All good things must come to an end. This was a stomachable end to Minnesota’s three-game win streak, albeit one that sort of felt like it was avoidable. But, all good things come to an end, and the Wolves have breathed enough life back into their season that this loss to the frisky Dallas Mavericks shouldn’t be enough to fully deflate it. There are no moral victories for this still underwhelming team, but there is a chasm between this night and their worst nights.
The game ends 104-99. Sub-100 scores are for various types of football. Sub-100 scores are great if you’re a weekend warrior on the golf course. Sub-100 scores aren’t going to get it done in the modern NBA. Even with a defensive night that was respectable and an amount of energy and pizzazz that would hold them in good stead on most nights, without breaking the century it’s just an uphill grind.
There weren’t too many reasons why Minnesota’s scoreline didn’t cut it, but the few were weighty. They continued to miss too many shots from deep. That’s the big underlined reason. Over and over again this season that ghoul has haunted them, and with their sidelined shooters remaining in street clothes, that specter is always around the next corner.
Minnesota were able to hang with Luka Doncic and his motley crew by stifling the Mavericks around the rim and scoring a bunch in the paint themselves while preventing points off turnovers and second chance points (two areas that have killed them this season). But basketball mathematics can be a cruel temptress, and she’s lured the Wolves to their death more than once this season. The Wolves made eight triples from their 30 attempts. The Mavericks only made 13 of their 39 attempts, but that math was too great a task to overcome.
Again, Minnesota did a lot of things well. Along with breaking even in turnover and rebounding rate, they shot better from the field (49.4% to 45.3%). But they didn’t shoot well from deep, and they were outscored by 16 points at the line as Dallas continued to get calls their counterparts couldn’t buy with a bottomless pit of money. If the Wolves were able to inject some of their own lively pace into the evening and avoid playing Dallas’ sludge-ball, they may have been able to win this one. Alas, they were enticed into Doncic’s web and ended up the victim rather than the victor.
All good things must come to an end.
D’Angelo Russell: 3/10
This was always the worry. Throughout his stunning highs, scintillating shot-making, and dazzling displays, there was always this little nagging fucker in the back of the mind. A reminder that his lows are like a pickaxe burying into the skull of the team. There is no middle ground. No firm footing between good and evil.
With the way Minnesota’s roster is constructed and how they’re currently gutted by injuries, it’s just hard to survive a night like this from their polarizing point man. To be fair, his defensive attentiveness was reasonably crisp and he did make a cluster of slick passes, but they were the only tinfoil linings of his deep dark cloud.
The rest of his night was filled with clanks. Seven 3-point attempts, seven misfires. Seven coming in acres of space. Seven careening off the rim. Seven chances to get the Wolves out of the long-range dumps, seven continuous fuck-ups. Throw in a few untimely turnovers and a general tentativeness that pulsated through his entire night and you get a D’Angelo Russell who is dangerously close to slipping back into oblivion.
Finished with 8 points (30.8% TS), 6 rebounds and 8 assists in 38 minutes — -6.8 net rating.
Austin Rivers: 10/10
The Holiday Flamethrower. Burning the fucking nose hairs out of any defender who gets too close. It’s still objectively hilarious that this is who he is right now. From zero to fucking god in what seems like an instant. How it happened or when it will wear off isn’t worth fretting over, the fact is that right now he is insanely valuable and insanely productive.
Unlike his brick-throwing comrades, he was once again efficient and electric from beyond the arc. His late-game, jab-stepping, big-nuts trey pulled Minnesota back within one basket and gave them one last hope in a game that was quickly fading away. He threw in two more deep-balls, a couple of sweet finishes around the rim, and some neat drive-and-kick passes to put a little bow on his offensive performance.
Then, of course, he’s just a little fucking locust defensively. Buzzing around wildly. He covered so much ground and doused so many fires. Doing it with the kind of intensity this team consistently craves. All of a sudden, he is slipping into the shed skin of Patrick Beverley. All of a sudden, he is the veteran haymaker.
Finished with 21 points (75.6% TS), 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals in 36 minutes — -4.2 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 7/10
The bar is rising. This wasn’t a bad performance. In fact, while a lot of his teammates were floundering in the waters of offensive shittiness, he was bobbing comfortably. Still, the bar is rising, and his performances will always be judged against that rising bar.
He consistently jerked the gherkin of magnificence around the rim, finishing ridiculous scoops, remarkable reverses and riveting finger rolls. He worked in the mid-range area as smoothly as he ever has, hitting a number of self-created step-backs and rise-ups. Relative to most, he was unfathomably good.
But the bar is rising. When his team needed triples, he provided a duck egg from deep. When they needed his budding point guard prowess, he was spotty as a passer and turned the ball over too often. When they needed him to go thermonuclear, he couldn’t quite shift it into overdrive.
A high bar is a gift and a curse.
Finished with 23 points (52.6% TS), 4 rebounds and 5 assists in 38 minutes — -0.9 net rating.
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