While the basketball world audibly awed at Victor Wembanyama, they rightfully snored on the preseason sludge that was the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Lakers. Even with Rudy Gobert making his unofficial Wolves debut and the bright lights of Vegas beaming in the distance, this one was a classic exhibition game snoozefest. Barely a tickle on the awakening hoops palette, a mere trickle of the waters we expect to start surfing in a few week’s time.
Still, it was a basketball game, and the Timberwolves did win it. Even against a Lakers squad missing almost all of its key components, the Wolves — a team who itself is trying to gel before the regular season kicks off — will take confidence in system and squad after every win.
The game ends 114-99. The hodgepodge Lakers started the game with the usual verve of an underdog challenger, but they quickly drifted away as the Wolves settled into their brand of bulldog defensive aggressiveness, combining it with a quickfire offense that wore down the overawed Lakers defense. But, really, they stole our name and our fucking banners, they deserve this.
*Garbage time minutes/players excluded from Ratings*
D’Angelo Russell: 6/10
Just cruised through the night. Never seemed like he was going to stamp his foot on the game but, simultaneously, never seemed like he was going to be bothered by the dross that defended him. In the end, it was just a toned-down performance of what we’ve come to expect from our polarizing point man.
The one thing that stood out as a differentiator — and the one thing we all came to see — was the way his laid-back game intertwined with Rudy Gobert’s big fucking smashmouth one. It started clumsily, with the pair looking like two players keen to link up but understandably inhabiting different wavelengths, but it grew as their minutes grew. Surprisingly, Russell wasn’t throwing lobs for points, he was doling out look-offs and fake passes to earn himself a profit. If it works, it works.
Finished with 13 points (50.5% TS), 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 19 minutes — -2.5 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 6/10
Mellowed out in this one. You can’t be an earth-shattering, sky-scraping, shot-making fucking demigod every moment of every game — it’s only the preseason.
Instead, he poked and prodded at aggressiveness and treated his inferior opponents like the inferior opponents they were. He did show some willingness to get through screens defensively and execute the drop coverage defense alongside his big French rim-protector, but, again, it all seemed like it was done to the tune of a preseason beat. He is Poseidon and they are but a mere droplet, no need for anything more than first gear.
Finished with 13 points (50.5% TS), 6 rebounds and 2 assists in 23 minutes — +3.6 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 9/10
Reminded us quickly that he does have a tendency to foul like a fucking maniac. Within the first five minutes, the whistle’s screech had already banished him to the bench with three of those fuckers and the PTSD of last season was gushing over the fan base like a tsunami.
Then he reminded us why we’re willing to let those moments slide. He starts hounding defensively, blocking shots that ought not be blocked and gobbling up ball-handlers like a starved lion. He does that new thing he does where he puts the ball on the deck and good things happen, tangoing with Juan Toscano-Anderson and forcing business decisions to be made. He knocks down a contested catch-and-shoot trey. He even finished a lob-and-foul acting as the roll-man in pick-and-roll play.
Something fruity and funky and really special is brewing within this kid.
Finished with 8 points (53.8% TS) and 7 rebounds in 20 minutes — +30.4 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.