The Minnesota Timberwolves are truly an epiphany in basketball. Before tonight the Wolves had lost four of their last six games. Despite being one of the most marketable and successful teams in their history, the regular season has always seemed like a red herring for what they actually are.
Case in point them being 12th in offensive rating, 11th in defensive rating and 11th in net rating.
Utah on the other hand, seem like they’re always a Will Hardy temper tantrum away from a blowout win against any
opponent. There was no sarcasm in that sentence — Utah always happens to find themselves in a close finish against their opponents during this post-ASG period.
But alas, the Jazz were all business tonight for Tanking and Co™. A calm and orthodox 147-111 loss was what Jazz fans were treated to on the last leg of their West Coast road trip. Wolves had a grip on Utah all game, a combination of turnovers, poor interior defense and an Ayo Dosunmu takeover all played a part.
With only a single glance at the injury report, the Jazz were ready to make their report in Minnesota just for league formalities. There was no intention to play the game of basketball.
Minus Anthony Edwards with right knee inflammation, the Wolves were in full-force in their push over the 5th-seeded Nuggets to battle it out in an excruciatingly difficult matchup against the powerhouse Jazz. There was intention to play the game of basketball.
Utah came out the gates with the hot-hand; every Jazz fan across the glove pinched the bridge of their nose as they were probably expecting Utah to fight tooth and nail for an agonizing and close loss. Perfectly normal for the Jazz to knock down 3-4 of their three-pointers in the first two minutes. Also completely normal for the Wolves to shoot 4-5 from the field in that same period.
Hardy has his business outfit on. No intentions of losing this one, using the services of Kevin Love and John Konchar — don’t worry Svi, you’ll get to play someday.
It was all Wolves from that point on. Minnesota went on a 20-5 run between the 3:02 and 6:38 mark in the first quarter, led by Julius Randle’s 16 points and 4 steals at the half. Old friend Rudy Gobert poured in 12 points and 11 rebounds on a perfect 6-6 from the field.
They held a 26-7 advantage in fastbreak points despite the Jazz not having that far of a disadvantage in fastbreak possessions. Wolves generated 8 steals while committing 9 turnovers, while Utah collected 10 turnovers.
On the brighter side of the St. Paddy’s Day rainbow, it was none other than ‘Ice Brice’ Sensabaugh record 23 points and 3 boards on 10-17 shooting on a chilling 35 degree day in Minneapolis. Ace Bailey scored 12 on 4-7 three-point shooting.
The Timberwolves then took away our small pot of gold; a further 21-9 run in the third quarter was enough to put the cork back on the lid. They shot 80% from the floor during that period whilst hitting 4 triples. Gobert scored seven points, Utah recorded an additional four turnovers, totalling to 18 turnovers for the Jazz through three quarters.
On yet another 11-3 run by Minnesota in the final frame, Ayo Dosunmu scored or assisted in 8 points as Utah turned it over three times. And right on cue, it was none other than Jinglin’ Joe Ingles to make an appearance on the basketball court once the Jazz were down by 38. Hold up, and he had back-to-back buckets? Well, that makes this night just a tad more bearable, as if it were bearable at all beforehand.
I will say this, if there was a listing of players who could break the absurd 83-point night by ███ ███████, I’d guarantee Brice isn’t too far down the list. When he has the hot hand, everything is going down in flames. The former Buckeye recorded his second 40+ point performance this season, finishing with 41 points, 4 boards on 17-31 shooting.
Hardy had high praise for Ace Bailey before tonight, calling him “incredibly unselfish. For somebody that was as highly touted as he was… He doesn’t carry himself where he thinks he’s not getting enough…”
And tonight he responded with calm 17 points, 2 boards and 2 assists on 6-13 shooting. Nothing too flashy, but he’s dialled in his three-point shooting compared to how he fared earlier in the season. Over the last five games, he’s shot 20-42 (47.6%) from beyond the arc.
Up Next
Utah is back home on their turf in Salt Lake City to welcome the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow night, March 19th, at 5 PM MST.
