Another suffocation. It’s been a season of suffocations. Occasionally, the Minnesota Timberwolves suffocate themselves and we lament the lack of oxygen, but more often than not they go about suffocating their opposition in a way that feels almost obsolete in the age of scoring outbursts and defensive disinterest. The Wolves are the league’s foremost antique, a growling nod to yesteryear, a defensive pillow over the face of their offensively-tilted foes.
The game ends 111-90. And if 90 points seem like something out of a long-forgotten decade, you should have seen it before the third-stringers came in with their devil-may-care defense. The Wolves have foibles, some might even seek to become their ruin eventually, but they have their defensive scythe and they can rely on it to slice through most oncomers on most nights. The sample size correlating that is large enough to be certain now and this was just another log on the crackling fire.
So, even when the offense bogs down or the turnovers start to pile up in the free-flowing offensive mantra — both of those things reared their ghastly visage in the second period of this one — the Wolves have a tool to reverse their woes. Defense. Defense, defense and more defense. Defense from every position and defense laden with flexibility in scheme and profile.
That means, when the offense does untangle itself, they can blow the doors off a game. When the second half rolled around, the defense stayed and the parts around it clicked into place. From midway through the third period, Minnesota was in cruise control as they accelerated away from a Houston Rockets team that aren’t easy-beats by any means. This is a team where young talent and hard-nosed veterans mingle into a competitive snarl and they got toasted.
They just couldn’t stave off the suffocation. Not too many can. That’s why Chris Finch will be strolling the sidelines in the All-Star game and that’s why the Timberwolves are still a Western Conference heavyweight.
Mike Conley: 8/10
El Capitano.
He’s still not scoring the ball with the same fluidity or efficiency that we saw before his body started to nag and groan a little, but there was a commanding nature to his playmaking that stitched the entire tapestry of the night together.
Perhaps his greatest skill on the court is knowing how to share the wealth. He knows when Anthony Edwards needs it and how he wants it. He knows where Karl-Anthony Towns does his best work and how to aid and abet that. He’s virtually a big fucking spoon doing airplane noises into Rudy Gobert’s hungry maw.
And he plays defense. Not like some of the all-encompassing spectral ghouls on his team, but the whole identity wouldn’t work if he was a weak link in the chain.
On a night that ends in a runaway win, his ability to stack effective plays on top of each other really stood out.
Finished with 8 points (51.5% TS), 3 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 turnovers in 25 minutes — +32.8 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 10/10
It’s been a while since we’ve got a true boomlet. None of this downpour shit, I’m talking a full-blown fucking thunderstorm striking at a forlorn opponent. When the Wolves are percolating defensively and he really starts to sizzle alongside it, the game is over. Curtains. Pack your shit and exit through the backdoor.
He had some issues dealing with Dillon Brooks in the first half, but he was making the right reads as a scorer and a playmaker, he just couldn’t free himself from Brooks’ handsy clutches enough to turn the tide on the team-wide offensive struggles.
The thing about Dillon Brooks, however, is that he’s never been able to guard Anthony Edwards. Ever. He gets his shit rocked every time they face off and Ant merely allowed the league’s foremost wanker to have a little bit of hope this time around.
He grabbed the third quarter by the balls and refused to let go. A flower that would poison any defender that tried to dampen the radiance of its petals. He had the full arsenal on display; the swoops to the rim like a demonic falcon and the mid-range game and the off-the-bounce triples that siphon the soul from the defense in an instant.
By the time he was done with his outburst, the game was out of reach. Even for the fourth-quarter-troubled Wolves.
Finished with 32 points (62.7% TS), 6 rebounds and 4 turnovers in 34 minutes — +38.6 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 7/10
He had a quiet night offensively. Bordering on a bad one, to be fair. Some silly turnovers and ill-advised shots were streaked throughout the evening and he could never find his usual low-usage, high-efficiency game that has become a staple of Minnesota’s offense.
He’s still the best perimeter defender on the planet, though. Don’t you fucking dare forget it. Jalen Green isn’t very good, but he’s been on a heater of late and the Rockets are a different proposition when he’s on one. Fuck that. Jaden McDaniels. Didn’t give him a sniff. Chained him up and threw away the key.
That’s the beauty of our hot-tempered rascal. He can have a stinker on offense as he still grapples with what he actually is, but he’s going to give us such immense value as a point-of-attack talisman defensively that you hardly feel the sting of it.
Finished with 5 points (35.7% TS), 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 turnovers in 32 minutes — +45.0 net rating.
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