“We realized it was a basketball game, not a football game,” Wolves assistant coach Micah Nori said coming out of the locker room at halftime on the television broadcast on Friday night.
Nori, his usual entertaining self during halftime interviews, was referring to an abominable first quarter in which the Wolves shot just 2-14 from three and traded bricks with the home Philadelphia 76ers.
Donte DiVincenzo was struggling, Ayo Dosunmu was scoreless at halftime, and Anthony Edwards was not himself. Yet with all of those things working against them, the Wolves still found themselves up at the half heading into the locker room on the back of a strong Bones Hyland performance (21 points in the game) and a steady Julius Randle game in all facets (21 points).
Up 10 points and in full control of the game at 10:51 in the third quarter, the 76ers would assemble a 17-4 run over the next four minutes, and end the quarter up 12 points. Both Tyrese Maxey (21 points) and Joel Embiid (19 points) had quiet first halves, but were large parts in spearheading that run. Maxey particularly was relentless in attacking downhill, and exposed a weak interior for the Wolves with Rudy Gobert off the floor.
“We started to play for the foul, and they got loose in transition,” coach Chris Finch said after the game.
Maxey’s downhill mentality and Embiid’s awakening would lead to a 52-40 Philly advantage in the paint, which would ultimately decide the game.
The good news? Dosunmu woke up in the second half. Hyland was his usual energetic self, and Julius Randle looks to be rounding into form at a time of year where his team needs it most.
The bad? The franchise player is still clearly not doing well. Until playoff time, that has to be the number one priority.
Get Well Soon
Frankly, there’s not much more to write about this one. The Wolves got outplayed and Anthony Edwards might have had his worst game of the season. If he makes a few more shots, we’re likely talking about this game being very different.
But it wasn’t the case. Edwards went 3-15 from the field and 0-7 from three, just his third game of the season where he failed to make a three pointer. Sitting out Thursday night due to an illness in addition to his knee soreness he’s been nursing for the last month or so, Edwards gutted it out and made his return on the tail end of a back to back.
Finch said after the game that he clearly lacked juice with some of the ailments that he had heading into the game, but that it wasn’t an excuse for an underwhelming performance. I apologize for the account I’m about to drop below, but they actually put a pretty solid montage together of some of the lowlights, including the missed dunk early in the game.
Not only was Edwards not active on either side of the ball and seemed to be out of it overall, but his jumper mechanics were extremely bad. He didn’t have much elevation or balance on his shot, which historically does show that something might be a little off.
There’s no question that his knee might still be bothering him a little bit, and that he’s still clearly a little under the weather. All likely affected his game this evening. But moving forward, his health must be a priority over everything else. If this version of his jumpshot is what ends up surfacing in a couple weeks, the Wolves will find themselves in trouble.
Up Next
The Wolves will head back to Target Center for an Easter Sunday track meet against the elite offense of the Charlotte Hornets. Fifth in the NBA in offensive rating this season and the likely Rookie of the Year in the fold, Charlotte presents a good test for the Wolves, but an opportunity to get a quality win to find themselves for the home stretch of the season.
Tipoff will be at 6:00 PM CST.
