What fun is pretty basketball?
Sometimes there is nothing wrong with doing it a little dirty. Getting those knees scraped and finding a little dirt under those fingernails. Nothing about the Minnesota Timberwolves’ early-season chemistry crusade has been pretty and, certainly, nothing about the Los Angeles Lakers’ early-season cacophony of chaos has been pretty. As a result, this one had to be done the hard way. The ugly and gritty and muddy way. And, sometimes, there’s nothing wrong with doing it a little dirty.
The game ends 111-102. A game that was uncomfortably close yet always felt slightly beyond the reach of the forlorn Lakers. Minnesota had its usual struggles with shot selection, turnovers, and just general clunkiness, but they also had their usual troop of talent doing what talent does — win games. And, despite some of that offensive bumbling, the Wolves were hard-nosed and much more disciplined defensively. As ugly games require, they scratched and clawed and kept a plucky-at-times Lakers team at arm’s reach.
Really, there is only one thing that matters. The Los Angeles rolled into Target Center with their stolen Minneapolis jerseys, but they rolled out winless.
D’Angelo Russell: 4/10
Started out the game with a flurry of shots and, mostly, a flurry of misses. Some of it was his teammates being frozen to the hardwood offensively and some of it was him just being a player who just likes to take a lot of shots. He also spent most of the first half just dawdling around like a slug in a bowl of fucking porridge defensively. Just strolling through treacle. Sliding around aimlessly while the Lakers strolled past him gleefully.
In the end, the game moved past the need for him, and he was relegated to the best seat in the house, watching the rest of the starters put on an offensive clinic. He had some moments — and he was eager to shovel up any loose passes or dropped balls by Los Angeles’ band of basketball braindeads — but he never really took center stage.
Finished with 11 points (34.6% TS), 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 steals in 31 minutes — +19.5 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 9/10
It always just seems around the corner for him. He was good-not-great in the first period and he went shot-less in the second quarter while Russell was busy jacking, but you always feel like it’s just around the corner. Like a bubbling volcano ready to cover the entire fucking world in scolding lava at a moment’s notice.
And then there it was. He puts the blinders on and he spends the third period just doing what he does. Fucking shit up. Raining jumpers and rim-forays and smiles and one of the greatest blocks that never counted. It wasn’t one of the nights where he can instigate a ball-hopping offense on his lonesome, it was just straight buckets and straight demoralization. Good luck hanging around with the Wolves when he is on one like that.
It’s always around the corner.
Finished with 29 points (58.8% TS), 4 rebounds and 2 assists in 38 minutes — +5.6 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 9/10
We need to get to the bottom of those weird fuckers in zebra colors and their hatred for Minnesota’s gangly defensive demon. Is it that they’ve never seen such limbs? Do they blow their whistle in fear of said limbs encompassing the entire earth and smothering us all? Maybe they just blow the whistle whenever LeBron James’ scraggly hairline flops to the hardwood? Whatever the case, their beef with McDaniels resumed in this one. The chief victim to a handful of the phantom fouls the officials were doling out (one-sidedly) all night long.
That shouldn’t discount what he was doing in between those whistle-squeals. He didn’t have his offensive flow dancing and dazzling, but he was absolutely fucking everywhere defensively. One minute he was shadowing LeBron and forcing The King into bad shots, the next he was singlehandedly shutting down fast breaks, he’d even pop up in a weakside rotation to swallow up a shot like a big hungry giraffe. He was just everywhere and anywhere and everything and anything.
It feels like two-way stardom is a mere stone’s throw away.
Finished with 6 points (42.9% TS), 2 assists and 4 blocks in 29 minutes — +27.4 net rating.
Karl-Anthony Towns: 9/10
Like many, he strode through a tale of two halves. The opening stanza included a few too many defensive mishaps and an offensive game that never really found a revving engine. He just couldn’t quite handle the attack Los Angeles were deploying on the rim and couldn’t quite locate the seams in which to split with the ball in his hands.
The second half was more important, though. The second half was laced with sugar, spice and everything fucking awesome. A real take the game by the fucking throat kind of night. A chokeslam that bitch into dust evening. The defense improved, sure, but he started really buttering his bread with the ball in his oversized mitts over the final 24 minutes. And it all came to a wondrous head when he poured in 14 fourth-quarter points to seal his wax on the game.
Whether it was slinging those newly trademarked dimes to his Northern Heights companion or finding comfortability as a scorer at all three levels, his second half exuded calmness, execution, and a big steaming pile of talent. This Karl-Anthony Towns, the patient and precise one, is a genuine superstar.
Finished with 21 points (75% TS), 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals in 38 minutes — +6.0 net rating.
Rudy Gobert: 10/10
The big fucking janitor. Brings his mop and his bucket to every outing and just cleans shit up. Missed shots and defensive mistakes are enough to sink most teams, but he lives for that stuff. He thrives in those areas. The big fucking lighthouse. Bathing the Wolves in a golden glow and showing them the way. It’s genuinely hard to outrebound a lighthouse. They’re fucking enormous. The big fucking Stifle Tower. Blocks shots, alters shots, destroys shots, axe-murders shots. Not one of Los Angeles’ motley crew of mold wanted to challenge him, and that just led to more clanked triples and more rebounds to gobble up.
Maybe he went a little unnoticed amongst the Towns and Edwards fireworks, but this was such a stellar performance.
Finished with 22 points (67.6% TS), 22 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks in 35 minutes — +10.9 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.