Game Story
The Minnesota Timberwolves embarked on the first half of a quick road back-to-back on Sunday, starting in Sacramento against the Kings. Both teams were on opposite ends of the spectrum. On Friday, the Wolves
steamrolled the Utah Jazz by 40 points while the Kings were demolished by the Oklahoma City Thunder by 31. Would a reset for both teams 48 hours later change anything?
Not really.
Minnesota was dawning their beautiful retro black tree jerseys and Rudy Gobert made sure to do them justice. He opened the game by blocking a Domantas Sabonis (Who just returned from a two game absence) jumper, corralling the loose ball, then finishing a coast-to-coast layup. How often does that happen? He would go a perfect four for four from the floor and reject three shots in the first period alone.
Early contributions from Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle helped mitigate the fact that Anthony Edwards, in his first full game wearing the tree jerseys, missed all five of his field goal attempts to open the game. They carried a small 31-25 lead thanks to six of 11 three-point shooting from the Kings. That wasn’t going to last though, as they continued to play a style of basketball that relied on isolation one-on-one possessions.
The Timberwolves prodigal son, Zach LaVine, continued to do what he could to hoist the his team on his shoulder with superb perimeter shooting, but the rest of the team fell off. Six Sacramento turnovers fueled a big Wolves run, ballooning the Minnesota lead to as much as 19.
Edwards, who was scoreless for the first 17 minutes of the game, decided to wake up and score 13 points.
In two minutes and 57 seconds of action.
The Wolves 40-point second quarter silenced an already somewhat empty crowd. Edwards had been fully unleashed, drilling two more deep triples to help extend the lead to 28. His maturity on the court was on display, passing up some good shots to get his teammate better shots. At one point, he carelessly lost his dribble to Sabonis near halfcourt, but he sprinted block to poke it free before sprinting into the stands to save it.
It led to a Jaylen Clark corner trey.
It’s this type of growth Minnesota fans were hoping to see from the young superstar. He didn’t let a slow start deter him from being aggressive. He got his, but shifted his focus on oiling the machine. A 111-84 lead heading into the fourth quarter was the result of his selfless play.
The Wolves rolled to their fourth win in five games by a score of 142-115.
Quick Hits
- Donte DiVincenzo may have had the play of the game, throwing down an unexpected putback dunk out of nowhere. As our former Editor-in-Chief, Kyle Theige, once described, DiVincenzo has these “Slam Ball” type of jumps off two legs. It was a beautiful sight to be hold!
- As a whole, Minnesota shot the ball extremely well. That said, many of their shots were relatively uncontested. On the other end of the court, Rudy Gobert has to be commended for his effort out there. Sabonis struggled in isolation against him which is not something that can often be said. He also did a great job catching passes and making good decisions. He got dunked on by Precious Achiuwa (more on him later), but finished with the last laugh, strongly finishing some dunks late in the game. He had 19 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 blocks tonight.
- It’s astounding how Jaden McDaniels continues to look like a completely different player. Maybe it’s having two kids. Maybe it’s just maturity that comes with age. He looked unstoppable whenever his number was called. 21 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, on eight of 10 shots is pretty fantastic.
- It was nice to see Jaylen Clark get his shot going. He’s been struggling mightily from beyond the arc to start the season (1 for 8), but has seemed to find his groove in the past three games (5 of 6). He did get chewed out pretty hard by Chris Finch after an end of the first quarter turnover, but he bounce back nicely.
- Rob Dillingham is struggling to have clean possessions. Too many times a pass gets deflected, a shot gets altered, or a drive gets bobbled. He needs to learn how to string together plays that are organized and have a rhythm. He scored a handful of garbage time buckets at least.
- Shoutout to Precious Achiuwa. The Kings signed him off the street on Tuesday. He was starting for a NBA team that, outside of Keegan Murray, does not have significant injuries. He made a ton of energy plays that tried to resuscitate the Sacramento crowd. He drew the biggest laugh from media row tonight on a play where he pancake blocked Naz Reid in transition. It was called a charge.
- As a once local Sacramentan, I have a soft spot for the Kings. I was a part of their fan base in the early 2000s. I’ve been in attendance for more games than I can even remember at this point. They have an awesome fan base that is loyal to a fault and fought to keep their team in Sacramento. Even in their worst tanking seasons, the crowd was always into it. Tonight, I am sad to report that their fan base seems apathetic. They seem beaten into submission by what their owner, Vivek Ranadive, has reduced this team into. Even former Kings legend, Peja Stojaković, was sitting courtside next to Ranadive and General Manager, Scott Perry, with his leg crossed like he had zero interest in the game. It was a sad Sunday evening.
Highlights
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Box Score
Comment of the Night
Up Next
Minnesota’s bus is going straight to the airport for a quick turnaround. They conclude their road-road back-to-back against the Utah Jazz on Monday, November 10th at 8:00 PM CT. Not only are they going to be short on rest, they lose an hour due to the time zone change. Will they be able to take care of business again after romping the Jazz by 40 points on Friday?
Tune in on FanDuel Sports Network – North or whatever ways you get your games. Good luck.
