Timberwolves 138, Jazz 113: Full Team Symphony Leads to 5th-Straight Win

Three injured rotational players forced Chris Finch to rely on his bench, where he got 53 points from Rob Dillingham, Naz Reid, Jaylen Clark, and Luka Garza in a blowout win.

Shortly after the Minnesota Timberwolves’ thrilling 121-113 win over the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night, they hopped on a plane, taking the nearly one-hour and 40-minute flight from Phoenix to Salt Lake City.

Chris Finch was ejected in Phoenix. Anthony Edwards put together a masterclass (33 points in 40 minutes). Julius Randle played one of his most complete games in a Wolves uniform (28 points, seven rebounds, and six assists on 10 of 16 shooting). Nickeil Alexander-Walker recorded 23 points on 5 of 10 from deep. Jaylen Clark played lock-down defense against Devin Booker in his first real NBA minutes. And the officials tossed Jaden McDaniels in the final seconds for poking Booker in the head.

It was the most entertaining game of the season, inching the Wolves closer to leapfrogging into the fourth seed in the Western Conference. Minnesota aimed to repeat that level of energy, passion, and want-to against the bottom-feeding, 10-35 Utah Jazz less than 22 hours after Wednesday’s win went into the left column.

The Wolves credited Finch’s outburst against the Suns as a reason why they turned up the energy. Finch has been displeased lately, and all of which came to a head during his ejection. He got on the team for letting the Atlanta Hawks outscore them 49-40 on Monday and led a spirited film session before the game in Phoenix.

“He woke up choosing violence,” said Nickeil Alexander-Walker Wednesday night.

Despite being on the tail end of a road-road back-to-back, Minnesota needed a fast start against the Jazz to make Finch proud. Instead, they came out of the gates shooting 4 of 12 overall and 0 of 5 from deep through the first 5:33 minutes. Meanwhile, the Jazz opened the game shooting 6 of 12 from the floor and 2 of 5 from deep, taking a quick 19-8 lead.

It wasn’t until Finch turned to his bench that the Wolves found a groove.

Through 8:27 first-quarter minutes with the starting lineup, Utah outscored Minnesota 27-13. The Wolves recorded a 76.5 ORTG, 150 DTRG, and shot 6 of 17 from the floor in that span. Then, Finch rolled with Rob Dillingham, Clark, Edwards, Naz Reid, and Rudy Gobert for the final 3:33 minutes of the first. In that span, they outscored the Jazz 14-4, recorded a 200 ORTG, a 57.1 DRTG, and shot 5 of 5 from the floor.

The Wolves entered Thursday’s game without Mike Coney (right thumb strain) and Donte DiVincenzo, who has been out for the last seven games with a partial ligament tear in the big toe on his left foot. To make matters worse, Randle — fresh off arguably his most impactful game of the season — injured his right groin while attempting a contested layup with 10:12 left in the second quarter. He immediately checked out of the game and hobbled back to the locker room. The team eventually ruled Randle out with right groin soreness.

This further forced Finch to go deeper into his bench, which he also did against the Suns.

The Wolves pulled within four points at the end of the first quarter by riding their bench and darted out to a quick 21-7 advantage in the second quarter, taking a 48-38 lead with 5:41 left until halftime.

Reid already had 12 points, Dillingham was up to seven, and Luka Garza had five. Going into it, Thursday’s game felt like one where the Wolves would need big contributions from their bench following a tiring win in Phoenix.

As it has all season, Minnesota’s bench avenged a poor start.

The Wolves held Utah to 22 second-quarter points on 7 of 18 shooting while scoring 30 points themselves. Minnesota’s defense locked down for most of the frame, but it only held a 57-53 lead as both teams trotted back to their locker rooms at halftime after Collin Sexton canned a 25-foot stepback triple at the horn.

At halftime, Finch had already deployed ten different lineups. The starting lineup was a -14 over 8:27 minutes. Every other lineup was a +18. Additionally, the starting lineup shot a combined 11 of 26 from the floor and 2 of 8 from deep while recording 30 points. The bench shot 10 of 13 overall and 6 of 8 from three-point range, hanging 27 points on the scoreboard.

