Ayo Dosunmu was not the primary reason why the Minnesota Timberwolves improbably throttled the Boston Celtics in a nationally televised road game Sunday night for their first win at TD Garden in 21 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beset with a bum shoulder and sprained ankle that kept him out the previous two games, Naz Reid knocked the rust off his shooting stroke with six clanks in seven attempts through two-and-a-half quarters, then blitzed the Celtics for 11 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in a second half where the Wolves held a 26-point advantage in the 16:48 he was on the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bones Hyland continued to scorch the twine from beyond the arc and beneath the rim as an invaluable bench sub during the four-game absence of superstar Anthony Edwards, as he poured in a team-high 23 points with his court jester\u2019s delightful sense of mischief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jaden McDaniels hit buckets and bodied up the Celtics cadre of talented wings with the kind of nasty attitude that feels like it should leave a sulfurous smell. Kyle \u201cSlo Mo\u201d Anderson moseyed his octopi\u2019s appendages into creative crevices of the game in his inimitable manner, playing good Samaritan to his teammates and bad cop to his foes. And even Jaylen Clark was freed from sending postcards from purgatory as the tenth man in an eight-man rotation and got back to invading his opponents\u2019 personal space on defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the influence of Ayo has been delicately but persistently pervasive on this team since Wolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly somehow shanghaied the Chicago Bulls into forking him over in exchange for a bundle of bit parts at the trading deadline six weeks ago. The six-foot, five-inch combo guard has been quick, perceptive, decisive, confident, versatile, generous of spirit, and, perhaps best of all, contagious.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Related: Unfortunate blip or sobering reality check? What to make of Timberwolves\u2019 latest sorry stretch of basketball<\/a><\/p>\n It is accurate to call Ayo, who plays with an alacrity that keeps his trademark Yoruban braids bobbing off his shoulders, a tone-setter. It is more accurate to call him a tone-re-setter, a tone repairman. For a Wolves team that frequently forgets how much it can thrive with a faster pace that yields a more instinctual deliberation sans self-consciousness, his performance is an unceasing reminder, a handy template for corrective reference.\u00a0<\/p>\n After the Celtics undid a first-half\u2019s worth of the Wolves\u2019 noble grit with an 11-0 run to start the third quarter, Ayo started fiddling with the knobs of teamwork.\u00a0<\/p>\n He took a casual pass from Julius Randle after Randle\u2019s defensive rebound and sped down the court in four seconds, splitting two Celtics defenders and a converging third for an easy layup<\/a>.<\/p>\n He chased down a loose ball for a rebound and had a pull-up three-pointer unleashed \u2013 it clanked the front iron \u2013 in five seconds. When Donte DiVincenzo used a Rudy Gobert screen to drive the baseline and draw defenders to him beneath the hoop, Dosunmu cut straight down the paint as DiVincenzo was exiting, receiving the pass for an easy layup. (Catch the color commentator noting that \u201cDosunmu plays the right way\u201d at the end of the clip<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Within the next two minutes, Bones would sub in for DiVincenzo and Naz replaced Randle, giving Ayo a pair of fellow speed merchants to leverage now that his own movement was on the Celts\u2019 radar. But he used the outside shooting threat of Bones and Naz to space the floor, attacked the paint off the dribble and began dishing dimes to Gobert and McDaniels, like this one<\/a>, and this one<\/a> on back-to-back possessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n When he sat for the first time in the second half with 4:14 remaining in the third quarter, the Wolves early struggles left him with his team minus-7 during that rotation. But he had dissolved those early doldrums with a whirlpool of playmaking, including five points, four rebounds and rugged defense. As he sat, his three remaining teammates were ready to sustain the thrust with the incoming Clark and Slo Mo.<\/p>\n When it was over, Ayo had stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, 8 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and a steal, the Wolves a plus-8 in his 32:11 on the court. In the four games since Ant was sidelined with inflammation in his right knee, Ayo has been the bridge between the starters and the bench, elevating both with his energy and example. The Wolves have allowed the NBA\u2019s fewest points per possession in those four games, winning three, and Ayo\u2019s play with Naz, Bones and Slo Mo has been the unlikely crux of that success.