And the roller coaster continues.
Peaks and valleys, loops and spins, false starts and failed finishes. The previous two Minnesota Timberwolves outings weren’t exactly the most beautiful version of basketball, but they were growth spurts in a season that started knee-high to a grasshopper. Now, after another low-energy, chemistry-absent evening, it feels like they’ve shrunk again.
The game ends 107-98. A game with enough ailments that it would take an entire fleet of medical professionals to diagnose. Put simply, the Wolves waltzed into San Antonio’s den and got chased out with their tail between their legs.
It started with … well … the start. The Wolves were slow, disorganized and sloppy offensively, and that allowed the injury and illness-ridden Spurs to gain a foothold in the game. From that foothold, they moved those feet onto the throat of the Wolves, pulling away to a double-digit lead at halftime. It was poor shot selection, horrific shot-making, and even worse player movement on offense. However, it also was led-footed screen navigation and another defensive rebounding disasterclass on the other end.
As sure as the sun and the moon and the stars appearing in the sky above, the Wolves let their stinky start rot further in the third period. More of the same. More lethargy. More isolation islands. More bad basketball. Eventually, they did fight the spark that ignited them with a blended bench lineup to close the quarter and open the final term, but the hole always felt a little too deep to climb out of. They withered away in the final minutes as San Antonio bloomed.
And the roller coaster continues.
D’Angelo Russell: 2/10
Stringing together a big bunch of really shit performances. He isn’t the only one struggling, but right now he is taking a sledgehammer to the knees of his team before they even start the fight.
He lives with a big red target on his chest. Finger food for any offense looking to do … anything they want. Just a walking fucking turnstile on the defensive end. The problem is that his lethargy and snail’s pace decision-making is hurting them just as intensely on the other end — especially on the nights when he is intent on lofting bad shot after bad shot. Whether it’s a plodding pick-and-roll that chews up the bulk of the shot clock, a heavy-legged open triple that slaps off the rim, or a numbskulled turnover, it’s all been bad for him of late.
Finished with 10 points (29.4% TS), 5 rebounds and 4 assists in 28 minutes — +3.3 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 5/10
These nights are always the ones that leave you scratching your head. A stinker, a nothing evening, a burst, a demigod. All combined into one 48-minute showing. We know he can turn on the jets and scorch any defense into a pile of fucking ashes — he does exactly that in parts of the third and fourth quarter — but when he enters the halftime break with a big fat goose egg in the scoring column, he still leaves something hefty to be desired.
It’s important to remember how hard it is for young players to find that every-night superhero mode, but the current iteration of the Timberwolves kind of needs it.
Finished with 18 points (46.6% TS), 2 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals in 36 minutes — -7.1 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 2/10
Much like the Wolves as a whole, his season is in roller coaster mode. Sometimes roller coasters are fun and exciting, but other times they make you fucking ill. This game was a vomit bag. Sure, there are always going to be moments when he sneaks up behind a would-be scorer and holds a pillow over their face, but tonight’s smothering was broken up with too many late rotations and poor screen navigating efforts.
When his defense isn’t really firing on all of the red-hot cylinders we’ve come to expect, you can usually rely on his offense sputtering as well. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Like a bee and a fucking flower. In this game, there was no pollen and there was no honey.
Finished with 7 points (44.4% TS), 3 rebounds and 3 steals in 35 minutes — -9.4 net rating.
Karl-Anthony Towns: 6/10
Started the game like he finished the last time he was in San Antonio. A hurricane of points. Made lunch meat of any fucker dumb enough to stand in his path. Looked on track for another 60 big ones, or at least something in the ballpark.
It didn’t come to fruition. It didn’t even come close. In the end, he was a bit-part player at most after quarter time. He never found his aggressive stride again, nobody ever looked to feed the hungry beast, and he was worked like a farm dog on defense. As a result, the Wolves were blasted while he was on the court.
Finished with 26 points (57.7% TS), 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks in 38 minutes — -31.0 net rating.
Rudy Gobert: 3/10
He’s the Stifle Tower, but there are games where he very much falls victim to the stifling. Games where he just can’t do the things that make him great. Games where he is reduced to a big bumbling brute whose size is more hindrance than help. This was one of those nights.
He was routinely stuffed in a locker by the Spurs’ scorers. Which is hard to do because he is built like a fucking skyscraper. His hands looked like he’d been fist-fucking a vat of baby oil the way balls were slipping out of them all night long. And he couldn’t finish his dinner around the rim at all. The Wolves as a whole have to find a way to combat these nights from him.
Finished with 9 points (36.5% TS), 12 rebounds and 2 blocks in 27 minutes — -16.0 net rating.
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