When there’s a will, there’s a way. The Minnesota Timberwolves were running low on will, they were running low on players altogether. But, reserves aplenty and spirits a bubbling, they found the way. There is something to be said about finding a way on a night like that. Something about courage and fortitude and togetherness. Things that this season’s iteration has often lacked and sorely missed. Whether this underdog feistiness is replaced by underwhelming apathy again when the bulk of their core returns is a story for another day. This day was about finding the will and then finding the way.
The game ends 112-110. No matter what the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise is doing to prevent winning or who lines up for them on a regular basis, this was a gutsy win. Minnesota’s bench guys and third-stringers stared across the court at an All-NBA guard and a well-oiled if undertalented squad, proceeding to give them everything they could handle and a little more on their home floor.
There were still jitters. There were still moments of madness and moments when everything threatened to fall into a steaming pile of moral victory. A third-quarter collapse, some missed free throws, a bunch of unforced turnovers that screamed of another unraveling. Then, there was still Shai Gilgeous-Alexander working wonders with the ball in his mitts.
But those moments dovetailed with a staunch defensive evening spent mostly in zone coverage, a willingness to share the ball and find a new offensive identity without their stars, and a better night from long-range and on the glass. Minnesota had every reason to lose this one. They had every reason to punt it into the scheduled loss category. But, when there’s a will, there’s a way.
Austin Rivers: 10/10
Broke out of his season-long offensive slump in a big way. Scaled out of the pits of putridness and ascended all the way into the Valhalla of random Timberwolves role player nights. Aside from that weird flurry of travel calls that were hurled against him by a referee with an enormous stick up his ass, Rivers was near-on faultless. Each of his quartet of treys sent a whirl of relief pluming into the air, but his late-game jab-stepping corner ball was the biggest shot of the night and the biggest of his Timberwolves tenure. A jumper that required the most steel-plated balls.
Considering the context of the game and the context of his season, the offense was unfathomably fun. But his ability to escape liability territory and balloon into table-turner only made it easier to shine a spotlight on his defensive work. Fucking hellhound shit. Pestered and prodded and poked and plagued each of Oklahoma City’s ball-handlers. When he wasn’t snatching a career-high five steals, he was slicing through screens, contesting all manner of shots, and bellowing defensive coverages to his youthful teammates.
Just a fantastic night.
Finished with 20 points (114.2% TS), 3 rebounds and 5 assists in 31 minutes — +10.4 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 9/10
A real grown man performance. The kind of night that could get buried underneath an avalanche of bigger point totals in his season game log, but the kind of night that felt like a coming of age. The kind of night worth remembering if and when he begins to harness every one of his talents and spray them about on a more consistent basis.
He will get some help from Rivers and Kyle Anderson, but for all intents and purposes, he is the team’s point guard right now. Foreign lands, untrekked paths, unchartered waters. All of a sudden, he is navigating the minutia of a playmaking role while still jabbing at the defense with his own scoring punches. It felt like he balanced those scales to perfection in this one.
He bunted into the teeth of the defense all night long, making the right reads on when to scallop them with a rim-attack or floater and when to punish them for collapsing with a kick-out or a dump-off. When traps came at him, he moved the ball quickly and efficiently, letting it find its way back to him or staying content to let his teammates work. He ended the night with contradicting monster block on a hungry Gilgeous-Alexander and some free throw woes that left the door ajar for OKC, but he had done his damage by then.
He just got it. Understood the assignment. Seemed to revel in the challenge. Controlled and conducted and dominated in a completely unique way.
Finished with 19 points (52.2% TS), 11 rebounds and 7 assists in 35 minutes — +17.1 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 8/10
Bookended the evening with another ice-cold shooting performance in the first and last periods, but fired the fuck up for the middle two stanzas. The cutting was sharp again and the shot was ready and capable. Those things mingled magnificently with his usual defensive doggedness to unveil his best two-way night in a few weeks.
Sure, Gilgeous-Alexander got his. That dude could score a fifth in a fucking prohibition. But McDaniels made him work and made him rush. Nothing felt easy for Oklahoma City’s mastermind bucket-getter, even if he has a knack for making things look that way. Minnesota’s point-of-attack gnasher makes everybody work. Just a fucking shadow that’s full of limbs and angles and a sneaky competitive fire that belies his stone-faced demeanor.
Finished with 14 points (54.9% TS), 5 rebounds and 2 steals in 30 minutes — +16.1 net rating.
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