Player grades from Minnesota Timberwolves’ loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder
By Ben Beecken
The Minnesota Timberwolves lost a chance to complete an incredible comeback on Saturday against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
86. 120. 149. Final. 118
The Minnesota Timberwolves trailed by 21 points at halftime after giving up a whopping 83 first-half points but went on a 17-3 run to begin the third quarter. Early in the fourth, the Wolves took their first lead of the game and eventually went up by six.
But after trading blows down the stretch and getting a key stop in the final 10 seconds, a Naz Reid running hook from just in front of the rim bounced off harmlessly and Minnesota fell by two points.
The first-half defense was miserable, and especially in transition. The Thunder scored seemingly every time down the court, and that isn’t much of an exaggeration — Minnesota pulled down only nine defensive rebounds the entire first half.
The Wolves offense was actually decent for much of the game after a bit of a sluggish start. They were led by Naz Reid and Malik Beasley in the first half, and Naz helped Anthony Edwards in keying the third-quarter comeback. Jaylen Nowell was also fantastic, with 15 points off the bench.
While the Thunder did have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, and Theo Maledon all back in this one, there’s no excuse to give up 83 points in a half or fall ahead by 20-plus so quickly.
That said, the comeback was impressive. Ryan Saunders did a smart thing by putting the ball in Edwards’ hands in the third quarter and playing through Reid at times. Some of the defense down the stretch was shoddy and the rebounding was spotty throughout, but the second-half effort was solid and there is still a lot to like about how the Wolves’ young players performed across two games in two days in OKC.
Minnesota Timberwolves Player Grades vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
Malik Beasley started the game hot but overall didn’t have his most efficient night, finishing with 17 points on 7-of-19 shooting and 3-of-11 beyond the arc. He missed his only free throw attempt. Beasley did pitch in six rebounds, five assists and a steal and brought his typical effort for the entire 34 minutes he was on the floor.. Wing. Minnesota Timberwolves. MALIK BEASLEY. B-
A. Anthony Edwards was great in this game. Outside of a weird stretch in the first half when Edwards chose to simply chuck 3-point attempts at the rim in a short time span — seriously, all five of his 3-point tries came in a 4-minute, 15-second span in the first quarter — he was really, really good. Edwards finished with 20 points (8-16 FG, 2-5 3P, 2-4 FT), eight rebounds, four assists, a steal, and a block and was a massive part of the third-quarter comeback, scoring at the rim at will and staying aggressive overall.. Wing. Minnesota Timberwolves. ANTHONY EDWARDS
A. Naz Reid was the Wolves’ best player in this one. He put up 29 points (12-21 FG, 1-4 3P, 4-6 FT), six rebounds, and two steals in 27 minutes. The efficiency was there for most of the first three quarters before he forced a few tough shots in the final frame, but it was still an overall impressive performance from Naz. Of course, Reid missed the potential game-tying shot from right in front of the rim just prior to the buzzer, but it wasn’t a bad read. While he could have kicked the ball out to Edwards on the wing or Layman in the corner, either would have been something of a risky pass and he had a decent look at the rim to tie it.. Center. Minnesota Timberwolves. NAZ REID
B. Ricky Rubio started in the absence of D’Angelo Russell and had another roller-coaster performance. He committed two turnovers and two personal fouls in the opening three minutes of the game, and he scored all eight of his points in the first half. Rubio finished with eight points, six assists, and three rebounds and only committed one additional turnover the rest of the way. He was also on the court for a good chunk of the initial third-quarter push and was solid defensively down the stretch.. Point Guard. Minnesota Timberwolves. RICKY RUBIO
B. Jarred Vanderbilt had a quiet game, starting at power forward but ceding time at backup center to Jaden McDaniels, who played 24 minutes to Vano’s 18 while Jake Layman played a great deal of power forward off the bench en route to 23 minutes. Vanderbilt made his only shot, a dunk in the third quarter, and contributed four rebounds, two assists, and a block. He was a +6 in his 18 minutes of play.. Big. Minnesota Timberwolves. JARRED VANDERBILT
Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. JADEN MCDANIELS. A. It’s no longer a surprise when Jaden McDaniels has a good night; he finished with eight points (3-5 FG, 1-3 3P, 1-2 FT), six rebounds, two assists, a steal, and three turnovers. He was fantastic defensively once again, playing a ton of backup center against an Al Horford-less Thunder squad and more than held his own. McDaniels wasn’t on the court down the stretch, which was a possible oversight from Saunders given the Wolves’ struggles to slow down the Thunder offense in the latter half of the fourth quarter.
A. Jaylen Nowell was great once again, flashing the skill set that traditional sixth-men are made of. He had 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and 3-of-5 from beyond the arc; he made his first six shot attempts in the game and had it working in the mid-range and from deep. Nowell was also active defensively and it was a bit of surprise that he didn’t find his way on the court down the stretch when the Wolves had some rough offensive possessions.. Wing. Minnesota Timberwolves. JAYLEN NOWELL
A. Jake Layman had one of his better games of the season, finishing with a line of 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting and nabbing five steals, four of which came in the fourth quarter. He also had two rebounds and an assist and hit a pair of huge threes in the fourth that broke a tie and single-handedly built a six-point Wolves lead.. Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. JAKE LAYMAN
Other Minnesota Timberwolves Players
Jordan McLaughlin was the primary backup point guard with Russell out and played 24 minutes. He only had three points on 1-of-6 shooting but did have six assists and only one turnover.
Josh Okogie came off the bench and was held scoreless in only nine minutes for the second consecutive game. Ed Davis saw three minutes of play in the third quarter and registered one rebound and one assist.
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Up next for the Minnesota Timberwolves
The Wolves have Sunday off and will be in Dallas for a 7:30 p.m. CT tip on Monday against the Mavericks, who hung on to beat Golden State on Saturday despite a vintage performance from Steph Curry.