It only takes a few moments of madness to be marooned in disaster. Inches can turn into miles and they can do it with astonishing speed. That’s the way it is at the elite level and that’s the way it always has been. The Minnesota Timberwolves are prone to giving those inches and marooning themselves in the madness; even if they’re usually more prone to overcoming their foibles and finding ways to win.
The game ends 112-107. For the first, second and fourth periods of Minnesota’s post-break debut, they were everything they needed to be against a Milwaukee Bucks team glittering with stars and hungry to prove something. For three of the four quarters we got a heavy dose of everything that makes the Timberwolves a sharp dagger. But that blade turned into the least menacing spoon imaginable for 12 minutes.
That’s all it takes. When Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are standing on the other side of the hardwood you don’t get to stumble around the battlefield for a while and come out of it without your throat slit and your guts lolling from their rightful home. Minnesota outscored Milwaukee by 18 points in those blissful periods, but wedged between them they were pummeled — 36-to-13 in the third — into a pulp that is concerningly recognizable.
It always starts with the offense when things go so badly awry. The sloppy turnovers are the first tendril of terribleness that creep in and they’re followed by stagnation of ball movement, a complete dearth of creativity, and ultimately a total blackout. And when it’s approaching season-worst domains as it did in this one, the final nail plunged into the coffin is defensive resignation.
It was encouraging to see them climb off the canvas and throw enough haymakers to have the Bucks tottering around the ring as the clock ticked down, but they left their swings too late and Lillard closed the door on any miraculous turnaround with his vaunted late-game shot-making.
In the final stretch of the most important season for two decades, an on-to-the-next mentality is the only way to approach a night like this.
Mike Conley: 4/10
A tale of two halves.
His first stanza was filled with scuttling pick-and-roll forays where he would use Rudy Gobert’s rim-rolling gravity as a decoy to find himself a floater seam. It’s seemed like he has been more hesitant and less effective with his patented runners this season, so that was nice to see. when he wasn’t scoring himself he was the same methodical scientist he always is; capable of finding the right pass or making the right decision on each and every play.
His second half went the same way as his team ultimately did. Shite. It swirled around the toilet bowl and took a couple of flushes to get rid of the bastard. He was uncharacteristically turnover-prone and when he’s heedless with the ball it’s grim tidings for the rest of his recklessly inclined teammates. There were no more floaters to speak of and it was always one of those nights where he struggled to find a suitable defensive matchup. Dame was too shifty and the rest of those pricks were too big.
In the end, he’s sat on the pine for the majority of the fourth quarter — with a back-to-back surely in Chris Finch’s mind as well — and was called upon only when things demanded a steadier hand in the final minutes.
Not his best showing post-extension, but it’s worth pointing out that Minnesota Mike blessing us with his presence for another two years is naught but a celebratory moment in this franchise’s history.
Finished with 9 points (50% FG), 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 3 turnovers in 28 minutes — 0 plus/minus.
Anthony Edwards: 5/10
If there’s been a criticism worth leveling at our budding boy wonder throughout the season it’s been that he can wilt at the end of games. Those cringing moments where he shows his understandable lack of maturity and inexperience.
This one was kind of the opposite. For three quarters he was mostly a paper bag stuffed with dog excrement. Even before his bout of madcap turnovers in the third quarter calamity, he was short-arming his jumpers and struggling to circumvent that big pube-headed fuck at the rim with his attacks.
Then the fourth quarter rolled around and he exploded. On another night, in a multiverse where fewer things go astray in the third and a couple more things break right in the fourth, we’re talking about his barrage of triples and finally-successful shots at the rim as the catalyst for a late-game stunner. Instead, it felt like a too-little-too-late showing as he failed to peel himself off the bottom of the barrel for far too long.
Finished with 28 points (37% FG), 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 turnovers in 38 minutes — -16 plus/minus.
Jaden McDaniels: 1/10
Loves a stinker, our Jaden.
It’s important to note that nobody seems to give two squirts of piss about him when he shows out and it seems like the goodwill he deserves for checking dudes a foot smaller than him or 100lbs heavier than him (and doing a damn good job) is vanishing quickly. But, at the end of the day, when your box score looks like mine on a Tuesday night pick-up game you get shoved under the microscope.
The thing is always the fouling. That’s the thing. He’s been much better in recent months, but it’s still the thing. It’s not just that picking up cheap — or undeserved because the league has to pander to that freakish Greek freight train — fouls means he has to splinter his ass on the bench, it’s that he allows it to mangle his rhythm to the point of no return.
When he finally does get a stretch of minutes without the whistle chokeslamming him into oblivion, he fades so far into the background offensively that you scarcely notice him. That needs to change at some point. He’s foul-prone, that’s a fact, but he can’t let those fouls derail him.
I’ll remain steadfast that he did about as good as anybody can expect defensively when he has to oscillate between the shot-making wonderment of Lillard and the bull-like muscle of Antetokounmpo, but when the team offense sputters that badly, it’s painful to see him completely incapable of adding any value on that end.
Ban fouls.
Finished with 2 points (20% FG) and 3 assists in 24 minutes — -8 plus/minus.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Howls and Growls to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.