On today’s episode, Ryan Eichten and Leo Sun go over the Minnesota Timberwolves’ recent losses to the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets and much more:
— Anthony Edwards set his career high in points
on Saturday in San Antonio with 55 points. Edwards’ shot-making and overall offensive game have hit another level this season as he enters the fringes of the MVP conversation.
— Edwards has been great in each of his four postseasons, but was largely outplayed in both Western Conference Finals by Luka Dončić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Ant’s recent play signals that the Wolves have the opportunity to go back to the West Finals and that Minnesota could end up with the best player in that series this time around.
— On Friday night in Houston, without Edwards, the Wolves led for most of the first three quarters, but ran out of offense in the fourth quarter. Julius Randel was again outstanding with Edwards not in the lineup, scoring 39 points, but he only had two assists compared to five turnovers.
— With the trade deadline just three weeks away, the picture for who might be available in a trade has become clearer. Malik Monk and Collin Sexton are names the Wolves might be interested in, but would require them to trade Mike Conley, which would come with a lot of risk to the locker room status quo.
— Joan Beringer joined the Wolves’ rotation for the first time this week. He was thrown right into the deep end in terms of defensive matchups as he went up against Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama in two of his first three games.
— Among the terms currently seeded two through six in the Western Conference, the Timberwolves have the easiest schedule remaining in terms of travel and off days. Minnesota has the fewest back-to-backs left with six, while other teams have as many as ten.
— While losing back-to-back games over the weekend is not ideal, the Wolves still hold on to the fourth seed in the Western Conference with still plenty of season left to try and move into the top three.
