And so the pendulum swings once more. Back and forth, to and fro, always swinging and never settling. The Minnesota Timberwolves are riding the crests and crashes of their season-long pendulum like it’s a great tsunami wave. The depths are certainly deep, deep enough to feel like the lungs of this campaign are overflowing to the point of drowning, But the highs have been glorious, too. The views on top of the pendulum wave are almost too astonishing to imagine in contrast to those murky depths that have plagued too much of this season. And thus it swings once more, and the Wolves are back to embracing a win streak and a serene seascape.
The game ends 138-134. A firefight. Not the kind of game tailored to the traditionalist or the faint-hearted, but one laced with fun and oodles of talent. The Sacramento Kings require a game like that from their opposition if they are to be triumphed. They demand it with their flair and their style and their bar-the-door mentality.
Consider the door sufficiently kicked. When this Wolves team is locked in and loaded up, they’re a battering ram capable of smashing any hinges to smithereens. Because the Kings have those superlative qualities, even a menacing ramraid couldn’t cower them without a bloody and brutal firefight, but the Wolves came prepared and came to survive another day in this Western Conference bloodbath.
And that made this night all the more impressive. To win they had to keep throwing punches and keep taking them on the chin. Both teams measured each other up in the first quarter, then the Wolves started swinging in period two. They go into half up 10 on the back of what felt like their most electric quarter all season and all of a sudden the finish line is a little less gloomy.
However, when Minnesota kind of seemed to be beating Sacramento to the point of submission in the third period, the hometown heart-warmers stormed back. Hook, straight, uppercut. Minnesota back on the ropes. Not just punches, either, it was De’Aaron Fox wielding his clutch crossbow like he has all season long, loosing shafts into every defender in his path. But Minnesota had one more round in them. Another duck and another dodge and a last desperation weave. One more chin-rattler to throw back.
And so the pendulum swung back in Minnesota’s direction. Forced along by every player on the court.
Mike Conley: 10/10
During his first few nights with the Timberwolves, you could see the opaque outline of what he could do for this team. A visible but untouchable mist that signified that they will feel different with him marshaling the troops. Now we see it full-blown. It’s a colossus looming over everything this team is doing and doing well. He’s an energizer and a calming serum, somehow. Admittedly, it’s still early, but now that he is settled into his role and his position, he feels like the elixir the Wolves have been seeking all season long.
And this game was an even sweeter encapsulation of the wonder that he produced against the Lakers. So smooth as a southpaw sniper on catch-and-shoot treys. So terrifically tranquil when diagnosing defenses in the pick-and-roll. And the gap between his off-ball defensive chasing and on-ball hounding is a thousand fucking chasms wide compared to the point guard play we’ve seen over the past handful of seasons.
All of that coalesced into a perfect storm in this one. Raining hellfire on Sacramento’s beam.
Finished with 24 points (82% TS), 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 30 minutes — +20.9 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 9/10
There was a moment in the first quarter where he was switched onto Harrison Barnes on the left block and Barnes pretzeled him with a post move and drew two free throws. The very next possession, Edwards waved off a switch with Taurean Prince and Barnes tried to bundle him up on the block again, but this time Edwards walled him up and forced a turnover. That’s who he is. There are mistakes, there are miscues and the occasional false start, but he’s a fucking killer and killers find a way to tear apart their prey.
That mentality sheathed the whole night. There were sloppy turnovers, but he insulated them by consistently and precisely picking apart Sacramento’s aggressive pick-and-roll coverage with skip passes and drive-and-kick dimes. There was some poor shot selection littered throughout the evening, but it was dampened by a flurry of hulking drives and contortionist finishes.
And there were some shaky moments in the clutch — as there have been all season long — but then he swoops in for a hoop-and-harm drive with a minute left and seals the game with a mid-range switchblade to the Kings’ jugular. That’s who he is.
Finished with 27 points (57.4% TS), 4 rebounds and 8 assists in 36 minutes — -12.1 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 10/10
It feels like he broke out of his first cocoon a few months back and now he is busting his way out of another one. Fuck knows what kind of animal he is now. A gangly spider draped all over his victims, a screeching hawk digging his talons into every aspect of a basketball game. Some sort of shadowy underworld figure come to reap the lives of would-be scorers.
De’Aaron Fox got up to his usual tricks in the fourth quarter, but he was cozily buried under the limbs of McDaniels for the first three and a half quarters and had to pull rabbit after rabbit out of the hat late just to find the nylon. And when you see McDaniels launching into passing lanes like a ravenous banshee and swatting Domantas Sabonis shots at the rim then you understand that no defender in the land betters him.
He also just does heaps of shit offensively. Loads of it. Attacks off the catch are becoming more fluent, frequent and feisty. The 3-ball continues to fall from all areas of the floor. And it’s worth mentioning how underrated his ability to make plays for others on the move has become. Just another night of unadulterated brilliance.
Finished with 19 points (86.4% TS), 4 rebounds and 2 assists in 34 minutes — +7.1 net rating.
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