Player Ratings: Game 23 | Dallas Mavericks
Wolves get a big road win.
There’s a masterpiece being painted by this Minnesota Timberwolves team. Sometimes it’s hard to see through the abstract brushstrokes and the crimson splatters, but at the end of each night the motif is that little bit more clear. Every inch of the canvas thus far has breathtaking intricacies that become more wonderous with every glance. It’s rain pattering on a window, birdsong echoing through an orange dawn, Minnesota Timberwolves basketball.
The game ends 119-101. There’s a certain nagging uncertainty about facing the Dallas Mavericks. The Luka Doncic factor looms large over every one of those matchups. The superstar is a quandary that demands solving, a cryptic puzzle box that can contain unfightable demons or the skeleton key to victory. The Timberwolves spent their evening decoding that puzzle, staving off those demons, conquering the Doncic dilemma.
It didn’t always feel like they would, mind you. When Doncic was ringleading his team into a 15-point lead within the first four minutes of the game it felt like Minnesota’s task was going to trickle away from them before they could even lay a glove on the Mavs.
Oh, but this team loves that shit. Oh, how they do. They love the griminess, Love the underdog label. Wear it like a fucking necklace. As the night wore on they just chipped away, chiseling the lead down with offensive energy radiating from their bench unit as their vaunted defense slowly ramped up and came to terms with Doncic’s heliocentric heroics.
By the end of the third frame, Minnesota had crawled into the ascendency and by midway through the fourth they had sapped every traceable form of joy from Dallas’ pores. Doncic’s brilliance dissipated into a barrage of whining and toy-throwing, his floor-spacing teammates launched brick after brick, and the Wolves buried them under an avalanche of offensive execution.
Another great win for the Timberwolves. Another splash of vibrant color on the canvas.
Mike Conley: 8/10
He’s a funny player because you’re never going to feel him pressing his impact on a game by force, but you’re always going to feel that impact regardless. He’s like a honeybee, scarcely noticeable among the vivid flowers that litter Minnesota’s roster, but the whole thing would fall apart if he wasn’t there just pollinating the fuck out of everything he touches.
So he just buzzes around all night. A few early buckets and smart dimes to stave off the rot that was spreading in the first quarter before he took the reins in the final quarter and guided his swarm back into the honeycomb.
Dagger triples are his thing, by the way. Fucking loves them. Lives for a knife in the ribs of his opponent. Corner pocket. Splash. Let’s go home.
Finished with 14 points (70.9% TS), 2 rebounds and 3 assists in 29 minutes — +7.8 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 5/10
The legend of his past fortnight grows more bizarre by the minute. He was finally back and seemingly healthier in his movements, but his rhythm was still spasmodic at best and downright fucking hard to watch at worst.
He spends all night working off that shooting rust and even then it still feels like there is a thick layer of it caked on his game when the final buzzer sounds. He does other things, though, to his credit he always shows up in other ways when he is struggling. A career-high 11 assists will do the trick. If the shots aren’t falling, just spray the fucker around and let others do the scoring.
And when push came to shove in the second half, he took his defense up a notch, too. Whether it was closing out on Dallas’ ice-cold shooters or harrying Doncic at the point of attack, he was alert and effective on that end of the floor.
The shot will return. It’s Anthony fucking Edwards we’re talking about here. What matters is that he doesn’t drift into obscurity while he waits for it to do so. That box was checked in this one.
Finished with 9 points (20.8% TS), 2 rebounds, 11 assists and 2 steals in 35 minutes — +24.8 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 8/10
The best part about Jaden McDaniels is he fights like a motherfucker. Every bucket that gets scored on him is a personal affront. Every time he misses a shot you see it boil within him. That means he is unlikely to drift out of games, and he’s never going to lie down and let a rough start stampede him.
On the other side was Luka Doncic, and he makes a living on wearing defenders down. He has mastered the art of deflating the life out of his opponents. But McDaniels fights like a motherfucker. He didn’t allow the stroppy star’s 26-point, 8-assist first half to trample his spirit. And McDaniels’ rusty offensive stylings didn’t seem to bother him, either.
Because he fights. Like a motherfucker. He fights Doncic’s dominance by standing him up on every drive and making him pass out of those leaning mid-range jumpers. Everything that was semi-contested in the first half was lathered in limbs in the second half. He fights. He fights his own offensive struggles by slithering to the rim and getting out in transition to get easy buckets.
He’s back.
Finished with 11 points (58.3% TS) and 2 rebounds in 24 minutes — +14.0 net rating.
Karl-Anthony Towns: 9/10
He personified his team in this one. He was a sluggish mess early in proceedings on both ends. The Mavericks have been playing great basketball this season and you need champagne basketball to match them. He came out like Guinness, sludgy and bitter. It felt like we were heading back down that dark alley that he has a tendency to find himself in.
Then he emerged. Reborn and ready to twist Dallas’ neck around and rip their spine from their fucking flesh. He stopped relying on his bulldozing drives to generate points and he started playing smarter. Instead of trying to flip one up among the rim-protecting trees, he started moving into pull-up shots in the mid-range and crashing the offensive glass for profit; he was a menace on the glass against Dallas’ puny lineup all night.
Eventually he remembered he is allowed to shoot a fucking 3-pointer and knocked one of them down, too. It’d be nice if he remembered that lesson for the future.
Nothing really felt easy for him, but it’s not always going to. Clawing his way through that adversity is something he’s struggled with, so it was nice to see him cobble together a big night in spite of some evident issues.
Finished with 21 points (64.8% TS), 17 rebounds and 2 assists in 31 minutes — +15.0 net rating.
Rudy Gobert: 7/10
They don’t want him to lift every piece of silverware on offer when this season wraps up. It’s the only logical explanation for why he is suddenly being targeted with foul calls — foul calls that are both extremely soft and extremely uncommon for him. Adam Silver is a bald fucking reptilian.
So, he spent the first half dealing with that and it effectively rendered him useless as it has at times in the previous two games. However, he found himself in a better rhythm in the second half and we started to feel his monstrous impact again.
He was pliable enough to change the defensive scheme and get out above the arc to trap Doncic, he got his long levers in a bunch of passing lanes, and he was a fixture at the rim defensively. On the other end he dunked and he rebounded and he even made some nice passes. He was the Gobert that wins them games. The one who has changed the fortunes of this downtrodden franchise, albeit in shorter stints.
Finished with 8 points (60.2% TS), 12 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in 30 minutes — +21.1 net rating.
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