There’s something grotesquely beautiful about these nights. Ugly wins. The black sheep of every successful season. Nobody craves an ugly win, nobody sits down in front of their screen or ventures to Target Center seeking an ugly win, nobody ever even remembers an ugly win. And yet, they’re necessary. They’re a requirement. No team has ever sat where they want at the end of the season without a bevy of ugly wins under their belt.
The game ends 110-101. Ugly it was. Every inch of it was sludgy and hard to handle and that’s the beauty of it. This league isn’t roses and paved paths; sometimes it’s going to be cracked cobbles and sharp edges. The Memphis Grizzlies, in tatters as they are, have retained their ability to make every night a graft. They’re lacking in talent, but it’s hard to question their heart this season and they displayed all aspects of it in this game.
They leaped out of the gates with 14 unanswered points and, even when the Wolves finally found their fists and started to punch back, Memphis was slicing through their tired-looking defense and outgunning them in transition and on the offensive glass. For a quarter or two there it certainly felt like this game was destined to be ugly in an entirely different way.
Just as hope seemed to be drifting away, however, the Wolves found their bite and gnashed the Grizzlies into shreds. Memphis never stopped fighting, but once Minnesota finally found a foothold on the game their quality prevented the finish from ever feeling truly jeopardous.
Ugly wins. Bank them and forget them.
Mike Conley: 4/10
Even with his minutes being expertly managed and his workload being lightened with the addition of Monte Morris and the sprinkling of Jordan McLaughlin, Conley still sort of felt like a bit of a graybeard in a game made for fresh faces and young legs.
He still had a smattering of skip passes to corner shooters or pick-and-roll possessions where he played the helper for a Rudy Gobert roll, but he was invisible as a scorer and often rooted to the floor defensively.
If waning on a night like this means he finds himself waxing against more menacing teams on more important nights, then we can all shake hands on that deal.
Finished with 4 points (41% TS), 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 turnovers in 28 minutes — -17.2 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 10/10
Only superstars have nights like this. Not just stars, not All-Stars, not budding stars. Superstars. Sure, you can point to Memphis and how they suck and the relative insignificance of this game. Point your fucking heart out. But what he does is superstar shit and there is no denying it.
The way he breaks free from the chains of a sleepy beginning. The way he incessantly pumps raucous atmosphere into the building with his athletic feats and his shot-making wonder. The way he realizes that nothing good is going to come from this game if Jaren Jackson Jr. continues massacring them, demands to defend him, and then puts him in an unending chokehold while burning Memphis’ defense alive on the other end.
He has transcended his own lofty standards. Even on nights when he threatens to sleepwalk, he ends up sprinting to the finish line and dragging his team along with him.
Finished with 34 points (65.8% TS), 2 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 turnovers in 40 minutes — +8.3 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 10/10
Needed it. The team needed it. The fan base needed it. Most of all, he needed it. This slump that he’s been floundering in was bound to end at some point and it feels glorious to bask in the rays of a new and brighter day.
This was a game that needed drudgery. Demanded it. He had it in spades. And he reveled in it all. Whenever a momentum-shifting defensive play unfurled he was at the nucleus of it; swatting the shit out of everything or making a play in the passing lanes or putting Santi Aldama in a backcourt torture chamber to cause a late-game eight second violation.
The best part was his offensive liberation, though. That’s what the team needed and we needed and he needed. He finally watched a couple of corner three-balls find their home, he swooped down the lane for a few finishes at the rim, and he was able to sprinkle some impact in as a ball-handler and playmaker without turning the ball over.
Long may this continue.
Finished with 12 points (85.7% TS), 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks in 34 minutes — -0.1 net rating.
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