Player Ratings: Game 55 | Portland Trail Blazers
Wolves head into the All-Star break on a high.
There have been some troughs in this season thus far, but there have never been so many peaks. There’s never been so many tests and there’s never been so many pass marks. These consecutive games against a lowly Portland Trail Blazers team was a different kind of test — a maturity test. There were moments of madness that made flying colors seem a little too strong of a grade, but the Minnesota Timberwolves did it again, they passed another test. They finish off the pre-All-Star portion of the season as the Western Conference’s best team. Imagine that.
The game ends 128-91. A bizarre evening in the best way possible. Despite the final score, this really was another test. The trappings of the same sort of immaturity that has led the Wolves astray in the past were undeniably evident and that made pulling through it all and ending with a blowout dub taste that little bit sweeter.
A hat tip is owed to the Blazers, for what it’s worth. When Minnesota pounced on them to the tune of a 30-point quarter time lead they could have easily acted as the roadkill they looked to be, but they chose instead to force their way back into the game in the same way they did two nights earlier. Bit by bit, that enormous deficit was whittled down to single digits and suddenly that aforementioned maturity was being appraised by a feisty young squad.
The cream rises to the top, though. The leader of the pack always eats first. As soon as the Wolves decided to put their foot to the floor, the Blazers were left in the dust. They used a late third-quarter run to rekindle their previous flame and spent the fourth quarter using it to burn the young Blazers to cinders.
There’s a lot going right lately. A lot. Even on a night that would have been a stunner had it resulted in a loss, there were lessons to be learned and tests to be passed. This team keeps meeting expectations and then finding ways to lap them. Now they get a well-deserved break before the real thing starts. Wolves Back.
Mike Conley: 8/10
There are no rapid beginnings without his hands pressed against the throat of the youthful Blazers. And there’s no doubt this game could have gone a million different ways had he not helped the Wolves build themselves that early buffer.
He’s a tone-setter. More than anything else, perhaps.
Sure, they need him to distill the confusion when things begin to go awry toward the end of games and of course they need him to be more than just a mentality monster with his shot-making and telepathic connection with the big French guy, but his most important trait is the way he sets tones.
Within the opening minutes of the game he makes two silky triples and takes the enigmatic Scoot Henderson to the veteran workshop and teaches him a thing or two about being a hooper in mind as well as body. It’s hard to put into words how much that means for a team that loves displaying their greenness.
He’s almost in cruise control from there on out. He has some nice moments as a playmaker and a defender, but his main contribution was the way he laid down a marker for his team early in the night.
Finished with 12 points (44.4% TS), 4 rebounds and 3 assists in 22 minutes — +12.5 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 10/10
He’s in one of those zones. One of the ones that make you believe this isn’t just a game that some prick made up a hundred years ago. This is art. This is magic. He’s the artist. He’s the wizard. This thing is his canvas and his brush and his wand and his pointy fucking hat.
The most encouraging part of this whole two-game series was his seriousness. There wasn’t a single moment that he was ever messing about. Even when his team went through spells of complacency, Edwards was there to marshal them back onto the winning path. At times, we’ve seen him malinger through the second night of a back-to-back or in a game against a bottom-feeder, but this time around he was the insatiable beast demanding to ravish every last scrap of Portland’s carcass.
As soon as the Blazers started humming and really felt like they might make this a nervy finish, he grabbed the bull by the horns and rode that bastard into the promised land.
Art. Slithering drives, deft finishes, godly footwork. Wizardry. Pinpoint passes, smooth jumpers, ravenous defense. They couldn’t handle him and he refused to let his team mire in the muck. It almost seems unfair to expect this from him each and every night, but the more you see it the more you want it. It’s basketball’s answer to drugs and I’m addicted.
Finished with 34 points (69.3% TS), 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals in 33 minutes — +54.7 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 10/10
He personified the mentality that has pulsed through this Timberwolves team all season. One game is just one game. There’s always another one around the bend and that’s a chance to exorcise demons and get back on track. He was downright awful two nights ago but, as has been the case every time his team has dropped a stinker, the response was swift and unyielding.
It wasn’t just that he found his missing mojo defensively — he was draped all over Anfernee Simons and Jerami Grant to the point where you kinda just felt sorry for them — it’s that he decided he was going to have one of those make-you-dream nights offensively, too.
Make you dream about the future. Make you dream about his gliding escapades through the defense. Make you dream about soft finishes and thunderous slams. Make you dream about the other young megastar we have fermenting in the laboratory.
He’s reliably monstrous defensively, but the nights to really savor are the ones where he gives us a little glimpse into his seam-splitting offensive bag. He still needs to brew for a little longer before we see it consistently, but it’s in there and it’s exciting.
Finished with 17 points (66.6% TS), 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and 2 turnovers in 28 minutes — +40.2 net rating.
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