With 6:50 left in the fourth quarter, a rousing applause came from Target Center; the loudest it had been all night.
A rarity that early in the game nowadays, it was Joe Ingles time. Well-deserved Joe Ingles time at that.
If anything less than Monday night’s result against the flailing Dallas Mavericks happened, ghosts of Timberwolves past may haunt fans for two days until the ball tips off against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.
But it didn’t, and the 2025-26 Minnesota Timberwolves haver certified themselves as a team that has grown up and able to put away an inferior opponent.
Not to dogpile, but inferior in this case may be putting it delicately. The Mavs came into Monday night down essentially any player that could rebound the basketball against a conventional NBA center.
Starting Moussa Cisse at center with a committee of Cooper Flagg and Naji Marshall flanking him in the front court, the Mavericks wre seemingly playing small ball even against the Wolves bench, a feat that seems nearly impossible.
It told you more about Dallas than it did the Wolves; for Julius Randle and Naz, Reid, two players who have largely struggled to end possessions as a frontcourt duo off the bench to seamlessly end possessions from their first shift together on the floor, the tea leaves read a long night for Dallas early on in the game.
Shooting just 27 percent from three at halftime with nine turnovers to Dallas’ 11, the Wolves were still able to close the door relatively early with a 17 point halftime lead, largely due to stellar play from the aforementioned Reid.
The Wolves would go on to win by 24, and it became pretty quick that something more than just the basketball was continuing to happen. Naz Reid is starting to play like himself again after an offseason of inimagineable tragedy and a rocky start to the season where a fan favorite didn’t quite seem like himself.
The last few games have been a much needed rebound for Reid, who wore the name of his late sister Toraya around his arm on Monday.
Reid played by far his best game of the season, and buoyed a off-rhythm Wolves team to a win that felt more like a celebration in the fourth quarter.
The run of games against inferior competition continues on Wednesday as the Wolves host the 1-12 Washington Wizards. A trend of beating up on bad teams this series continues to be a welcomed one for a Wolves team that has notoriously struggled with doing so. But heading into Wednesday, the Wolves find themselves in a spot to keep figuring out who they are on both sides of the ball in preparation for a bigger test on Friday against Phoenix.
Tipoff on Wednesday against Washington is set for 7:00 PM CST.
