The Wolves had no right to be in that game. The mountain seemed unscalable. Deploying two back-up-at-best bigs was always going to be an uphill climb against the best team in the West and the best player in the world. But they were. They were in it up to their necks. They scratched and clawed and fought through an incessant whistle and a generationally unique big man to be there. Because they were there, because they were right fucking there, they probably should have won it. Odds against them or not, it felt like a summit that was reachable.
The game ends 122-118. Their icepick faltered on the final yard of the climb. Their footing became shaky. Their plummet was palpable. The Denver Nuggets are really good. The Wolves are really shorthanded and not in that same stratosphere even with a clean bill of health. They needed to be as surefooted as it comes to overcome those odds.
And, even through a barrage of whistles and a thunderstorm of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray brilliance, the Wolves remained steady for so much of the night. Despite the two-time MVP’s pixie dust and Murray’s second-half fireworks, Minnesota were able to limit Denver’s shooters, force misses from their role players, and swing back on the other end with quickfire offensive jabs that pried open the gaps in Denver’s aggressive on-ball defense.
But the mountain is steep and the game is 48 minutes long. They held fractional lead after fractional lead for most of that 48, but when the whips started cracking in the final three minutes they felt the weight of their climb. Whereas the Nuggets remained tranquil, the Wolves seemed to panic. While the Nuggets played like a team who knows they will win, the Wolves played like a team fearful to lose. And, on the season as a whole, the summit only grows larger.
D’Angelo Russell: 3/10
His deep-ball with just under three minutes to go (Minnesota’s last points of the game) was the kind of thing we’re used to seeing from him. Unfortunately, so was the rest of his snoozefest. Plays like he just chomped down a Xanax or six. Meanders through the night like he is getting ready for bed. Whether he’s checked out, annoyed that he is no longer trusted to finish games, struggling with his inner alpha male, or just not very good, it’s not particularly fun to watch him play basketball at times.
That late-game jumper was nice. And he had a few other jumpers that snapped the nylon. But, in general, it was apathetic. A quartet of atrocious turnovers, an unwillingness and inability to get into the offense quickly or efficiently, his usual lazy brand of defense, and a Brussels sprout on top of the shit-cake when he fired an open corner jumper into the side of the backboard in the closing minutes.
They need more from him or more from someone else.
Finished with 13 points (73.2% TS) and 7 assists in 32 minutes — -4.2 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 5/10
Was the beginning, middle and end of Denver’s gameplan and he felt the heat of those flames licking at him for most of the night. When he had the ball, they did everything they could to get it the fuck up out of his hands and when he didn’t have the ball they did everything they could to stop it getting to him. His star has risen to the point where that’s an appropriate plan, and we’ve seen him snap defenses in half for trying it in the past, but this game was just one of those ones where he could never find a rhythm.
Of course, he still made some fucking bonkers plays. A handful of acrobatic layups, drive-and-kick hockey assists and wonderful uses of the gravity he was creating, but he never found a way to grab this game by the scruff of the neck. He never found his boomlet. He failed to hit a 3-pointer for the first time in eons, he made a few too many defensive mistakes, and he just felt like the muted version of himself all night long. In the end, he too was culpable for Minnesota’s late-game withering, failing to get the Wolves into anything offensively and missing a whirling layup to tie the game in the final minute.
A night that felt like a hard-hitting learning curve.
Finished with 16 points (43.7% TS), 9 rebounds and 3 assists in 37 minutes — -13.9 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 9/10
He’s a unicorn. Big horn and shit. I’m not sure if unicorns can fly but if they can then he does that shit too. It’s not just his defense anymore — although blocking three jump shots and pestering every fucker in sight speaks to his maintained effectiveness on that end — but he is a serious offensive player, as well.
A genuine finisher around the rim. Floaters, circus layups, straight-line drives coming off sweet crossovers, interior passing. And he strokes it from deep. A budding corner specialist who can just as easily nail it in the defender’s face as he can burn them on a closeout. He misses one late and has to stand idly in front of the Jamal Murray hurricane of shot-making, but otherwise he was spectacular.
Finished with 18 points (82.7% TS), 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocks in 34 minutes — -1.4 net rating.
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