoming on that end, too. He is catching everything, finishing everything and knocking down free throws. When he does those things — and spaces the floor as best he can — he becomes a legitimate superstar.
In his own way. He’s not the superstar one imagines when that word is bandied about, but his impact mirrors that of a stereotypical superstar. When he’s off the floor, it just doesn’t feel the same. Imagine saying that at this time last year.
Finished with 15 points (58.8% TS), 13 rebounds and 3 blocks in 37 minutes — +19.5 net rating.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Howls and Growls to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.