Timberwolves 115, Mavericks 114: Whatever It Was, It Worked This Time

The Wolves came up on the right side of yet another clutch time game with unlikely monster performances from Jaden McDaniels and Mike Conley.

It’s always nice when something nice comes from somewhere unexpected, isn’t it? Kind of like when the person in front of you at the drive-thru pays for your meal?

Well, on Wednesday night Mike Conley and Jaden McDaniels paid for the Minnesota Timberwolves’ meal on national TV because of course they did.

Conley and McDaniels have been the subject of plenty of criticism this season. Conley’s noticeable dropoff in shooting the basketball and relegation to the bench unit has been a sizable discussion point in the year-over-year decline of the Wolves’ starting unit, and success overall.

As has McDaniels. Not performing up to the standard he set for himself in his contract year, the visions of a future knockdown shooter, improved offensive player, and cornerstone next to Anthony Edwards on a seemingly bargain-bin contract have still not come to fruition for the 24-year-old.

For a couple of days, those grievances deserve to be put on hold. More on that later.

The Dallas Mavericks went into Wednesday night depleted. Already down multiple rotation players with Dereck Lively II being added to that list, it was shaping up to be a game that the Wolves couldn’t afford to drop, with a subplot being few excuses to lose the rebounding battle for a team so mightily struggling on the glass.

Without spoiling things too much, the Wolves did indeed end up losing the rebounding battle with a fully healthy frontcourt, 51-45. They lost the points in the paint battle 66-48 at the behest of a struggling Rudy Gobert who grabbed six rebounds, his third time in the last four games with under 10.

Put all of those things into a bow with a 17-point first quarter, the game didn’t necessarily get off to the start that anyone wanted it to, and I even include American Airlines Center; incredibly quiet compared to its usual liveliness.

Starting the game in a five-point hole on the road shooting 25 percent in the first quarter had the makings of another stinker. Even the bench unit with Rob Dillingham in tow struggled to put the ball in the basket.

A 38-point, 61 percent shooting second quarter reeled things back in and had the Wolves heading into halftime up one. Gobert was drawing fouls, Edwards showed signs of percolating, and McDaniels was having a night that was shaping up to be one of his best of the season.

They just needed to get stops.

The Wolves held leads of 6 or more points multiple times in the second half. They were up as many as nine with three minutes left to play in the fourth.

Yet they found themselves in clutch time once again, blowing the lead, failing to build on previous ones, and within one point of giving up another close one with 22 seconds left and a Kyrie Irving on the other side who was starting to heat up. Just as close to a complete heartbreak, too.

“We held on, [and have to] be better at the end of these games. It’s a huge focus for us moving forward, but we were able to hang on today,” Head Coach Chris Finch said. “Little too much iso ball at the end…I thought we had a good rhythm too.”

I won’t bring this down anymore. A win’s a win. Things have to get cleaned up. But we have to get back to the story I mentioned before that can’t be ignored.

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Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

Redemption

Jaden McDaniels finished with a career-high 27 points and seven stocks. Mike Conley posted a by-far team-high plus 19. If the MVP of the evening can be shared, it’s something that must be.

The Wolves started out entirely flat. Anthony Edwards went 1-6 in the first half with just eight points. Julius Randle was 2-6. They didn’t convert a field goal until the 7:59 mark in the first quarter; something that’s happened far too many times this season with the starting unit.

But It was Conley who started the party with a 3-3 beginning from the field and excellent perimeter defense on Dallas’ guard play.

“Mike was great tonight,” Finch added. “Scoring passing, guarding. One of the things that’s really underestimated about Mike is how great of a defender he is.”

He got into Kyrie’s space when switched on him. He moved his feet when switched onto weird matchups with Maxi Kleber and PJ Washington. He did a little bit of everything, and it’s an entirely different story if he didn’t orchestrate a tone at the beginning of the game that ended up being a motif through all four quarters.

He went on to post a final line of 18 points, eight assists, and shoot 6-9 from the field (nice), but started a perfect 6-6.

McDaniels put 27 on the board while guarding Dallas’ only offensive threat in Kyrie Irving. Irving finished with 36, which will happen when he’s the only person that can score.

McDaniels showed he could do the same. Minnesota finished +17 in fastbreak points, largely due to McDaniels being fearless in running the floor with the ball in his hands and getting downhill.

He scored on the break, made shots with the clock winding down, and was 9-13 on his shots inside the perimeter. While continuing some of his issues from deep, he more than made up for those shortcomings in other areas.

“He did it in all different ways,” Finch said.

It’s now five straight games where McDaniels has scored 10 or more points and his sixth time in the last seven. It’s welcomed consistency from someone who hasn’t been providing it at the level many hoped.

While Rudy Gobert is the first person I turn to if the Wolves are to make a push in the next couple of months in a crowded Western Conference standings, McDaniels must also play a major role, especially with this newfound affinity for rebounding. He finished with eight on Wednesday, his fourth straight game with five or more.

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Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

Emptying The Notebook

• Chris Finch essentially played seven guys. That isn’t sustainable with DiVincenzo out long term. Rob Dillingham found his way into the game for short stints and had a rough game, but between him, Josh Minott, and hell even Luka Garza, there has to be minutes for them to gobble up moving forward. The starting lineup played a combined 173 minutes.
• Speaking of Dillingham, Wednesday was rough. While he’s shaping up to be a special offensive talent and clearly gives the offense pop off the bench, you can see why there was less consistency in his minutes with DiVincenzo healthy. He struggled mightily with Daniel Gafford’s screens and left either Julius Randle or Gobert by themselves guarding two guys by themselves. Those things make it onto scouting reports for other teams pretty regularly. If he can find a way to even slightly improve that aspect of his defense, his utility to the bench unit will increase more. The Wolves need him on the floor.
• Naz Reid’s temper is a problem. For all that’s been said about Ant’s technicals, it’s now two straight games where Reid has needed to be subbed out late in the game because he can’t get himself under control from being on the wrong side of a call. Tonight wasn’t great for the officials, but Finch is closing with him more and more, and Reid not being on the floor late is detrimental. It hurt especially in Memphis.
• It’s been a rough shooting stretch for Nickeil Alexander-Walker. I used to have the joke that you never saw him and DiVincenzo both have great games. It always seemed to be one or the other, but it’s just been a tough stretch for NAW recently. It seems over the past couple seasons that he goes through these pretty regularly, but the question is if he can pull himself back out in time for Saturday.

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Up Next

The Wolves end their road marathon on Saturday with a game against the red-hot Denver Nuggets.

The Nuggets have won eight of their last 10, and Nikola Jokić is having by far his best season from three-point range.

While they got by with it on Wednesday, they absolutely cannot lose the rebounding battle on Saturday against a team that will make you pay as much as the Nuggets will. Tipoff is at 2:00 PM CST on ABC.

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Highlights