It feels like this Minnesota Timberwolves team has survived more backbreakers than should be possible. Every time there is some wind gusting into their sails, they fall overboard and another vertebra cracks. It comes in collapses against bad teams or it comes in fourth-quarter heartaches. It comes when you least expect it and it comes when it feels wholly inevitable. They keep finding their feet again, though, they keep hoisting themselves back onto the deck in an attempt to navigate these forever choppy waters, but the next backbreaker always feels right around the corner and it always feels like it’s going to be hard to recover from.
The game ends 124-123. And another part of this team’s spine pops. Lumping this one into the bad losses against bad teams pile feels unjust to the spry and talented Brooklyn Nets, but watching another chance to move up the standings pass by in a last-second situation stings just as much as any other notch in the loss column.
It stings because it never really should have devolved to that point, either. Like many other failures this season, it started with a bang and a sizzle. Minnesota were moving ball and body offensively for the entirety of the first half and could consider themselves unlucky not to be leading by a hefty margin after the first 24 minutes. It was insane shot-making and a bunch of unfriendly home rims that stifled their chances to run away with this one.
Then the capitulation happened. It always feels like there is one lurking beyond the next corner with this team. Minnesota were firmly and unsurprisingly shanked in the throat on the final possession by a crew of officials who forgot what their whistle does, but the third quarter meltdown was just as big a part of their demise. Instead of pushing on with their well-deserved eight-point halftime lead, they lose their heads completely to the tune of a 37-to-20 quarter that stunk of confusion and a lack of adjustments.
But they climb back on their ship. They hurl themselves back into the game. They scrap and they fight and they bask in Naz Reid’s Hail Mary jumper to send it into overtime. They roll into the free period with the momentum and the juice and they leave with a sour taste, a pair of uncalled blunders, and a record that has slipped back to .500.
The only thing left to do now is push through another broken back.
Mike Conley: 5/10
It’s impossible not to compare him with D’Angelo Russell considering the trade deadline goings on, but they’re really polar opposites and no game proved that more than this one. Chalk and cheese. Oil and fucking water.
On one hand, if Conley had Russell’s shot-making ability the Wolves probably would have won this game. Forget about the final shot where he was stampeded by Spencer Dinwiddie and his band of zebra fuckfaces, Conley missed too many floaters and clean looks from beyond the arc.
On the other, If the Wolves didn’t have Conley’s defensive tenacity and thirst for loose balls and contested rebounds, they would never have been in with a shot. He was the savior of many a possession that would have slipped by the wayside with his lazy predecessor.
They need more from him as a scorer. Much more. But it’s refreshing to see his intangible goodness out there, too.
Finished with 11 points (36.2% TS), 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals in 41 minutes — +4.5 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 8/10
Rode the wave of youthful superstardom all night long. Surfed the fucking thing like a big power-cube version of Kelly Slater. A scoring bloom in the first quarter — against rangy defensive savants like Mikal Bridges, Royce O’Neale and Dorian Finney-Smith — set an early tone and he dragged that into the second quarter as well. Then, he led the charge in his team’s third-quarter collapse with a big fucking goose egg in the scoring column and a distinct lack of energy throughout the entire period.
And, just when he seemed destined to fade into the abyss of the night, he did a bunch of shit as the time on the regulation and overtime clock ticked away. Made a ton of nutty layups, knocked down a pull-up trey, bricked the living shit out of a pull-up trey, blocked every unlucky fucker who tried him at the rim, and fell asleep on off-ball assignments that were punished in game-tying shots.
The wave crested and fell continuously throughout the night, and without a true scorer alongside him to relieve some pressure he was forced to both sink and swim.
Finished with 32 points (55.9% TS), 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks in 44 minutes — -6.9 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 7/10
Like Edwards, he did a lot. Some of it awesome and some of it awful. He didn’t knock down any long-range jumpers to help his team climb out of their shooting woes, but he was effective and productive inside the arc on the still-not-often-enough occasions when he found his aggressive streak. He made some sweet pick-and-roll passes and off-the-catch dimes, clanked a quartet of free throws, and oscillated between fearsome and food defensively.
Just another fucking contradiction. Plonked in the middle of a team who contradicts itself for fun.
Finished with 15 points (57.3% TS), 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 36 minutes — +11.9 net rating.
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