The Timberwolves are all four seasons. Sometimes over the span of an entire calendar, sometimes over the span of a few games, sometimes over the space of 48 minutes. This game, this smash-and-grab minor miracle, was the latter. Depending on what time of the night you checked in, the Wolves were the thunderstorm and the lightning. They were the pelting rain. They were the mud and grime. But, they were also the blazing heat. The dazzling rainbow. The perfectly delightful sun.
The game ends 128-126. Somehow. For much of the night, this was more a march to the gallows than it was a skip to the promised land. But, somehow, they were able to ramraid a Toronto Raptors team that switched from as hot as any team could be to as dysfunctional as it gets.
But, it started with the Raptors’ heat. And, it wasn’t just a hot streak. It was an incessant inferno that lasted the best part of 40 minutes of game time. Minnesota’s defense was a consistent car crash, but Toronto took advantage of that with crisp ball-movement, piercing pick-and-roll passes, and unfathomable shooting from deep. Even in the fleeting moments where the Wolves were able to stifle Toronto’s 6-foot-8 kamikaze horde, they would watch a wild shot fall in or give up an offensive rebound that led to easy points.
Through all of that, though, through all of the barely stomachable defensive possessions and low-energy dawdling, Minnesota’s offense had them clinging on to a puncher’s chance. They couldn’t dodge Toronto’s haymakers, but they continued to throw them back. They gave up 76 points on 62.8 percent shooting in the first half. Not a typo. But, they snagged 66 points of their own. They limped and crawled behind the sprinting Raptors, but they kept moving. They just kept with arm’s distance. They gave themselves the smallest of chances.
Then they took that chance. They snatched it. They ripped the game out of Toronto’s hands with the sort of ferocity that often eludes this squad. This was all heart, will and snarling ruthlessness. They found another gear on defense, then another one, then one more after that. And, perhaps surprisingly, they matched that menacing mentality with crisp and decisive execution on offense. When the buzzer sounded, they had a two-point lead and probably more questions than answers.
Four seasons, one game, and uncountable emotions.
D’Angelo Russell: 9/10
He’s just impossible to get a read on. Like a big fucking hieroglyphic. Just when it seems like he is going to slip into the darkness of another low-energy shitshow, he rockets up out of it and hoists the team onto his shoulders. There are few things that have the power to erase a first half overflowing with poor decisions with the ball and sloth-like defense, but that fourth quarter explosion will wallpaper many a crack.
It was everything they needed and more. Splash, splash, splash, splash. Four big fucking treys laced with big fucking balls. Huge swinging steel ones. Follows up all of that with a patented sweep-through move that forces Fred VanVleet into a game-losing foul. Sometimes, it’s better not to even try and read him. Just sit back and enjoy whatever may come.
Finished with 25 points (74.6% TS), 6 assists and 2 steals in 32 minutes — +1.3 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 8/10
Another befuddling evening. Another strange contradiction. Another night where, eventually, his overwhelming talent bursts free from the shackles of a slow start. Sure, his field goal percentage never really scraped itself out of the dirt. Sure, he turned the ball over five times. Sure, this wasn’t one of the nights where he completely fucks the opponent up with his famous boomlets.
But, when it came to winning time all of those statements were swept away like they were caught in the rush of a tornado. None of it mattered when he was shifting the ball to Russell to get him going as an off-ball scorer in the final period. It didn’t matter when he tangoed with Pascal Siakam and nailed the trey to finally bring the game level with four minutes remaining. It sure as shit didn’t matter when he was throwing the manacles on every single big wing who tried to score on him as the clock wound down.
He just has that knack. When big things are needed by big players, he comes up big. When he can’t finish at the rim, he gets to the charity stripe 11 times. When the Raptors are scoring on every possession, he takes it upon himself to string together fistfuls of excellent point-of-attack defensive forays. When the game and the season and the vibes are on the line, he scoops them back up and throws them in his back pocket for safekeeping.
The future and the now.
Finished with 23 points (54% TS), 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals in 40 minutes — +12.7 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 10/10
He is becoming inescapable. Just a constant stream of awesomeness flooding the court every single night. No longer a bit-part upside guy, he’s a cascade of two-way impact. And, unlike his backcourt, he didn’t reserve his gushing greatness for just the comeback. From the first tip, he was doing his thing. Spot-up triples, rim-slices that are reminiscent of a gangly bullet train, and his usual brand of perimeter defensive punch mixed with rim-protecting devilishness. You just can’t ignore him anymore. He is everywhere and everything. He is the fucking man.
Finished with 18 points (64.3% TS) and 7 rebounds in 37 minutes — +6.1 net rating.
Kyle Anderson: 10/10
At times, he feels like a life raft. A big loping safety net. Some mystifying combination of cumbersome and coordinated. Every night, and maybe this one most of all, he cycles between positions and roles and does it with such wonderful competence that it’s almost hard to believe that he is a member of a franchise as prone to dysfunction as the Wolves.
He’s been stringing together jaw-droppers for a while now, but this was his coup de grâce. But nothing changed. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Nothing outlier. He still jerked his way to the rim for his weird little floaters and push shots. He still took 5-to-7 business days to load up his long-range jumpers — before knocking them down consistently. There was nothing different about the way he defended his tail off or inhaled rebounds or made plays for others off-the-bounce.
Long may he continue.
Finished with 20 points (96.9% TS), 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals in 34 minutes — +18.0 net rating.
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