Grizzlies 127, Timberwolves 125: Déjà Vu for the Minnesota

In a game reminiscent of the 2022 playoffs, turnovers, rebounds, and poor late-game offense doomed the Wolves to snap their three-game winning streak.

The Minnesota Timberwolves look to extend their winning streak to four in front of a raucous Saturday night Target Center crowd as Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies come to town. This will be the first head-to-head matchup between Morant and Edwards since February 10th, 2023 as the two young stars battle it out as a part of the next wave of NBA stardom. With the 21-22 playoff series still top of mind and a chance for Minnesota to make up ground in the West the stage is set for what should be a weekend thriller in the Twin Cities.

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

It was a back-and-forth first quarter with flowing offense, raining threes, and highlight plays speckled throughout. Donte DiVincenzo led the charge for the Timberwolves with 11 points and 3 threes including a nasty ankle breaker towards the end of the first. Anthony Edwards provided a couple of those highlights with a snaking And-1 layup and a high-flying jam followed by flexed muscles.

The Wolves lead by as much as six but the Grizzlies kept it close throughout. After an overall good first quarter Minnesota ended on a sour note, throwing an inbounds pass away as Scottie Pippen Jr. had a buzzer-beating layup to give Memphis a 35-33 lead at the end of the first.

The 2nd quarter continued at a blistering pace with Minnesota and Memphis smoothly running their offense and getting good looks. Both teams found ways to score in very different ways. The Timberwolves used an 11/22 3-point barrage and 59.5% shooting from the field while the Grizzlies opted for the offensive glass. They out-rebounded the Timberwolves 12-2 in that aspect during the first half and took 15 more shots which kept the game close.

After getting into foul trouble early on, Jaden McDaniels came back strong with 12 points on perfect 5/5 shooting in the 2nd quarter. Donte poured on 16 points himself as JJJ matched with 18 for the Grizzlies. All of this culminated in a slight 65-64 Timberwolves advantage with 24 minutes to play.

Donte DiVincenzo started the third continuing his hot streak scoring nine points in 90 seconds to give the Wolves a little breathing room and a five-point advantage. The Grizzlies continued to be relentless offensively and still would not go away. Rudy Gobert highlights were easy to find down the stretch of the third as he had a lob dunk that caused Anthony Edwards to get a technical foul from the bench to go along with a behind-the-head pass for a Mike Conley three. All of the crazy back-and-forth culminated in a 103-99 lead heading into the final frame.

The faucet was turned off for both teams to start the quarter as neither could finish good looks. After a slight respite, Naz Reid restarts the frenzy with a couple of made 3-pointers. The nail-biting continued throughout the entire 4th as the Wolves had only a four-point lead with 1:41 left in the game. The Grizzlies kept hanging setting up Morant to make his final two shots, the second of which to take a two-point lead with 18.1 seconds left. The Timberwolves had a couple of Anthony Edwards threes fall short and dropped this one to the Grizzlies, 127-125.

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Key Takeaways

Demons from the 2022 Playoff series

History repeated itself tonight for the Minnesota Timberwolves as many things that plagued them throughout the 2022 playoff series came back to haunt them tonight. Minnesota let up 21 offensive rebounds and the Grizzlies shot 25 more shots than the Wolves which allowed them to overcome a deficit of 56.6% shooting from the floor for Minnesota to 44.4% for Memphis. After the game, Chris Finch emphasized this point, “You’re just not going to beat many teams, particularly good ones if you give them 25 more shots”. An old-fashioned beatdown on the boards gave Memphis just enough to come out with the victory.

Using Ant’s Attention

Anthony Edwards earned so much respect from the Memphis Grizzlies that he was guarded 94 feet for the entire night, much of which by Grizzlies rookie Jaylen Wells. This made it hard for him to get himself going in the scoring column. Chris Finch said of this focus on Ant by the Grizzlies:

“They denied him when he didn’t have the ball at the top of the floor. They put two on him a lot of times. I thought he did a good job of getting off of it and finding his teammates. We went through a period there where we had a lot of really good looks and we just didn’t make them.”

Adversely, this attention boosted the performances of his teammates. Donte DiVincenzo dropped a team-high 27 points with 10 rebounds and 7 assists, Jaden McDaniels shot 9/12 for 21 points that included a perfect second quarter and Naz Reid added 19 points off the bench. These three players also combined to shoot a blistering 14/22 from three. Chris Finch said on Donte DiVincenzo’s performance:

“He’s been great. He pushes the pace, he’s creating, he’s super smart, rebounding at a high level… Lead us in rebounding. nine of them defensively. He’s been huge”.

Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

Back and Forth Thriller… Until the End

This game was as much of a yo-yo as it can get. The Timberwolves and Grizzlies threw punches back and forth before Memphis took the war of attrition. In this one, there were 22 ties and 25 lead changes between the two squads. Neither team led by more than six points in the game as well.

The offense kept up with a high-octane team in the Grizzlies for almost all of the game but blinked as it got down to crunch time. Chris Finch echoed this sentiment about the positives and negatives of the Timberwolves effort:

“It was great, great rhythm all night. Except for the 10 points in the last six minutes. Turnovers, ill-advised shots… Thought that’s where our offense let us down. But other than that it was good.”

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Up Next

The Minnesota Timberwolves will travel to the nation’s capital to take on the last place Washington Wizards on Monday, January 13th at 6 PM CT. Fans can watch the game on FanDuel Sports North.

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Game Highlights