Perhaps moral victories can’t be a thing when the Minnesota Timberwolves are supposed to be winning a lot of games. Perhaps it’s hard to see the forest when those trees are so damn thick. This was a step in the right direction for Minnesota, but those steps are harder to keep track of against a team like the Milwaukee Bucks. A steamrolling juggernaut with Giannis Antetokounmpo at its vanguard. No team can rely on trending in the right direction vibes to pull out a victory against them, and that’s where the Wolves are right now.
The game ends 115-106. For all of the things that seemed better, namely Minnesota’s willingness to move the ball and a more consistent overall effort, the 3-point putridness and the raggedy results when the starting unit is playing as a group continue to act as an anchor weighing them down. They can’t trot out starters who aren’t meshing well and shoot 11-of-44 from deep and expect to walk away with wins on a nightly basis.
Those things, likely, are a result of variance and inexperience playing together, but the league moves fast and the Western Conference moves even faster. Right now, the Wolves are in danger of being left behind.
D’Angelo Russell: 1/10
Awful. A parade of errors and missed shots paired with consistently horrendous defense. Looks out of sorts and resigned to that fact. The Wolves are better when he doesn’t touch the ball and better still when he is off the floor. The need to shake things up seems like an understatement. Minnesota needs to hurricane things up.
Finished with 9 points (28.3% TS), 3 rebounds and 4 assists in 27 minutes — -33.6 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 7/10
Was lured into Jrue Holiday’s funhouse of fuckery far too often defensively. The wily guard spent a lot of the night running Edwards into screens and using his opponent’s inability to get through them as a springboard for points. Edwards needs to do better there. It’s still a point that needs nightly emphasizing.
Still, this was Edwards’ most team-based offensive night of the season. Not because he was out there slinging dimes around, but because he let the game come to him. Instead of pounding the air out of the rock, he spent more time slicing off screens and burying his way to the cup. Instead of yoking the ball back and forth, he spent more time going directly at his matchup and forcing the rim-protector to stop him. Less is more, and this felt like more.
Finished with 24 points (60.4% TS), 3 rebounds and 3 assists in 37 minutes — -20.0 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 3/10
Made some shots, which was a nice sea change, and he did defend reasonably well. But all that was punted to the wayside by his boneheaded mistakes. Real scratch your fucking head stuff. A bunch of meek passes that never looked likely to find a teammate and a couple of fouls that were clearly dealt in frustration. In the end, his leash was tightened by Chris Finch and he played just four second half minutes.
Finished with 9 points (90% TS) and 2 rebounds in 18 minutes — -40.6 net rating.
Karl-Anthony Towns: 8/10
Ended up fouling out because guarding Giannis Antetokounmpo is like trying to catch a fucking unicorn with mittens on. He actually did pretty well, walling up and moving his feet crisply, but unfortunately, that’s not always enough to stop the best player on the planet. It’s like pissing in the wind. It’s like pissing into a fucking tornado.
Between the forays with the Freak, he was back doing the things he does best. Scoring on the inside, scoring from the mid-range, scoring from outside (although he missed a few open triples — adding to Minnesota’s overall woes). He continues to be this team’s best source of self-created offense and this team’s best playmaker. He might even need to ramp it up even further.
Finished with 22 points (56.6% TS), 11 rebounds and 5 assists in 37 minutes — -21.8 net rating.
Rudy Gobert: 5/10
Without fail, he will control the glass, provide a wall in the paint on drives and set crushing screens. That’s what he does and even when he is struggling to intertwine with this team’s pieces, it’s important to remember how important those things are.
Still, the teething problems are there. This team needs blood-soaked fangs, but right now they have lifeless gums. He isn’t innocent in those issues either. He isn’t necessarily doing too much wrong, he is just an enormous piece of the puzzle that never seems to be in the right place at the right time. When he is rolling, his size is an advantage and an irreplicable force, but when he isn’t it’s an impediment and an eyesore.
Extra marks for shooting the worst fucking 3-point shot of all time. Truly, a moment of hilarity this dire season needed.
Finished with 7 points (85.8% TS) and 13 rebounds in 30 minutes — -18.3 net rating.
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.