Grizzlies 116, Timberwolves 110: “A Horrendous Night Offensively”

It’s been a weird season so far for the Minnesota Timberwolves. They’ve played so few good and healthy teams, and that continued Wednesday night when they took on the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Wolves were without Anthony Edwards (Right Foot Injury Maintenance) and Mike Conley (Right Achilles Tendinopathy) for the third straight game. Ant’s injury is still not considered serious, and he has a good chance to play in Minnesota’s next game on Friday.

Even without their best player, though, the Wolves were still the far healthier team as the Grizzlies did not have Ja Morant, Zach Edey, Ty Jerome, Cam Spencer, GG Jackson, John Konchar, Scotty Pippen Jr., and Javon Small available to them. The Grizzlies have played well without their star point guard as they are 7-5 in games without Morant, while only 5-9 with him on the court.

The first half played out as many have for the Wolves. The offense was playing well, they were making shots at a solid rate, and they had assists on 19 of their 25 made shots. The ball movement and decision-makers were on point, something that has been consistent in this stretch without Edwards.

Their defense, though, prevented them from taking the lead as the Grizzlies scored 36 points in the paint in the first half, and the Wolves found themselves up just one point at halftime.

Coming out of halftime, the Wolves went on a run to start the third quarter as they have so often in recent games. Minnesota opened the second half on a 14-6 run with Jaden McDaniels providing the exclamation point as the Wolves took their largest lead of the game at nine points.

That is where the game took a downward turn for Minnesota. The Grizzlies responded with a 14-0 run with the Wolves going without a point for over four minutes as they missed seven straight shots, a pair of free throws, and turned the ball over twice.

The Wolves were never able to regain control of the game from there, as their offense had their worst half of the season in the second half. Minnesota went on to make just seven of its next 37 shot attempts from the field, including just one 3-point make on 18 tries. The ball movement from the first half had completely dried up as they had just eight second-half assists.

After the game, Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch described the game as “A Horrendous Night Offensively.” Finch continued saying, “From shot selection to turnovers to execution, it was just not very good,” as he got straight to the point on where he felt the game went wrong.

As a team, the Wolves struggled to knock down shots from all areas of the court as they shot below 40 percent from the floor (39-98), below 30 percent from beyond the arc (13-44), and just over 70 percent from the free throw line (19-27).

Donte DiVicenzo attempted to summarize what went wrong on the night.

“We needed to play with quicker decisions on kick-outs, second drives, collapse them more than one time. I think we did it through parts of the game, but we have to do it the whole game.”

Even with the abysmal offense, the Wolves were still within a single possession late in the game until a flurry of 3-pointers from Jock Landale cemented the win for the Grizzlies. Landale knocked down four 3-pointers in the second half, including three in the fourth quarter, as the Wolves were unable to guard Memphis’ pick-and-pop offense.

The Wolves would go on to lose by a final score of 116-110. Julius Randle had a tough night against Jaren Jackson Jr, as he scored an inefficient 21 points on 9-21 shooting, as Jackson Jr. himself put up 28 points on 10-18 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds as he led the Grizzlies in both categories.

Randle took responsibility for his role in the loss and the lack of ball movement throughout the second half.

“I think a big thing for me is next-action basketball. Just getting into our actions and stuff like that. I felt like there wasn’t as much movement on my part, on everybody’s part. I gotta be better, and I will be.”

While the Wolves’ poor shooting could have been a convenient excuse for the loss, none of the Wolves players or their coach used that as a reason for their lack of offense in this game. They all took accountability for the loss, mentioning areas they themselves needed to do better.

In the last two games, both without Edwards, the Timberwolves’ ball movement was on point as they grabbed a pair of victories. Tonight, in their third game without Ant, that ball movement dried up as the Wolves showed their limitations as a team without their best player.

Up Next

It will be a step-up in weight class for the Timberwolves as they take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are coming off just their second loss of the season in the NBA Cup Semifinals. The Thunder will be on the second night of a back-to-back as they play the Los Angeles Clippers at home on Friday.

The game on Friday, December 19, will be nationally televised on Amazon Prime. Tip-off is at 8:30 PM CT.

Highlights

Grizzlies 116, Timberwolves 110: “A Horrendous Night Offensively”

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