Well, that was certainly an NBA basketball game that the Minnesota Timberwolves won!
Oklahoma City was left with just 8 qualified / healthy players, which clearly rocked things in favor of Minnesota in the first game of this baseball-style series, and Minnesota really took advantage of that. Thunder won most of the minutes the players were in the game, but the Minnesota bank won the game for them tonight. All players in the Minnesota bank had a +/- positive and all starting players had a negative.
A single plus-minus game is noisy, but I think that illustrates how important Jake Layman and Jaylen Nowell were in particular.
To be clear, this was not pretty. It was a strange, strange game, and Minnesota almost threw the ball away to lose the game before OKC panicked, giving D’Angelo Russell the last shot, which he punched to give the Wolves a much-needed victory.
It is not a great performance, but victories are victories. Send me your reactions gif ⤵️
– Jake Paynting (@jakepaynting) February 6, 2021
It was a tough night for Anthony Edwards (3-14 on the field), but Malik Beasley carried Minnesota for much of the game.
Malik Beasley is the second best player of the Wolves and this is much more an indicator of how good he is than an accusation to anyone else.
– Jake Paynting (@jakepaynting) February 6, 2021
Although the victory was good, it is worth noting again how embarrassingly bad Minnesota’s game was in the fourth period. It really was the same old story as the other embarrassing losses, except for Russell’s chance at the end.
On that note, good for D’Angelo Russell. We’ve been tough on him, but he came to the Wolves at a great point tonight, punching a three with less than three seconds remaining to break the 103-103 draw. Ice in your veins, in fact.
My only complaint would be that Minnesota ran absolutely nothing in the final stretch and it just depended on Russell getting a relatively difficult chance to win.
Jokes aside, that reaction by D’Angelo Russell after the last hit of three was incredible.
Like … the fan base is terrible (and rightly so), but imagine how some of these guys feel too. Maybe, just maybe it turns the corner …
* serves another glass of wine *
– Kyle Theige (@KyleTheige) February 6, 2021
He got it right tonight, but it would have been nice to see them running something a little more structured and dynamic at the end of the game.
Another quick thing to note is that Josh Okogie was eliminated for the second half, ending with just nine minutes played. It has been difficult for Okogie recently, and he lost his minutes tonight.
In the end, though, a win is a win, and Minnesota could win a second win in a row tomorrow to put the momentum in the right direction.
Go Wolves.