They stole our banners and they filched our name. Never forget that. The foundations of their storied franchise are built upon the soil that we turned. So every time they come to town they deserve to be sent back emptyhanded and every time that mission is completed it should be rejoiced. Snagging a win isn’t a Christmas miracle by any means, they’re a middling mess, but it should be celebrated with the same sort of cheer. They stole our fucking banners, it’s the least we can do.
The game ends 118-111. And it was a strange one all the way through. At no point did it ever feel truly precarious, nor did it ever feel comfortable. Sometimes it was frustrating and other times it was fun, it was steadily competitive, and it was always soundtracked by the uproarious cacophony of Target Center madness. Even without LeBron James on the floor, it was an end-of-year atmosphere. A night of merrymaking and revelry for this team we hold so dear.
The game played its part in the festivities, too. Minnesota’s best nights of the season have been the ones where they choke the life out of their opponent, watching the light drain from their eyes through a grimy recipe of defensive dominance and cobra-strike offense. This game had less of that, the Wolves never cranked their defense into top gear and that meant they couldn’t ever pull away or make life easier for themselves.
Whenever the lead ballooned into or around double digits, Los Angeles would make a mini-run, even grabbing a brief lead late in the third frame. Frustrating and fun. In equal parts for the entire night. Perhaps it was a cruise control mentality, perhaps they were playing with their food a little, or perhaps it was the back-to-back legs making this game a little sloppy for both teams, but talent won out in the end as it so often does.
When the whips really started cracking, the Wolves used a scintillating 15-to-8 run in the middle-to-late portion of the fourth quarter to pull away from the Lakers. D’Angelo Russell emerged from his dusty cocoon late in proceedings, as he is wont to, arriving on the scene too late and without enough efficacy, as he is wont to do. And, as this new-age Timberwolves team is wont to do, they held firm in their fortress. They still haven’t lost two games on the bounce and we’re nearing the end of December. Some stat, that.
Mike Conley: 10/10
Watching his predecessor laze around the court like a porch-bound tabby on a summer’s day while he injects life and energy and smarts and pure basketball brilliance into a menial December outing is the perfect juxtaposition. It shows the immaturity that ran rampant in last season’s team and the staunch adulthood that this season’s iteration is laced with.
He’s not all just gray hairs and stories from yesteryear, though. He’s genuinely as impactful as any of them — and certainly his listless counterpart. When he wasn’t draining triples in important moments throughout the night, he was mustering the offense and either dropping the guillotine dime to finish the possession or setting up somebody to do so themselves.
Even with his scoring and playmaking exploits always evident, it was his track-back pilfering of a streaking Cam Reddish that was perched atop his highlight reel. After he yanked the ball free and saved a certain two points, he swaggered the ball through his legs and paused for a moment in front of his bench to enjoy the acclamation pouring down on him from all quadrants of Target Center.
He’s everything we could want. He might be more. Cool as the other side of the fucking pillow.
Finished with 16 points (88.9% TS), 8 assists and 2 steals in 30 minutes — -1.8 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 9/10
He tried to dap up a referee. That’s the sort of shit we’re dealing with now. Knuckle push-ups turned to knuckles raised in glee. Can’t feed my family transformed into can’t miss entertainment. You can’t win without me into you can’t believe what Anthony Edwards did last night.
So don’t worry about some of the shot selection issues that crept into his game late as he buzzed around like a Columbian dreamscape or the careless turnovers that littered his evening. Focus on the overwhelming flood of dazzling displays. Let it drown you and birth you anew. Let it wash away all of those past traumas. He’s the present and the future.
He menaces the Lakers with his ability to strike from all three levels as a scorer and he gnaws at their sloppiness with the way he hunts passing lanes and recovers loose balls defensively. When he sickles through Los Angeles’ pick-and-roll coverage and lasers a skip pass for a Nickeil Alexander-Walker dagger (and an ensuing fist bump attempt) he rubber stamps his impact onto the night and ensures Target Center gets their only wish.
Happy Holidays.
Finished with 27 points (59.9% TS), 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in 38 minutes — +1.0 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 10/10
When he starts to mingle his defensive spiderweb with his clearly blooming offensive game, you start to see the full picture of his potential and it’s mouth-watering. It’s almost hard to fathom.
He’s a legitimate 6-foot-11, mind you, but he winds his way in and out of traffic like a Ferrari, all sleek and graceful and shit. He finishes at a ridiculous clip on his gawky rim-attacks and his touch in the mid-range was gifted from the heavens. That step-back moneymaker in the final frame — right when the Timberwolves were craving a settling bucket — was a window into that aforementioned future.
On the other end he had the assignment of D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves. The sloth and the frat boy. Reeves had a few successful forages into the mid-range with his usual flopping and flailing style, but he was restricted to just two field goal attempts in total when McDaniels was his direct opponent. Russell, on the other hand, had a torrid time trying to escape McDaniels’ clutches. He failed to trouble the scorers (0-of-6 on McDaniels) and coughed it up a couple of times leading to buckets at the other end.
That’s what McDaniels does. Make your night a living hell. Put you in your fan base’s trade machine. All without a drop of emotion touching his face.
Finished with 14 points (78.8% TS) and 3 assists in 36 minutes — -0.9 net rating.
Karl-Anthony Towns: 8/10
Speaking of fan bases, this one will be sweating over his fitness. He actually looked a little gimpy all night, but a torpedo drive into Anthony Davis and a gaggle of Lakers late in the game forced him to the locker room and he never resurfaced. He’s been such a steadying hand for his team this season, it would be a real bummer if he was to miss any significant time.
He was, in this one, that same steadying hand, albeit a little shakier than we’ve seen of late. He could never quite find his offensive rhythm, although he still worked through it to scrounge up buckets periodically throughout the night, and he was spotty as a defender (perhaps due to the aforementioned hobbled appearance).
Still, he’s become something totally different from what he used to be — with all the same efficacy and more. You immediately noticed his absence even in the final minutes of this game, so it’s hard to imagine what the team would look like without him. Here’s hoping for good news over the weekend.
Finished with 21 points (53.5% TS), 6 rebounds and 4 assists in 33 minutes — +16.4 net rating.
Rudy Gobert: 8/10
Weird night. For a lot of the first half he and his teammates spent their time seeking him out for post-ups and duck-ins that ended with typical stinky results; it was fucking dumb the last hundred times they tried it and it’ll be dumb the next hundred. With Anthony Davis for company, he was struggling to sink his teeth into any defensive delicacies, either.
Then his switch flipped in the second half. And when his switch flips it’s like a tremor pulsing through the fucking atmosphere. A sickly man morphing into a vicious werewolf. Once his scoring seal was broken with a thunderous cutting slam, he slipped back into the reality he thrives in. Slicing finishes at the rim, putback points, and free throw line trips after the defense hacks him.
Now that he was comfortable in his offensive skin, his game was able to sprout into the defensive dominance we’re used to. He held Davis to just four of his 31 points in the final period while taking the time to roam off him and impact Los Angeles’ drivers at the rim. It’s almost so expected at this point that we take for granted how important and difficult that is to do at the level he does it.
Just no more post-ups. Ever.
Finished with 15 points (55% TS), 13 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks in 37 minutes — +0.1 net rating.
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