The night after the night before.
These are the kinds of games that can go wrong. When the adrenaline of a scintillating win wears off and the team is operating on a sleep deprived back-to-back — and there aren’t a whole lot of stakes riding on a game against a bottom-feeder — it’s easy to fall down that trap door. This really is the quintessential banana peel game. It only takes one false step in this league and all of a sudden a team as dangerous as Minnesota can be ass over apex to a team as lowly as Portland.
The game ends 121-109. That final score probably doesn’t do justice to how often it felt like the Wolves were going to stumble and faceplant. It certainly doesn’t do justice to how hungry the Blazers were or how well they played. For three quarters the two teams forgot their rank in the NBA hierarchy, exchanged war cries, and engaged in battle.
For a minute there, a brief moment to begin the fourth frame, it seemed like the sluggish Wolves would fall in the face of Portland’s snarling adversity. The great teams will have moments when everything seems to be spiraling, they just do, but those same teams also have another gear they can shift into when hardship befalls them. It seems undebatable that this Timberwolves team resides in that conversation now.
In the blink of an eye, they snatched any hope from the Blazers. All of their building inferno snuffed as easily as if it were a scarcely flickering candle. Within minutes Portland’s two-point fourth quarter lead was a blowout deficit.
The night after the night before. Not as bombastic, sure, but satisfying in its own unique way.
Mike Conley: 7/10
For the second straight night, it was his defensive impact that outshone his work on the offensive side of things. That’s not usually his modus operandi. He’s the methodical plodder who slices up a game with his on-ball skills, not the shifty defensive bloodhound who operates in the shadows offensively.
Usually.
In reality, he’s actually just a chameleon. He does what it takes to win even on a night where his shot is unreliable and he isn’t able to slither off ball screens and torch defenses with his playmaking nous. He plays the role available. In this one, it was getting his lightning-quick hands on everything and chasing shooters around screens. It was being a menace defensively and cackling in the face of Father Time.
Even when he’s kinda bad, he’s undoubtedly good.
Finished with 7 points (44.4% TS), 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks in 26 minutes — +11.3 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 10/10
He is everything. He’s Hercules struggling through the twelve labors. He’s Thor rattling the lightning and loosing the thunder. He’s the sun and the moon and the stars. The mysteries of the universe are his playthings. Just when you think he might drift into obscurity with a bung knee and his infamous dislike of back-to-back games, he rolls into a slugfest and turns it into his very own colosseum.
From the first minute, he was the one leading the vanguard. In many moments of this game, it was him and him only that seemed to have the energy and the desire to turn this from a disappointing stumble to a triumphant parade.
Attack mode. Like a jungle cat chasing its prey. All night long. He burrows his way to the rim relentlessly, he launches jumpers and watches them trickle into their rightful home, and he is one of the few who had the capability to turn up the defensive heat. His night finishes with a flurry of points and a leaning, left-handed, awe-inspiring runner that will be stapled into his back catalog of taking-the-piss brilliance.
A doff of the cap and a drop of the jaw.
Finished with 41 points (70.2% TS), 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 turnovers in 34 minutes — +20.8 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 1/10
Probably on some beach sipping a piña colada, at least in his mind. The All-Star break is coming up and he seemed to just be getting a head start on the bastard.
He found some good looks for himself either in the corner or dribbling into areas off the bounce, but none of the ensuing shots ever looked likely to drop and he didn’t seem overly interested in creating any point-blankers via cutting or hustle plays.
That same devil-may-care mentality bled into his usually stout defense, too. Anfernee Simons is perfectly capable of raining buckets even with a hearty defensive effort in front of him, but McDaniels was stuck in second gear for most of the night and it was obvious he wasn’t going to be the one slowing down Portland’s most dangerous scorer.
Eventually, McDaniels (and his sprained finger, which could be the culprit here) was benched for those with more outward energy and that was the tonic for both Simons and the Blazers in general.
One more, Jaden, then you can drink that cocktail. You know what, drink one for me, too.
Finished with 2 rebounds in 24 minutes — -13.8 net rating.
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