Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!
Despite the game being their fourth in five nights, the Minnesota Timberwolves took down the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night. It was their third straight victory after losing their previous five games, including an awful night at Target Center last Sunday.
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Before the game, the Timberwolves came out in shirts that read “Stand with Minnesota” and released a statement extending their sympathies and love for the Minnesota community.
The Wolves won the game wire-to-wire, with Anthony Edwards opening the scoring with a 3-pointer. Minnesota went up by as many as 18 points in the first half and 21 in the second half as they cruised to their 30th win of the season.
The Timberwolves shot the lights out all game, making 22 shots from beyond the arc, doubling OKC’s total, including 4-10 from Anthony Edwards, 4-8 from Naz Reid, 3-6 from Bones Hyland, and 5-5 from Jaden McDaniels.
The Wolves’ defense was also on point right from the jump, holding Oklahoma City to just six points through the first six minutes of the game. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 30 points on 12-18 shooting, which felt like a pedestrian night for the MVP frontrunner.
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It was an all-around scoring effort for the Wolves as all eight rotation players scored at least seven points, with six scoring in double-figures. Edwards put up 26 points, five rebounds, five assists, two steals, and one block. While the numbers may not be eye-catching, Edwards did a fantastic job dealing with the OKC ball pressure as they sent two to the ball on almost every ball screen.
“Just taking what they give me,” Edwards said after the game. “Take my shots and if they given me to pull up three. Take it. They giving me the midrange taken. And I think mainly, like I said, just trusting my teammates, because that’s what they gonna make you do. I get by Dort or get by Wallace, two, three guys gonna come over to the rim. So just being able to make that play and making it over and over, finding Rudy, finding Donte in the corner, just like I said, trusting my teammates.”
McDaniels finished with 21 points, four rebounds, four assists, and two blocks. Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch had high praise for the Jaden postgame, “Just outstanding. Both sides of the ball. Shot making was elite. Decision making was really good. His defense was awesome. I thought he made Shai work for everything. Discipline in the fouling. Rebounded pretty well too.”
“The intensity to start the game.” McDaniels himself said about the key to the game defensively. “Just making the right reads on defense, having pressure, really just starting the game off well with the right defensive mindset and they see that’s why we get certain leads and been able to hold them for the whole game.”
Usually, a win against the defending champions would come as at least a little bit of a surprise, but not for the Wolves. It has become a pattern with this team over the years, just when you think they are primed to rip off a bunch of wins in a row, they stumble, and just when it seems like all hope is lost, they play their best basketball of the season. It’s the perfect lesson of never too high, never too low.
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“Yeah, sometimes you beat yourself sometimes,” Reid said when asked about the Wolves being their own worst enemy. “It’s a long season, you’re going to have boneheaded mistakes or plays that just leads to losses that you should’ve won. Everybody goes through it. It’s how you respond that matters most.”
It’s the Timberwolves’ best and worst quality. They respond to adversity and losing streaks well, never falling down for too long, but they also let their effort wax and wane after a good stretch of play.
The key now and for the rest of the season is to find some sort of consistency from night to night.
Up Next
The Timberwolves head out on a three-game road trip, the first two of which are against the Memphis Grizzlies. The first game on Saturday begins at 7:00 PM CT, airing on FanDuel Sports Network. The second game on Monday starts at 6:30 PM CT on Peacock.
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After the pair of games in Memphis, the Timberwolves head across the border to face the Toronto Raptors, where the Wolves have not won since January 21, 2004.
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