The injury lists were longer than your last grocery list.
If you are on the Golden State Warriors and are a notable rotation player, you likely didn’t play on this back-to-back.
We were in Notes app territory.
Conversely, no Anthony Edwards for the nagging foot infection he’s been dealing with, and came off of a mediocre game by his standards on Sunday night.
Putting it lightly, it’s been a horrific stretch in Minneapolis, and Sunday night’s game was an environment closer to a vigil than a basketball game.
Pair it all with the uninspiring lull that the Wolves are currently forging for themselves on the floor, Monday night was simply a must-win game for a much better team on paper and a fanbase that just needed something to cheer for.
But who would bring the energy? An unfocused, unenthused Timberwolves team had been rolling through the last week without a tone-setter, and the results followed. Early on, much of the same seemed to be happening.
Julius Randle hit his first three but would go on to miss his next four, and a similar tone was set for a team that tends to settle for shots. Out of the Wolves’ first 12 shot attempts, eight of them were threes. With no Draymond Green for Golden State, the Warriors deeply lacked interior defense and were begging to be out-rebounded and outscored in the paint with Quinten Post playing most of their center minutes.
Rudy Gobert would need to play well. He did. His 15 points and 17 rebounds showed a return to aggression that’s been missing for the Wolves center over the last few games.
Largely because of the center’s return to form, the game would follow its anticipated projection as has been the theme all year. When Gobert plays well, the Wolves are able to lean into the only identity that wins them games: Defense.
The home team would go on to pull in front of the Warriors by 28 points by the beginning for the fourth quarter and close the deal in emphatic fashion.
The slow start? Short-lived.
A shot in the arm was needed badly, and while they may just have gotten it, it wasn’t going to happen without a little help from the bench. A team so desperately searching for players to come into the game and make an impact, Monday served as a perfect opportunity to show a pulse from Chris Finch and company’s unit.
Enter Bones Hyland.
Bones Leads the Bench
The Timberwolves bench is in need of a defibrillator.
26th in bench field goal percentage and 22nd in bench points per game, it’s a unit whose inconsistency outside of former Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid shows on a night to night basis.
Lacking a super high ceiling with Mike Conley typically a part of the unity on a night to night basis, Bones Hyland is one that can that can play a major role in elevating it. The problem is he shares the adjective in the above paragraph; inconsistency.
When Hyland scores 10 or more points, the Wolves are 7-4. When he scores 15 or more, the Wolves are 3-0.
Monday was no exception, as Hyland finished the night with 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists in 25 minutes of action.
“We gotta have those performances on a nightly basis to be honest with you,” Head Coach Chris Finch said after the game.
During the aforementioned three-point slog at the beginning of the game that didn’t yield much offensive production, Hyland’s entrance into the game signaled more of a focus to attack the paint and get Golden State on their heels. His first six points came by way of transition layup, which parlayed into easier shotmaking.
“It definitely feels like the basket opens up more,” Hyland said after the game about starting things off by going to the basket and seeing a couple layups go down.
For him, so much of it is proactivity on the offensive end and being aggressive.
“Playing fast, being myself out there…I feel like I got back to that,” he said.
How does he continue to be himself as time goes on? Being less deferential in the offense, especially with a franchise player in Anthony Edwards making his way back into the lineup in short order. Hyland’s two best scoring games have come when Edwards has not been in the lineup (the other one coming in the road win against Milwaukee).
Finch mentioned after the game that he sometimes sees his primary-scoring bench guard defer too much when players higher in the pecking order are in the game, and that it needs to change.
“I told him he’s allowed play like this when Ant doesn’t play,” he half-joked after the game. “He’s an aggressive player by nature, and I think that helps him.”
Emptying the Notebook
1). It wasn’t “back to normal”, but Target Center did feel like it let out a slight exhale. Perhaps it was the news that dropped, perhaps it was the team finally showing up and giving fans what they paid for. But being in attendance on Sunday was one of the more emotional events I’ve been to that I carried with me into the next day. To see something normal feel so abnormal was jarring to its core, and I will not forget it. Take time to heal, or press right on forward into bellowing for your team; everyone reacts differently. But hopefully between the result and demeanor on Monday night, it helps in whatever way you need it to.
2). The loudest cheer for a substitution during the evening was the obligatory rousing applause for Joe Ingles, following shortly behind by Joan Beringer’s entrance. The French rookie is working is way into fans’ good graces, both online and in real life. His continuous hustle for loose balls, lack of shying away from contact, and can’t-miss athleticism are easy reasons as to why it could be, but I also think fans see him as a solution to the bench problems above. I don’t think that’s the case. Happy to be proven wrong. Until then, it seems as though he’ll continue to be a matchup-specific chess piece.
3). Anthony Edwards was a late scratch and Finch said after the game that he was not aware of it heading into the evening. Frankly, this is a time where I start to get concerned about things in that it could be a nagging issue. Late scratches are never really a good sign, but Finch had no update with confidence that Edwards would be definitively back in the lineup after Monday, and that he was not able to speak to the performance staff as of his press conference. Something to certainly keep an eye on, and in hoping that it isn’t an injury that bleeds into the All-Star break.
Up Next
The Wolves will head to Julius Randle’s home city of Dallas on Wednesday and take on a Mavericks team currently punching above its weight class. The Mavs have won four of their last five, two of which coming against the vaunted and merciless Utah Jazz (or so we saw when the Wolves went to Salt Lake City a week ago).
Because Anthony Edwards was out on Monday night with right foot injury maintenance, it would be expected that he makes his return to the lineup on Wednesday.
Tipoff is at 7:30 PM CST. and broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network.
