Minnesota Timberwolves: Player grades from deflating loss to Orlando Magic

The Minnesota Timberwolves came into Monday night’s tilt looking to stomp on a young Magic team destined for the lottery this season. Things did not go as planned.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Player grades from deflating loss to Orlando Magic

While the first half looked good on both ends of the court for the Timberwolves, an inability to hit shots late combined with an offensive clinic by Cole Anthony (31 points on 17 shots) and rookie Franz Wagner (28 points on 18 shots) put the Wolves in a hole they couldn’t climb out of, and ultimately, the Wolves fell to the Magic by a final score of 115-97.

Let’s take a look at some individual player grades from the loss.

Karl-Anthony Towns: B

Towns ended up having a solid all-around game, putting up 23 points, 16 rebounds, and six assists but was arguably not aggressive enough in taking over offensively at the end of the game when the Wolves needed buckets badly.

Considering the outside shot was not working well the whole game for the Wolves as a team (they shot 27.5 percent from beyond the arc), the Wolves should have made more of an effort to feed Towns down low for some post shots to gain some ground in the fourth quarter.

Anthony Edwards: B

Like Towns, Edwards had a solid game overall. He scored 24 points and grabbed six rebounds while dishing out three assists. He was active on the defensive end early in the gam in what has become a positive trend early in the season.

Like Towns, however, Edwards should have made more attempts at the rim late in the game, settling for stepback 3-pointers and long jumpers. While he has shown the ability to hit from deep and spark runs in the past, but this was not one of those games.

Malik Beasley: D+

In a game where the Wolves needed a scoring surge late to make a comeback, Beasley was a ghost. After encouraging signs in the Denver game, he regressed to what has so far been a disappointing campaign for the sharpshooter.

Beasley shot just 4-for-16 and consistently killed the Wolves’ momentum with his misses.

Jaden McDaniels: C

Something has to be done about Jaden McDaniels’ foul trouble. McDaniels had five personals at the beginning of the fourth quarter and found out in just 17 minutes.

While the second-year forward constantly displays elite defensive upside, he needs to work on staying under control enough to avoid foul trouble. It would also be nice to see Jaden get more than three or four shots up a game, considering he was ninth on the team in shot attempts this game. We’ve begun to see more and more flashes of offensive upside from him, including in limited playing time on Monday night.

The Wolves’ next game is a battle with the LA Clippers at Target Center Wednesday night in the first of two consecutive games between the two teams in Minneapolis.