It’s about time the Minnesota Timberwolves served somebody. They’ve won half of their games this season, they’ve even had some really really good wins. They’ve dazzled at times and shined at others. But they’ve rarely served somebody. Rarely have they injected some have-a-bit-of-that into the guts of a marvelous opponent. This was all of it. This was the jab and the dodge and the haymaker. This was the thunderstorm and the rainbow. This was the kind of game that yanks the pull cord and really gets the motor running.
The game ends 110-102. A game that reverberated around Target Center and almost burst the seams of the arena. On the tail-end of a back-to-back, against a Cleveland Cavaliers team who trots out one of the league’s best defenses and supplements that with Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland at the head of a venomous offensive snake. That’s a win worth crowing about.
But it wasn’t a win that came easy. That defense and that backcourt were never going to be easy. Oftentimes this season, the Wolves have had enormous trouble overcoming anything that hasn’t come easy. But they ground this one out. They served this one up.
They rocketed out of the gates, but they were expectedly pegged back before the first buzzer sounded. Then it got ugly. Six straight turnovers ugly. Before Minnesota could clean up their mess, Cleveland were up double digits. But, perhaps surprisingly, Minnesota embraced all of the ugliness. They thrived in it. They battled back. Then they went down even more — 14 points midway through the third period — and battled back again. They wore the Cavs down. They pestered and hassled and gnawed away at those leads.
In the end, Minnesota ran over the top of their weary opponents. The last quarter was as good as it’s got this season. Big shots, big dunks, big defensive stops, big energy. A pure and unadulterated serving.
D’Angelo Russell: 3/10
Just kind of faded into the background. He wasn’t dancing under the sun like everybody else. He wasn’t shrouded in the confetti. He was the one in the dark and gloomy parts. The guy in the rafters pouring the fucking confetti on everybody else.
To be fair, he didn’t try to overextend himself and turn a quiet night into a loud one at the expense of others, but it’s always telling when Chris Finch decides against him to close a game out. And therein lies the problem with Minnesota’s polarizing point man — mixed between his displays of shooting and playmaking you have fat smelly duds.
Finished with 9 points (56.3% TS) in 21 minutes — -11.4 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 10/10
Need a new fucking dictionary to describe him at the moment. Herculean, stupefying, awe-inspiring, flabbergasting. This wasn’t even one of his very best nights, either. That’s the thing. This is just another night. Another night of fucking dominance. Another night where he made all of the hard things look remarkably easy. While the rest of the starters struggled in the scoring column, he was consistent all night long.
That consistency manifested itself in the usual ways. The drives that remind you of a brutish tornado. The shimmy-shaking jumpers that suck the soul out of the opposition. But, he also had an air of animalistic snarl about him. He was clapping in Donovan Mitchell’s face before stifling him on a jumper. He was talking his shit after dropping off defenders at the rim. He was all of his Hollywood character combined with all of the Mamba mentality. He’s an enigma. He’s our enigma.
Finished with 26 points (67.3% TS), 6 rebounds and 7 assists in 35 minutes — +5.2 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 8/10
Remember when he blocked Mitchell’s long-range jumper, loped down the court like some sort of maniacal gazelle, and then leaped into the atmosphere while scooping the ball back inbounds through his legs? That’s a snapshot of his freakishness. An oil painting of Minnesota’s other enigma.
And that’s just a drip-feeding of the shit he does. If the referees didn’t fucking hate him he might have had an even better night. He shackles everybody stupid enough to try and score on him. He slithers around offensively collecting his buckets. He glues everything together whenever he wasn’t forced by the screeching whistle to sit on the pine.
The best part is that this isn’t a glimpse anymore. He isn’t a flash-in-the-pan player. He’s an every-night performer. A shadowy specter scraping names of elite scorers off his list.
Finished with 9 points (64.3% TS), 2 assists and 4 steals in 28 minutes — +10.7 net rating.
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