There has been a gap in basketball in Minneapolis since the Minnesota Lynx were eliminated from the WNBA playoffs by the Phoenix Mercury, but that small hiatus ends tonight. The Minnesota Timberwolves were back in action tonight facing their ever present rival in the Denver Nuggets.<\/p>\n
The Nuggets and Wolves have faced off frequently in the past few years, be it through in division matchups or playoff series (the Wolves have not lost a series to the Nuggets since entering the 2023 playoffs as an 8th seed).<\/p>\n
Still, tonight was about more than just the on court performance. It represented another year of what has rapidly become the best era of Minnesota Timberwolves basketball. While that is certainly not saying a lot, the Wolves are expected to continue to build on back to back Western Conference Finals appearances. With a 23 year old Anthony Edwards at the forefront of a well balanced roster, this season may hold the biggest challenge yet.<\/p>\n
There are so many things to keep track of, from the young talent that may be expected to contribute sooner rather than later to the veterans that need to hold on just a little longer, and it seems about time we get back to that.<\/p>\n
With all that being said, welcome back fans, welcome back basketball, and, folks, let\u2019s get to it.<\/p>\n
The game\u2019s start was defined by a Wolves defense forcing turnovers. While Nikola Joki\u0107 earned six quick points, the rest of the Wolves put up 40 points in the first period. Bones Hyland surely had this game circled on his calendar (who doesn\u2019t? It\u2019s the first game of the year) as he had a massive start.<\/p>\n
As the game went on, the preseason became more pre- than season, and yet, there were still fun moments from Joan Beringer in the form of an alley oop dunk or Rocco Zikarsky talking a whole lot to the sideline (and learning how to defend Jamal Murray in real time). The Wolves rotation will likely not feature Rocco, but Beringer\u2019s fit seems just about as seamless as it can be when one Frenchman replaces another.<\/p>\n
For the other young guys, Jaylen Clark continues to be the most promising replacement for offseason departure Nickeil Alexander-Walker. His shot blocking prowess as a small guard, along with the core strength to slow down guards and forwards alike could land him a specialist role. For Terrance Shannon Jr., it was much of the same: fast break attacks and the occasional pressure valve three pointer.<\/p>\n
Lastly, with Mike Conley Jr. out, Rob Dillingham had all eyes on him. There\u2019s no way to extrapolate real, long-term information from four quarters of preseason basketball, While there\u2019s little that popped off the screen, Rob was certainly a part of the Wolves assist laden start, which saw them cash in 17 assists before committing a single turnover. Dilly had eight assists and three turnovers.<\/p>\n
While Summer League has left the young guys more present in our short term memories, preseason is the first time we\u2019ve seen many of last season\u2019s prominent Wolves. Without Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, or the aforementioned Conley, the focus was on the only two starters left in Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert, along with the now highly compensated Naz Reid.<\/p>\n
Before the game got lost in the shuffle, the Wolves put up 72 points in the first half, and did a relatively decent job slowing down the Nuggets. Jaden McDaniels saw a more ball dominant role in this one without the two leads of Minnesota\u2019s offense. His pick and roll navigation on defense has always been excellent, but the assist he provided to Gobert in a rare offensive pick and roll surely has fans excited.<\/p>\n
The continued growth of Rob Dillingham – Bones Hyland was once seen as a cornerstone of the Nuggets young bench mob. While that vision clearly fell through, Hyland looked awfully good for someone who is not expected to be in the rotation this year. Dillingham being a functional player would be a big step forward after a year in which he was borderline unplayable if he wasn\u2019t hitting his threes, but this season hinges on him. For the first time in his NBA journey, there are big expectations. Hyland\u2019s success does not change that, but it does worry the non-believers.The Joan giveth, and the Joan taketh away – Beringer was always supposed to be a project and his first quarter showed how true that diagnosis was. His first minutes saw him man-handled by the bear of a man Jonas Valan\u010di\u016bnas, only for him to return with a few impressive finishes from dump offs and lobs. His need isn\u2019t immediate but anything he can show this year would make a potential end of the Rudy Gobert era far less impending or intimidating.Donte Divincenzo is back- If Donte Divincenzo has a repeat of last year, he would be just as disappointed, if not more, than the fanbase that expected so much more from him last year. With Rob Dillingham\u2019s best skill being creative angles for finding three point shooters and Anthony Edwards\u2019 undeniable gravity, his return to form would do so, like the one he had tonight, so much for a team that needs the offensive equivalent of a life vest and swimming wings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There has been a gap in basketball in Minneapolis since the Minnesota Lynx were eliminated from the WNBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82,95312],"class_list":["post-190701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-timberwolves-scores"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}