Game Story
Wednesday evening was just another game for the Minnesota Timberwolves where their opponents, the Dallas Mavericks, were missing the majority of their rotation players. The number one overall pick, Cooper
Flagg, was out for just the fourth game of the season. Joining him on the sidelines was Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Derek Lively, and a handful of others.
This was going to be a high risk, low reward game.
Would it surprise you if I told you that Minnesota came out of the gates fumbling the ball all over the place? How about them giving up a ton of offensive rebounds and second chance opportunities to Dallas? Yeah, I didn’t think so. It was the Mavericks total lack of talent on the floor that allowed the Wolves stay even. Anthony Edwards was particularly quiet on the floor early, matching his recent performance off the court.
Julius Randle was playing in his hometown of Dallas with his mother in attendance. Perhaps her presence gave Randle the motivation to carry Minnesota on the offensive end. He chipped in 10 of his game-high 31 points in the opening quarter.
The game started to lean in the Wolves favor as we got a glimpse into the potential future of the Wolves frontcourt. To deal with their early rebounding woes, Chris Finch subbed in rookie Joan Beringer to pair with Naz Reid. Both immediately injected energy into game. Reid had a quick seven-point burst. Beringer contributed to five more points by rim running and crashing the flash. We even got a Reid to Beringer lob!
A double-digit Minnesota lead was briefly sliced down due to an incessant fouling problem. Luckily, the zombie Mavericks couldn’t even muster up 50 points in the first half, giftwrapping the Wolves a 10-point lead at the half. Sadly, Minnesota came out of the tunnel with about the same energy they had in the first half. Jaden McDaniels quickly picked up his fourth foul while Edwards continued to display poor body language on the defensive end.
What was missing from those two seemed to available in spades from Donte DiVincenzo. Big Ragu was all over the court, even after picking up a season-high tying four steals in the first half alone. He nearly detonated a Slam Ball-esque one-handed jam over Daniel Gafford, and then seconds later almost converted on an all heart full court sprint in transition.
The Wolves mostly sat at a comfortable 13 to 16 point lead in the third quarter, at times allowing the Mavericks to slice it down to nine. However, easy buckets for Edwards (Who later showed he did have a voice, picking up a technical foul for complaining) and more vintage Randle bully ball kept the home team at bay. Beringer continued to provide a glance at the crystal ball, violently swatting away a Caleb Martin layup attempt, then finishing the third quarter off with a buzzer-beating putback.
Minnesota held a 17-point lead heading into the final stanza which never diminished to single-digits again.
As mentioned at the start of this recap, it was going to be a low reward game. Randle raised the floor on the offensive end. The French towers buoyed the defensive end. Reid popped off against second and third stringers. DiVincenzo brought the invaluable intangibles. Bones Hyland continued to show some extra pop off the bench that Finch has been so desperately searching for. Even Mike Conley did some things!
All of that more than balanced out a slow night by McDaniels and (another) relatively muted night from Edwards.
If you don’t have social media, the Wolves currently sit at the sixth seed of the Western Conference and are just about one to two games back from homecourt advantage in the postseason.
Box Score
Up Next
The Wolves hop on a quick flight to visit the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday, January 29 at 8:30 pm CT. The last time these two teams clashed, we got an epic finish. Catch this one on Prime Video.
Highlights
Coming soon