That tells you all you need to know from the first half.

Minnesota outscored Utah 14-8 in the first five minutes of the second half. Edwards had 8 points in that span on 3 of 5 shooting, but Gobert’s activity also shined, as it has all game. 11 points, six boards, and three blocks on 4 of 6 shooting for Rudy up until that point.

The stat line illustrates Gobert’s energy levels are high, but so does the eye test. Rudy’s eyes were lit up differently in his return to Utah. He was playing with a ton of movement and was steadily involved in the offense. When Gobert’s teammates passed him the ball, he consistently made the right reads.

It was no coincidence that Gobert made highly impactful plays in the third quarter, and the Wolves took comfortable control of the game.

By the end of the third quarter, the Wolves held a 101-75 lead. They outscored the Jazz 44-22, putting together one of their best offensive frames of the season while missing three rotational players. Minnesota played maturely in the third and received extremely productive play up and down the extended rotation that made Wolves fans back in Minneapolis grin from ear to ear.

In the third quarter alone:

• Edwards: 16 points, 5/7 FG
• Garza: 7 points, 3/3 FG
• Alexander-Walker: 6 points, 2/3 3P
• Dillingham: 5 points, 2/2 FG
• Clark: 5 points, 2/3 FG

Edwards, who was named a three-time All-Star a few hours before the game, dominated the third quarter. Still, he made sure to put one final stamp on the game.

Finch subbed Edwards out with 4:34 left in the fourth and emptied his bench. The Wolves were up 125-99, but Ant was still bummed out. He was sitting at 36 points after drilling back-to-back threes and scoring nine more points in 3:41 fourth-quarter minutes. Ant may have wanted to go for 40, or maybe he was in such a groove that he didn’t realize the score.

Minnesota was in firm control of its fifth-straight win, and you would have no idea that it played a chaotic game the night before. The Wolves ended up dropping a season-high 138 points. On a night when Finch heavily rode his young players, Minnesota turned in a mature showing. Sure, it was against the worst team in the West, but the Wolves executed well and didn’t let the words “schedule loss” lead to another upset head coach.

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Key Takeaways

Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

The Extended Rotation Shines

Finch has been committed to his eight-man, or sometimes even smaller, rotation this season. He has historically been a coach who likes a tight-knit rotation, but it has been egregious this season. Despite the Wolves showing glaring issues night after night, Finch had not had enough confidence in any of the young players buried in the depth chart to insert them into the rotation.

At every stop, it has taken injuries for Finch to extend his group.

“Our bench was huge,” Finch said postgame. “It started with Naz, who caught fire and got us right back into the game. Rob was really, really good. Jaylen Clark was massive, too, just by doing everything out there for us defensively as well.”

It started with DiVincenzo’s injury, which gave Dillingham his first shot at a consistent time in the rotation. Then, on Wednesday, Reid was out with an illness, which allowed Clark an opportunity to show his stingy defense. Against Utah, it was a combination of things. Conley and Dillingham were out, and Randle went down early in the second quarter.

Road-road back-to-backs are always tough, regardless of how much travel is required in between. The Wolves entered Thursday only 5.5-point favorites. They very well could have let Utah stick around in the second half, especially after the slow start. However, Minnesota’s third-stringers were tossed into the deep end after Randle’s injury and played an incredibly mature brand of basketball all night.

Dillingham led the charge on offense with his career-high 19 points and eight assists on 8 of 11 shooting, none of which was surprising for Wolves fans.

Rob has shown he’s ready for the moment almost every time he has stepped on the floor since DiVincenzo’s injury. Through a series of unfortunate events, he received his biggest opportunity yet on Thursday and made the most out of it, continuing to prove he should be in the rotation even when the Wolves are at full strength.

“I ain’t going to lie, it is a little easy,” Dillingham told Jim Petersen when he asked Rob if basketball is easy for him. “If you play basketball for a long time. I watch a bunch and study film, so I feel like there are few things you can do — you just got to make the right plays.”

