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 would describe the game as “A Horrendous Night Offensively,” getting 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).
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.
This story will be updated throughout the night after coach and player media availabilities.
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.
