That was fun, I wish it had started a long time ago.
On Friday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves took on the Houston Rockets. It was the Wolves’ second straight game without Anthony Edwards as he recovers from a toe infection. Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said he still has days off due to injuries.
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Without their best player, it was always going to be an uphill battle for the Wolves, but they came out of the gates strong, leading by double digits early in the second quarter. The defense was limiting Houston’s quality shots, the ball movement behind them was good, and they did a good job getting out of transition, scoring 16 fast break points in the first half.
The Rockets ended up leading the Wolves by two at halftime. The slim margin would hold until the early parts of the fourth quarter when Houston scored seven straight points to give them an eight-point lead, their largest lead of the game to that point.
Without their best player on the floor, the Wolves couldn’t get enough foul play, turning the ball over eight times in the fourth quarter while making just one 3-pointer on three fourth-quarter attempts. Minnesota went down by a final score of 110-105.
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Julius Randle and Kevin Durant were the offensive engines of their team, each scoring 39 points. Randle’s scoring has now reached 27.7 points per game in the ten games Edwards has missed this season. Durant, as he always does, shot the ball incredibly well, going 11-18 from the field, 6-8 from beyond the arc, and 11-14 from the free throw line.
Naz Reid was another standout for the Timberwolves in this game, scoring 25 points as he hit 8 of 11 shots, including 5 from deep. After getting his first taste of rotation minutes Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks, Joan Beringer kept his spot in the rotation, playing a total of six minutes as the Wolves tried a big line with Beringer, Randle, and Reid sharing the court together.
Each team’s centers struggled at the free throw line as Rudy Gobert went 2-10 and Alperen Şengün shot 3-9. The two teams combined to go 40-69 from the free throw line, both giving up points that could have changed the game.
While any close loss is a missed opportunity for a high-scoring team like Wolves, this game won’t come with a lot of baggage for Wolves. Edwards’ unavailability makes winning difficult against a tough and potentially desperate Houston team, which was just beaten by the Oklahoma City Thunder the night before.
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It’s also easy to wonder how the game might have gone differently if Edwards had been able to keep up. His absence made it difficult for the Wolves against Houston’s ninth-ranked defense.
Some losses make it seem like the sky is falling. Some losses, like tonight, you can shrug your shoulders and try to find the next one.
Next
The Timberwolves don’t get much time off, as they have less than 20 hours to prepare for their next game, a matchup with the San Antonio Spurs at 7:00 PM CT. It’s a quick turnaround between games, as you’ll see in the NBA, making it a real test as Minnesota takes on the team with the second-best record in the West. Fans can watch tomorrow’s game on FanDuel Sports Network.
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