The Minnesota Timberwolves need wins. Calling the Western Conference a powerhouse seems understated. The Western Conference is a chainsaw wielded by a madman. It’s a bloodbath where only the wildest and wariest survive. And that’s why the Wolves need wins. They need them any way they can get them. The Indiana Pacers came into Target Center with a better win-loss record than the whirlwind Wolves and certainly a better season-long vibe, so this one was one worth getting. They all are.
The game ends 121-115. A great performance. A good performance. A worrying performance. A horrible performance. Depending on when you tuned in and what version of the Jekyll and Hyde Timberwolves you witnessed, any of those statements could be true.
It started with the great. The amazing. The where has this been all season long. Minnesota romped the shell-shocked Pacers from the first tip. It started with the stifling perimeter defense that funneled confused drivers into menacing rim protection, but it flowed wonderfully into pacey offense that shone a divine light on ball-movement, transition buckets and a concerted effort to get one another going.
Then came the horrible. Indiana caught fire from deep, but Minnesota heaped gas on their embers by allowing too many open looks and turning the ball over too often. When they weren’t throwing the ball away, the Wolves were clanking to the tune of 8-of-23 (34.8%) from the field and 2-of-9 (22.2%) from deep. All of a sudden, Minnesota’s 18-point quarter-time lead (which grew to 23 early in the second period) had disintegrated and floated away aimlessly.
The third quarter was worrying. Not only did Minnesota immediately squander their meager 2-point halftime lead, they tripped and faceplanted for the majority of the quarter. To their credit, they didn’t let the sizzling Pacers run away from them, but there was enough letting go of the rope to burn even the most calloused hands.
But they finished with the good. The solid. The kind of determination and focus a team needs to win a home game against an energetic team spearheaded by an offensive hub like Tyrese Haliburton. Minnesota found their ball and body movement again, they weathered the storm of stack pick-and-roll variations that Rick Carlisle was deploying, and they made big plays in the closing moments.
It wasn’t consistent. It wasn’t always pretty. It wasn’t the type of replicable game plan that will see them win more games than they have so far this season. But it’s a win. And this team needs wins.
D’Angelo Russell: 9/10
You know what he does. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the fucking awesome. He played helper and conductor when the Wolves were booming early, whipping pinpoint pick-and-roll dimes and meticulously poking holes in Indiana’s defense for his own buckets. But his lackluster lull came when Minnesota were floundering. A barrage of missed shots, a really poor turnover that led to a bucket on the other end, and a wilting of his otherwise strong defensive night.
Then he did what he does. Loves the bright lights of a fourth quarter. Cherishes a close game and a long leash. When it was time to win, time to really turn the screws or have them turned on you, he surgically dismembered the Pacers. Scalpel shit. 15 last-quarter points, a handful of really tough makes when Minnesota’s offense had frozen up, and a willingness to chase and communicate on the other end of the floor.
Those lulls can be killers. But there is no escaping his importance to this win.
Finished with 28 points (67.8% TS) and 4 assists in 36 minutes — -12.3 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 9/10
Woke up around 10 days ago and decided he is going to be the best turnover-creator in the business. Like it came to him in a dream. A fucking steal epiphany. Now, he just filches fuckers like nobody’s business.
Another seven tonight. Seven. The stat keepers actually knocked one off him in the aftermath of the evening, but fuck them. Seven it is. That’s an ungodly amount of times to liberate the opposing team of possession. He does it on the ball as a handsy hound, he does it off the ball as a passing lane swindler, and he finds all of the weird gaps in between that to get his mitts on the ball.
But he does so much more. His passing, while at times a little erratic, was much more adventurous and daring in this one, showing that he is willing and kind-of-able to make the step up to heliocentric heart of the offense. After another 10 free throw attempts, his foul-craft and grifting seems to be following a similar path. And, of course, he puts the ball in the twine in open play as well as anybody.
A scoring phenom, a defensive chaos creator, and a budding playmaker. This is what we need to see in Karl-Anthony Towns’ absence.
Finished with 26 points (58% TS), 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 6 (7) steals in 35 minutes — -6.3 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 5/10
Still appears to be trudging through some shaky ground on his road to recovery from the illness that knocked him back over the past fortnight. He was better in this one, a couple of really timely treys while Indiana was streaking were the highlight of his night along with a sweet cut and a thunderous facial, but he still hasn’t quite found the rhythm he was in before his ailment.
That fact showed itself most obviously in his defensive game. He wasn’t terrible — it’s likely his baseline is so high that it’s nigh on impossible for it to ever stoop to terrible — but he wasn’t his usual self while chasing around Haliburton and Buddy Hield and he spent the last quarter getting burned while Minnesota tried to pivot into a switch-heavy scheme.
It’ll come.
Finished with 12 points (60% TS), 3 rebounds and 2 steals in 37 minutes — -6.4 net rating.
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