Some nights, you play one of the worst teams in the league, and you play down to their level. Other nights, you take care of business. Most nights, if you’re the Minnesota Timberwolves, that second option seems near impossible, but with just a few games left to go in the season and a sixth-seed spot on the horizon, the Wolves did what they had to.
Somehow, even a 20-point blowout does not encompass the entirety of how boring and not close that game was. Let’s be transparent here, both teams have every
reason to hope for the exact outcome we got tonight, and the score was 102-77 before the final period. For Indiana, Taelon Peter was the only player with a positive on/off number. For Minnesota, only the five garbage-time players were in the negative.
To that end, the Wolves were led by Ayo Dosumnu (who could’ve guessed?), who had been injected into the three-guard starting lineup. The Fighting Illini product went for 24 points and three steals with a team best +22.
However, it truly was an all-around game from everyone. Julius Randle, for all his inefficiency problems, had 19 points. Bones Hyland had 19, 4, and 7 off the bench, while Naz Reid shot over 50% from three for the first time in what feels like ages en route to 17 points of his own.
There was a moment earlier this season where it felt like the team had turned around, largely through the graduation of Bones from end-of-the-bench reclamation project to real NBA contributor. With the injection of straight nitrous, which was the Ayo acquisition, it felt like everything was coming together. Instead, there was an Anthony Edwards injury that caused everything to spiral out.
Since then, it’s been a “sunken place” as described by Jon Krawczynski. It’s been pretty miserable, honestly. The Wolves have been 1-3 in their last four games since Ant got re-injured. That has led to a depressive episode from Wolves Twitter and a slide from a potential top-four finish to simply hanging on to a non-play-in spot.
Still, at this point, the Wolves only need to finish the season 1-2 or better or have the Phoenix Suns lose one or more of their last four games.
There are worse places to be than the sixth seed. As things stand, that would lead to yet another matchup with the Denver Nuggets. However, Denver is only half a game ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers. With the losses of Austin Reaves and Luka Dončić, the Lakers likely won’t catch up to the Nuggets, but whoever does will get a free pass to the second round.
For the Wolves, being able to control their own destiny in the seeding would probably have been better, and any team in the league would agree that you’d rather play against an ancient LeBron James than a prime Nikola Jokić, but there is a chance this could all work out.
Any of the middle four in the conference has its flaws. The Lakers are top-heavy and are now facing major injuries. The Nuggets have been unable to find any real consistency and have a 30 million dollar a year anchor by the name of Christian Braun. The Houston Rockets have a publicized mutiny and an imploding roster without any real ball handlers. The Timberwolves have well… they have a lot of problems.
The Wolves are relying on the playoff bump they’ve gotten the past two years to not just take them from good to great but from up and down to only up. That’s a lot to ask. The pair of stars leading the charge has been the subject of many think pieces, many of them about bad habits. The guard rotation, while it now claims a lot more juice, also doesn’t boast stability, as both Donte Divincenzo and Bones Hyland are certainly not strangers to bad shooting nights.
All that is to say, the top seeds are likely hoping to face someone, but I, for the life of me, cannot figure out which of those four teams is best set up to succeed in the playoffs.
Maybe the Wolves will ride a good matchup to another extended playoff run. Years ago, that would’ve been worth celebrating. Now, in the midst of the most successful era in Wolves history, it rings hollow. How can we be excited about lucking into a few extra weeks of basketball?
The standard has been raised. The expectations are for a championship. That’s it. Those hopes have already been dashed for this year, but if the Ant era ends without a title, we will call it a failure regardless.
That’s terrifying. It should be scary that the best we have ever had may still not be good enough. But, with Bones and Ayo and Ant and Jaden (and Joan Beringer on the back burner), there is a real idea that this may not be the only iteration of Wolves with Ant we get to see.
Tonight means nothing. But this season keeps crumbling to dust, limping along before a miraculous crutch comes along that fixes everything for a few games. Maybe that’s not sustainable. It probably isn’t.
So many fans want heads to roll this offseason, largely to start that second swell of this team. A first-round exit probably results in some changes, just as missing the playoffs would’ve resulted in bigger ones. The man on the line is Chris Finch. With three games left in the season, and then somewhere between four and fourteen in the playoffs, we will get to see what the lasting legacy of this version of this team.
Goodnight Wolves fans. You’ve got nothing to worry about tonight, at least.
The monster will wait for another night.
Up Next
The Timberwolves are right back at it tomorrow night on the road against the Orlando Magic for their final back-to-back of the season. The game begins at 6:00 PM CT. Fans can watch the game on FanDuel Sports Network.
