The Minnesota Timberwolves embarked on the first half of a quick road back-to-back on Sunday, starting in Sacramento against the Kings. Both teams were on opposite ends of the spectrum. On Friday, the Wolves steamrolled the Utah Jazz by 40 points while the Kings were demolished by the Oklahoma City Thunder by 31. Would a reset for both teams 48 hours later change anything?
Minnesota was dawning their beautiful retro black tree jerseys and Rudy Gobert made sure to do them justice. He opened the game by blocking a Domantas Sabonis (Who just returned from a two game absence) jumper, corralling the loose ball, then finishing a coast-to-coast layup. How often does that happen? He would go a perfect four for four from the floor and reject three shots in the first period alone.
Early contributions from Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle helped mitigate the fact that Anthony Edwards, in his first full game wearing the tree jerseys, missed all five of his field goal attempts to open the game. They carried a small 31-25 lead thanks to six of 11 three-point shooting from the Kings. That wasn’t going to last though, as they continued to play a style of basketball that relied on isolation one-on-one possessions.
The Timberwolves prodigal son, Zach LaVine, continued to do what he could to hoist the his team on his shoulder with superb perimeter shooting, but the rest of the team fell off. Six Sacramento turnovers fueled a big Wolves run, ballooning the Minnesota lead to as much as 19.
Edwards, who was scoreless for the first 17 minutes of the game, decided to wake up and score 13 points.
In two minutes and 57 seconds of action.
The Wolves 40-point second quarter silenced an already somewhat empty crowd. Edwards had been fully unleashed, drilling two more deep triples to help extend the lead to 28. His maturity on the court was on display, passing up some good shots to get his teammate better shots. At one point, he carelessly lost his dribble to Sabonis near halfcourt, but he sprinted block to poke it free before sprinting into the stands to save it.
It led to a Jaylen Clark corner trey.
It’s this type of growth Minnesota fans were hoping to see from the young superstar. He didn’t let a slow start deter him from being aggressive. He got his, but shifted his focus on oiling the machine. A 111-84 lead heading into the fourth quarter was the result of his selfless play.
The Wolves rolled to their fourth win in five games by a score of 142-115.
Minnesota’s bus is going straight to the airport for a quick turnaround. They conclude their road-road back-to-back against the Utah Jazz on Monday, November 10th at 8:00 PM CT. Not only are they going to be short on rest, they lose an hour due to the time zone change. Will they be able to take care of business again after romping the Jazz by 40 points on Friday?
Tune in on FanDuel Sports Network – North or whatever ways you get your games. Good luck.
