On the 8th anniversary of Derrick Rose’s 50 point game, your Minnesota Timberwolves fell victim to a Halloween monster performance by alien Victor Wembanyama, losing to the San Antonio Spurs by a score of 121-111.
With this being a second night of a set of back-to-back games and playing without Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert (back spasms), many fans may have expected tonight’s result.
What they may not have expected, however, was the amount of fight the Wolves had in them even if it was not enough
for the victory.
Encouraging Signs from Joan Beringer
A performance I really want to highlight was that of Joan Beringer. Starting tonight in place of Rudy Gobert, Joan poured in 12 points, grabbed six rebounds, and committed five fouls in 34 minutes of play.
On paper, his French counterpart completely eviscerated him, with Wemby scoring an otherworldly 43 points on 17-34 shooting.
Looks like Wemby dominated him, right? It did feel like that at times, because Victor is such a freak. Every time Wemby came at Joan with something ridiculous, Joan just kept battling.
It was amazing growth to see, because at age-34 Rudy Gobert is going to miss games. Joan Beringer needs to be effective in those games, and although the stats didn’t show it tonight, he was able to hold his own.
Ayo Continues His Steady Play
Ayo Dosunmu continues to fill in admirably in the absence of Anthony Edwards, scoring 27 points on 11-15 shooting, splashing two threes, and even grabbing nine boards.
These types of performances are exactly why he was paid all that money to come back.
His speed in the open floor is outrageous, his willingness to defend, and his overall tenacity is exactly what this team will need come playoff time, but they need it even more now that Ant remains sidelined.
Tough Night for ‘Melo
Unfortunately, LaMelo Ball had a rough night. He had just 10 points, 2/10 shooting overall, and didn’t make a three. He spent much of the game on the bench due to foul trouble, and even fouled out at the end of the game when the Wolves were attempting to make a final push at victory.
It’s becoming a pattern now where LaMelo puts himself in these disadvantageous situations and it’s not something the Wolves can afford, especially on a back-to-back in San Antonio. He looks sped up, can’t find any rhythm with his shot, and is playing with his hands too much on the defensive end.
You maybe can get away with a performance like this against the NBA’s cellar dwellers, but not against the reigning Western Conference champions.
Moving forward, I would like to see LaMelo get himself going by attacking the paint and maybe getting to the free throw line or making easy dump offs for his teammates. Finding a rhythm isn’t just about making shots, it’s about finding your place in an offense on game in,, game out basis. The shots will start falling, just not if you force the issue too much.
Jonathan Kuminga Making Plays
Among the positives, Jonathan Kuminga I thought had a really nice game. He logged 40 minutes, which was good to see after only 22 last night, scoring 19 points, hitting two threes, and really helping defend the powerhouse San Antonio guards on the perimeter. Performances like these are why people keep falling in love with this man’s game. It wasn’t totally flashy, either, save for this dunk on Victor Wembanyama:
For some reason, I feel like we’re on borrowed time with Kuminga. It’s his reputation, based on his last two stops. Chris Finch is really good at defining roles for his players, and if this is the Jonathan Kuminga we’re going to see more often than not then I’m all for it.
Lackluster Bench Night
Bench wise, there wasn’t really a ton of note that happened tonight. The presumed sixth and seventh men were starting tonight, so Finch only went nine deep.
Outside of some Jaylen Clark made threes, there wasn’t a ton of production. TJ Shannon had a game he’d like to forget, making only one field goal and failing to draw iron on a couple threes. Trey Lyles made some nice plays, but also looked lost at times.
I was a little shocked that we didn’t see Cody Williams tonight. Without a true center coming off the bench, he’s someone with some size that I thought he could go throw his body around and battle among the tree that is Wemby.
Another head scratcher was the lack of Bones Hyland out there. With LaMelo down in foul trouble early, he came into the game and got six pretty quick points, but wasn’t really effective in his second stint and we didn’t really see him again. That could be a product of Ayo having a nice night, but it seemed as if he could’ve helped settle the offense down and there were times tonight where that was sorely needed.
Uneven Officiating
One last quick thing before we flush this one and move on to the next game: The way this team gets officiated is mind-boggling at times. I’m not saying that the majority of the fouls that were called on Minnesota tonight were bad calls, but a lot of the touchy calls that they get called on them don’t seem to go the other way when they happen to the Timberwolves.
Case in point, there was a sequence when Joan Beringer made an effort play on Victor Wembanyama to get a putback and keep the game tight and got a foul for going over the back of Wembanyama.
It’s totally fine if that’s the level of contact the officials want to whistle for. The ensuing possession down the floor, Wemby gets quite physical with Beringer in order to make himself available down low (a level of physicality you wouldn’t know Wemby had if you watched him drive to the hoop, just saying) and there was nothing called as Wemby almost put Joan in the rim. Add that on to the lack of calls Anthony Edwards gets going to the hole, and it creates a discrepancy that the Wolves should take issue with.
Final Thoughts
All in all, there were plenty of positives to take away from tonight’s game in San Antonio. The Timberwolves fought valiantly to keep themselves in the game, but just couldn’t quite get over the hump.
Up Next
Your Minnesota Timberwolves are back in action on Monday, November 2nd, when they play host to the Milwaukee Bucks at 7pm Central. That game will be streaming on DAZN for in-market fans, and on NBA League Pass for out-of-market fans.
