A lot of this league is about fighting back. Not just by swinging textbook technique uppercuts and straight rights, but by any means possible. Dig the nails in, grapple and wrestle, gouge a fucking eye out if you have to. The Minnesota Timberwolves have been flattened more than their fair share this season, but it was time to get back up and fight. It was time to bare teeth and growl back. It was time to inject some life back into whatever is left of this season.
The game ends 108-101. And that was fight. That was everything this team has let drift away over the past few weeks. That was a Los Angeles Clippers team, on their home court, with two of the league’s best scorers and a role player brigade capable of shredding any team in the league. A potential inferno that was snuffed out every time they looked like engulfing the recently rotten Wolves.
And it felt like those combustible Clippers were ready to steal this one away immediately. Minnesota’s offense was operating on the same flatlined heart wave that it has been of late and Los Angeles parlayed that sluggishness into points at the other end. Then the Wolves woke up. Finally. They pegged the lead back in the early parts of the second quarter, dominating in the paint on both ends and stifling both Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, and then built on it in the third stanza.
But gut check time was always coming in the closing period. It’s been the hurdle that has legged this team time and again throughout this entire frustrating campaign. Execution was needed, patience was a must, maturity was craved. And thus it was. Thus it was eye gouges and sharp nails. It wasn’t without faults, it seems it never will be with this current team, but they did enough to scrape by. There was enough offensive flair combining with defensive toughness to beat a very good team who need to win every game they can.
More than anything, it was the most refreshing sea change we’ve experienced all season. The most glorious blast of fresh air imaginable.
Mike Conley: 7/10
The scoring still isn’t there. Even by his relatively mild standards and his relatively ripe age, he’s struggling to find a rhythm as a downhill driver and his reliably middling deep shooting doesn’t come at a high enough volume to thrust the needle in any direction. But this night, more than any of his others while adorned in his new team’s colors, was glazed in all of the intangible sweetness that he’s become known for. He didn’t have the delicious chocolate coating that we’re used to at point guard for this team, but he had every morsel of the gooey insides that this team has forever lacked.
Watching him box out and contested rebounds feels like a splash of water on a warm summer’s day. The point-of-attack defensive hassling and the consistently smart team defense feels like an ice bucket. Fucking drench me in it. He never really climbed onto Rudy Gobert’s weird offensive wavelength, but he seemed much more comfortable with the rest of his team, splitting his time between floor general point guard and off-the-catch attacker with perfection.
His box score won’t smack you in the chin, but his impact certainly did.
Finished with 6 points (37.5% TS), 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals in 29 minutes — +3.1 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 7/10
This is why being a two-way star is such a unique jewel in any player’s crown. Bad nights can happen offensively, shots will rim out, defenses will key in, and a lack of secondary creators around a scoring phenom will tighten the defensive grip around their throat. But being a defensive menace can’t be planned for. It can’t be stopped with a coverage or stifled through roster construction. When an off-night occurs, it can be banked on. And Minnesota’s mercurial star banked on it in this one.
He chased down transition swoops, he stood up perimeter forays from Leonard, George and Russell Westbrook, he fought through off-ball screens and he stalked passing lanes like a hungry fucking cheetah. It reeked winner. It screamed killer. They need more from offensively, that’s inescapable, but he did what needed to be done in this one and that matters more than anything.
Finished with 18 points (44.6% TS), 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks in 37 minutes — +8.3 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 10/10
Have a game, young fella. Show that you’re the best defender in the fucking league. Do it on national television. Give two of the best plus-sized wings the fucking blues and do it all without a glimmer of emotion. This kid is something special, and hopefully the whole basketball world catches on after this flabbergasting performance.
Even without the defensive dominance, he walks away with an offensive evening to fawn over. A barrage of silky finishes off elongated drives melding sensually with his ever-improving jumper in standstill and pull-up situations.
But you can’t really forget the defensive output, can you?
He’s a shadowy defensive dementor sucking the souls from every superstar scorer on the planet. Denying Kawhi at the rim in the first half. The off-ball manacles he latched onto George in the closing moments. The consistent and relentless will to fight through screens and stay in front of his assignment. Just an every-possession mentality on that side of the ball.
Might be his best performance ever.
Finished with 20 points (77.6% TS), 6 rebounds and 2 assists in 35 minutes — +3.9 net rating.
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