\u00a0<\/p>\n I had hoped to speak with Ayo during the Wolves shootaround practice before the game in Boston on Sunday, but a national reporter from Peacock took prominence on that front, so I sought out the ever clever and insightful lead assistant coach Micah Nori.\u00a0<\/p>\n Asked how much Ayo has fulfilled the coaching staff\u2019s early expectations for him, Nori referenced the hold left by the departure of Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who signed a lucrative free agent deal with Atlanta during the offseason. He ticked off the variety of benefits NAW provided \u2013 strong fiber on defense, an ability to both slash to the basket and hit a three-pointer, the ability to flex between the duties of a point guard and a shooting guard \u2013 and noted that the initial plan of \u201ctrying to replace Nickeil by committee\u201d hadn\u2019t worked. Ayo, he concluded, \u201cbasically has given us the components we were missing in one player.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Plus pace. When I mentioned that I\u2019d never seen a Timberwolves player fly faster down the floor than Ayo, he nodded. \u201cOne-hundred percent. What you see there, he\u2019ll go get the rebound and push; but he also gets the high outlet (pass) and he\u2019s gone; he\u2019s waiting for no one.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of time (after a rebound), we\u2019ll throw the ball over to Ant, or find Julius, and it kind of slows us down. But he\u2019s in that mode where he knows 3-on-2 is better than 5-on-5, as is 4-on-3 and obviously, best, 2-on-1. So when he sees (the potential for) that advantage, he has extreme confidence, is super quick and can finish. That\u2019s great; any time we can get out and have opportunities for easy baskets in transition it is a win for us. And, to your point, he does it as well as anybody we\u2019ve had.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The extreme confidence Nori cites is the way Ayo is most different from NAW, who sparred with uncertainty and occasionally got nervous about the challenges he set for himself even as he steadily flourished under coach Chris Finch. (Finch, who had NAW his rookie season in New Orleans, specifically asked that NAW be included in the trade that brought him here along with Mike Conley.)\u00a0<\/p>\n After the Wolves lone loss (thus far) during Ant\u2019s recent injury absence, at home against Portland last week, Ayo was asked about how his teammates were acclimating to his pushing the pace and acclimating with his teammates and how his insertion into the starting lineup changes his approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the pace has definitely increased because guys are familiar with playing around me in terms of understanding that when I get it, I\u2019m going to run; not necessarily for me to score, but to kick it ahead and allow other people to create and to stay in the flow of the offense, so down the stretch they have confidence in it and their ability at least to finish,\u201d he replied. \u201cSo definitely I have noticed that.\u201d<\/p>\n As for doing more with Ant out, he answered, \u201cJust going out there and doing whatever the team needs. I think pretty much my whole basketball career that\u2019s how I have always played, from high school to (the University of) Illinois. Just being able to do a little bit of everything, whether it is scoring, rebounding, assisting, defending. That\u2019s what I always took pride in, so of course when Ant went out I had more opportunity to be on the ball and showcase my playmaking; showcase a little bit more than I would have if he was here. But for the most part I just go out there and play the right way each and every game.\u201d<\/p>\n In the locker room after the win over the Celtics in Boston, the frank confidence also came through when I asked if he had patterned his game after any player while growing up.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNobody really, because I changed. When I was younger, I was slim. I played (against kids) like, two grades older, so I had to use my quickness and shooting ability. Then I got older and stronger so I had to change as my body changed. I started to become a big guard that can finish and play both ends of the court,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n It sounded like he enjoyed the idea of no role models, just making it up as he went along, I said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor sure; that was just basketball,\u201d he said, licking at his lower lip that had started to bleed a little bit after being hit during the game. \u201cLike, when I was growing up I never watched any cartoons or the Disney channel; I watched ESPN. I had a basketball court in the backyard, so I would watch the games and then go to the backyard and try different moves. Then take it to the playground.\u201d<\/p>\n So his ability to go full speed and still lay the ball in with finesse has to be a playground thing, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s, I\u2019m not going to lie, that\u2019s just God. I just be trying to step up and that\u2019s how I play basketball,\u201d Ayo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n