Clark played lock-down defense once again, giving Finch a valuable plug-and-play defender to keep in his hip pocket. Garza was the other big storyline off the bench, recording 16 points on 6 of 8 shooting. Finch had some high praise for Luka postgame.

“He is one of my most favorite players I have ever coached for so many reasons,” said Finch. “He just always stays ready, always in a great mood. He has been an unbelievable example for other young guys. Every time we put him in, he produces.”

It has been an extremely small sample size, but we have gotten a great look at Minnesota’s depth over the last two games. Has it been enough for Finch to expand his rotation beyond eight when the Wolves are fully healthy? Probably not. But players like Garza, Dillingham, and Clark doing everything in their power to gain a little bit of trust from Finch is step one on the journey to cracking the rotation.

It’s easy for fans to be upset seeing the youngins play so well, especially those who have lobbied for Finch to extend the rotation. However, the harsh reality of the NBA is that sometimes, rookies/young players must wait for injuries ahead of them in rotation to crack meaningful playing time. What they do with that extended burn determines what happens after. Sometimes, however, it doesn’t

Finch may return to his short rotation when the Wolves are fully constituted, but Dillingham, Garza, and Clark have done all they can so far — give their coach and those around them confidence in their abilities.

“I can imagine the confidence it gives the coaches,” Edwards told the media regarding the bench’s production. “Gave me a lot of confidence and trust in the young guys. I love days like today.”

Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

Anthony Edwards’ Megastar Performance

Thursday was both an extremely winnable and losable game, and either outcome would not be surprising with how this team has played. It was trending in the later direction early. The Wolves had zero juice once again and needed the contributions from three players who have barely played this season to pull them back up to speed.

Minnesota held a 57-53 lead at halftime. The Wolves felt largely in control in the second quarter, but Utah was hanging around. Edwards came out of the intermission and realized it was winning time, becoming a staple to most of Ant’s takeovers.

Edwards played all 12 minutes in the third quarter, notching 16 points on 5 of 7 from the floor, 2 of 3 from deep, and 4 of 5 from the foul stripe. He then hung nine points on the board in 3:41 minutes in the fourth, tucking the Delta Center crowd into bed.

All of that came on the heels of his 33-point performance in Phoenix, where he was dancing in the waning seconds and telling the Footprint Center crowd, “Got they a—. Yeah! Once again. Yeah! Once again. Yeah!”

Obviously, nothing beats home cooking, but there is something about gutsy wins on the road for Edwards. He rivals in those moments, talking his talk to whoever will listen. That is what makes his superstardom that much more captivating. He is a box office star who loves to give away fans a treat, kick their team’s butt, and then talk trash all in the same game.

Ant was named to his third-straight All-Star appearance hours before Thursday’s game and played like someone who will be a staple of All-Star weekends for the rest of his career.

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Up Next

The Wolves are off Friday before opening up a five-game homestand (tied for their longest of the season) against the Washington Wizards on Saturday. During Minnesota’s homestand, it has the easiest schedule (0.325 SOS) league-wide.

• vs. Wizards, 2/1
• vs. Sacramento Kings, 2/3
• vs. Chicago Bulls, 2/5
• vs. Houston Rockets, 2/6
• vs. Portland Trailblazers, 2/8

They need to take care of business, and you can bet that the Target Center crowd will be extra rowdy after Minnesota’s successful, euphoric, and memorable 2-game road trip.

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Key Stats

• MIN: 138 points, a season-high, and tied for its 13th-most all-time.
• Anthony Edwards: 36 points, 11 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks, 12/18 FG, 6/9 3P, 6/7 FT, 35 minutes, +25
• Rob Dillingham: 19 points (career-high), 8 assists, 8/11 FG, 23 minutes, +23
• Luka Garza: 16 points, 6/7 FG
• MIN: 38 assists on 49 field goal makes
• MIN: 49/80 (61.3%) FG, 21/38 (55.3%) 3P
• UTA: 15 turnovers, resulting in 26 MIN points
• MIN: 61-50 bench points advantage

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Game Highlights