On today’s show, Ryan Eichten and Leo Sun discuss the Minnesota Timberwolves’ five-game winning streak going up in flames in a disappointing 109-106 loss to the Phoenix Suns.
— Monday’s game against the Suns was the sixth straight game where the Wolves’ defense struggled greatly in the first half. In the previous five, the Wolves were able to go on a late run to save the game. In the game against the Suns, the opposite happened as Phoenix scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter.
— Over
the past six games, the Wolves have had a first-half defensive rating of 129, which ranks dead last. In the second halves of the same time span, their second-half defensive rating is 105.1, which is third-best.
— Minnesota struggled to convert their open shots into makes as they made just 11 of their 42 3-point attempts (26%). It is difficult, though, to chalk up the loss to shooting variance when the defense was deficient to start the game, and the Wolves have had plenty of shooting variance wins to start the season.
— Anthony Edwards had an incredibly efficient 40-point scoring night, going 15-21 from the field and 3-7 from beyond the arc while only turning the ball over a single time. Edwards had been seeing aggressive double-teams coming into the matchup, so Phoenix’s more relaxed coverage made things easy on Ant.
— Bones Hyland rejoined the rotation in style, scoring 14 points including four 3-pointers. He played a total of 16 minutes, while Terrence Shannon Jr. only played four minutes, and Rob Dillingham was left out of the rotation.
— After dominating the first half of the game with 15 points and five offensive rebounds, Rudy Gobert was ejected from the game in the third quarter for shoving an airborne Mark Williams.
— Gobert now has five flagrant foul points on the season, meaning his next flagrant foul will to a one-game suspension. If he picks up a seventh flagrant foul point, he would then receive a two-game suspension.
