Did someone say another inferior opponent on paper descending into Target Center to play the Minnesota Timberwolves? Just me?
While playing great basketball so far this season and well above expectation, the Phoenix Suns came into Monday night playing two games in eight days. 1.75 of those games were without Devin Booker, and their obligation in Minneapolis would be no different without their star player.
It posed a worthwhile challenge for the Wolves; an adequate team that plays hard without the worry
of the elite-scoring Booker on the offensive end, and a team they were able to put 113 points up on last time they faced each other in Phoenix in a now-infamous 50-second fourth quarter collapse.
A good time to right the wrongs from ghosts of collapsed games past, the Wolves came out intentional offensively. Ironically, it was Rudy Gobert setting the tone on the offensive end. Phoenix ignored the Wolves’ big man in the dunker’s area, and three different players in the starting five found him for points off of screens, as well as being able to draw soft traps off of ball handler gravity and make the right play.
Gobert had 12 points at the half which was crucial for a Wolves team that was struggling to shoot the basketball (27 percent from three at half), and drew a critical flagrant foul on Mark Williams at the beginning of the second half, who was having a stellar game.
But the thing about the Suns? They aren’t a team that rolls over. Any team that has Dillon Brooks on the floor is going to play hard and bring an edge to the game. After leading at the half, and with 7:59 left in the third quarter, they did just that.
In retaliation to the slap across the face just a couple minutes earlier he took on the other end, Gobert abandoned his responsibility of rising up and defending the rim to give a hard jab to Williams’ ribcage as he was going up for a layup. Williams hit the deck, and a soft clearing of the benches took place. Not only did it accelerate the chippines of a game that was already starting to percolate with unnecessary content, but the Wolves’ center would one-up Williams and pick up a flagrant two, ejecting him from the game.
The Timberwolves’ Frenchman is a prideful player. There are plenty of instances in which that’s gotten him in trouble before (just ask Kyle Anderson’s chest). This was one of those times. In a game where he was getting all of what he wanted on the offensive end and picking up slack that other players were leaving him, it was an inexcusable play from him that forced Anthony Edwards to throw the cape on more than he already had at the point (Edwards had 32 points with three minutes left in the third).
To pile on, the minutes without Riudy Gobert on the floor haven’t necessarily been stellar. The frontcourt of Naz Reid and Julius Randle have a hard time defending and rebounding. If there was ever a time for the tandem to reverse course, and for the young wing combo of Jaylen Clark and Edwards to help out in both aforementioned facets, it was then.
Simply put, Gobert’s ejection would either signal a jolt of energy or prove to be a careless mental error for a team that’s committed plenty of them in costly games.
It ended up being the latter.
Lackluster offense, poor ball contain, and the inability to keep Phoenix out of the paint is what ultimately did them in
On the cusp of grinding out a gritty win that would have been an impressive one given the team they were playing and the player they were playing without, the Wolves put up just 21 points in the fourth quarter, getting outscored by three.
The margin of defeat? You guessed it.
Up Next
A few days to figure things out and perhaps for Rudy Gobert to take a couple deep breaths, the Wolves won’t play again until Friday night, heading out west to play the Golden State Warriors.
Winners of back to back games, a familiar face in Jimmy Butler will await Minnesota at the Chase Center. Tipoff is set for 9:00 PM CST.
