The NBA season being a long, winding and sinuous journey can be a blessing or a curse.
For teams sinking ever deeper into the quicksand, the sheer number of games can act as a weight moored to their neck that pulls them ever deeper into the darkness. For teams who fancy a life after the regular season, the torrent of games provides more chances. More chances to stack wins on top of each other and, perhaps more importantly, more chances to shake off the grime of a bad loss.
The game ends 129-105. The Minnesota Timberwolves needed another chance. They needed to avenge themselves after their collapse in Chicago. Oh, how they did. They needed this and they grasped it with unyielding hands.
Pointing to injury absences from Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton is an easy out for Milwaukee Bucks faithful, but the fact is that any bell-to-bell beatdown being doled out to a team deploying Giannis Antetokounmpo isn’t something to be taken lightly. Not only is the Greek Freak the type of cyborg who can rip a game away from any player on his lonesome, but the Bucks are still littered with sidekicks who can buoy him in that pursuit.
So, nothing should be brushed off or excused. This was an excellent win; it might be the most complete performance of Minnesota’s season.
They were scintillating offensively, mixing crisp ball movement with silky shot-making and a foot-on-the-pedal mentality which has often been a glaring absence in their profile this season. On the other side of the ball, they were them. They were who they are. Rugged and connected; a thousand-fanged hellion operating with a single hive mind.
When the Wolves are able to hunker down with their usual defensive intensity and then flourish their rarely-seen offense, they’re a sight to behold and they’re a force to be reckoned with. That’s the best thing about this meanderingly long season. It gives us another chance to watch the best team in franchise history.
Mike Conley: 10/10
I started to doubt him. Just a creeping little tendril of doubt wormed its way into my addled mind. Maybe he’s beginning to feel the clutches of Father Time, it told me. Maybe he’s going to tail off as the wear and tear of the season catches up to him. Never have I been more happy to call myself a babbling fool.
He’s still him. He just needed a little hiatus to get his swagger back. Things never truly felt in jeopardy in this one and that’s because he kept bobbing up and thwacking the Bucks back into their hole. Like playing a whack-a-mole with any potential comeback.
Of course he had his usual smattering of crisp dimes. Of course he scurried to loose balls and held his own defensively against Milwaukee’s shooters and guards. It was his own shooting display, however, that acted as the delicious cream on top of a sumptuous cake. Six of the bastards. Pow pow pow pow pow pow. Bite bite bite bite bite bite. Clean as you like.
Our sage old master has returned.
Finished with 18 points (112.5% TS), 5 rebounds and 9 assists in 31 minutes — +12.4 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 10/10
We wanted control. We needed calm. We craved composure. We got it all. We were showered in it. While we all felt compelled to pick at the carcasses of his careless nights, we should all feel the same level of compulsion to bathe in the glory of his best playmaking night of his career. If this was a window into what a more mature and grown-up version of Anthony Edwards looks like, we’re in for a fucking joyride and a half.
He slices apart Milwaukee. Carves them open like a roasted turkey. When they overcommitted to his drives, he lasered passes to the corner. When they sat back in drop coverage, he drew the big defender toward him and found rolling big men. When things started to devolve into the isolation ball that has often spelled doom for this team’s offense, he got off the ball and trusted it would find an open teammate or recycle its way back to him in a more organic way.
Oh yeah, he had a shitload of points himself, too. Mid-range moneymakers, long-range bombs, slicing drives. All of the good stuff. All of the stuff we know him for. It’s the playmaking — turnover-free playmaking! — that made this an especially memorable night, however.
Finished with 26 points (57.4% TS), 3 rebounds and 9 assists in 36 minutes — +22.0 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 9/10
The possession where he clamped down on Antetokounmpo’s drive, scuttled back out to the perimeter to run Malik Beasley off the line, blocked the shit out of his casual floater, and then bounced back up to pin his follow-up shot to the backboard might be the best defensive possession of the season. Freakish.
While that was the highlight of the night, the dirty work he did shouldn’t float by unnoticed.
He looks like a splintered twig trying to stop the roving oak tree that is Giannis, and yet he’s essential in slowing the lithe-as-a-jungle-cat superstar down. The whole team was building a rampart around him, but McDaniels was the soldier tasked with poking his head above the parapet most often. He ate up the space and shadowed Giannis from afar when he had to and he bodied him up when that was the necessary play. He smothered him — the most physically dominant player this side of Shaq.
It’ll be the entire wall that deserves some praise for manacling the former champ, but McDaniels should get the most credit. Besides, it’s always fun to be reminded that he’s the best perimeter defender in the galaxy.
Finished with 8 points (80% TS), 3 rebounds and 2 blocks in 19 minutes — +43.5 net rating.
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