The ghosts of past playoff failures haunt Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert and Wolves
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The ghosts of past playoff failures haunt Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert and Wolves

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

Technically, the Minnesota Timberwolves lost their game against the Memphis Grizzlies on the final possession of the game when Anthony Edwards tried to take possession and hit a hero shot like he did against the LA Clippers last week.

The play was ugly and not what coach Chris Finch had designed in the scrum after the timeout. But in reality, the Timberwolves lost this game in the first three quarters as they gave the cold-shooting Grizzlies one extra chance after another and squandered the best offensive game they had played in ages.

It was a performance that will undoubtedly bring back bad memories for Wolves fans who watched the Grizzlies destroy their team on offense in a first-round playoff series three years ago. Memphis was so powerful in this regard at the time that the first thing Tim Connelly, the new president of basketball operations, had to do was implement a massive trade for Rudy Gobert to make the Wolves tougher at the top.

Gobert was ineffective in that area Saturday night, grabbing just two defensive rebounds as Memphis racked up 25 second-chance points in the first three quarters of the game. Thanks to 21 offensive rebounds and 19 forced turnovers, the Grizzlies took an incredible 108 shots in the game. Memphis made 25 more shots and the Wolves scored 27 points off turnovers.

“That was exactly the play,” Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo said.

It was a terrific, hard-fought pugilistic game between two teams that have built a rivalry over the past few seasons. But the wolves had nothing to lose either. They shot 57 percent from the field, hit 17 three-pointers and provided 37 assists. This gave them the type of ball movement and knockdown shots they had been looking for all season.

Jaden McDaniels made 9 of 12 shots, including three 3s, for 21 points. DiVincenzo made six three-pointers and had 27 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. This continued his strong play since being inserted into the starting lineup. And Naz Reid, who has struggled from 3 most of the season, hit 5 of 7 from long range. The Wolves led by six points with five minutes left, held Ja Morant to 3 of 17 shooting and appeared to be on their way to their fourth straight win.

But Minnesota turned the ball over three times down the stretch, and Morant hit two extremely difficult shots, including an off-balance floater that gave Memphis the lead with 18.6 seconds left.

“It’s really that simple: Take care of the ball and return it and we’ll win this game by double digits,” DiVincenzo said.

The Wolves had two chances to win the game in the final eight seconds. Edwards missed a good three-pointer in the first period, but DiVincenzo jumped in for an offensive rebound to keep the ball. At that point, Finch designed a final play that the Wolves have made many times over the years to get a good look at a 3. Edwards passes the ball to the power forward, who then usually has a choice of shooters in both corners. Things worked out well for Karl-Anthony Towns last season.

Edwards is essentially a decoy in the game, drawing the attention of the defense to clear the way for the wingers. That was a smart strategy Saturday night as he was just 4 of 13 from the field, including 0 of 5 from 3 with six turnovers in a pathetic performance.

In a perfect world, Edwards throws the ball to Julius Randle at or near the free throw line, putting him in position to quickly throw the ball down the floor and either get to the rim or kick it for a three-pointer. But Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke played aggressively against Randle, which resulted in him catching the ball beyond the 3-point line, a less than ideal scenario.

Instead of staying down near the baseline, Edwards went and got the ball from Randle. Clarke made a great switch to get in front of him and stopped Edwards from turning the corner and heading downhill. So he forced a stepback 3 from the left wing, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

Check out DiVincenzo’s reaction in the corner:

“It’s one of our plays off the field,” Finch said. “We didn’t execute on the back end.”

Perhaps the play would have been doomed to failure. Mike Conley has been just OK from three shots this season, hitting at a rate of 36.7 percent. Maybe having Gobert instead of Reid was a mistake, but his screens have given Conley great looks for years. Perhaps Finch should have called a play specifically for DiVincenzo, whose quick firing and growing confidence make him an ideal candidate. But we’ll never know if it was the right decision because Edwards, who left the locker room without speaking to the media, made a quick decision and got the ball.

“I read it,” said Randle, who had 18 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and four turnovers. “Ant usually jumps into the corner. But they took that away and he came into the middle. If he had gone to the corner, I would have tried to make a play. But he went to the middle, so I just tried to get him a dribble handoff and let him attack.”

It was the wrong decision by Edwards in the heat of the moment and capped a frustrating game for him. The Grizzlies used a box-in-one strategy against him all game, with rookie Jaylen Wells faceguarding him for 94 feet. At 6-foot-3 and weighing 6-foot-1, Wells leaned on Edwards at every opportunity, crawling into his hip pocket and doing everything he could to keep the ball out of his hands.

The approach seemed to wear down and unsettle Edwards. He managed to dribble and force his way into the game on most of his six turnovers. He provided six assists and made some excellent passes to open shooters to take advantage of the Memphis approach.

McDaniels was 3 of 4 on 3-point shots, but Nickeil Alexander-Walker missed all four of his 3s in the fourth. Conley missed a great play and DiVincenzo came up empty on his only attempt in the 22-point final period.

“They picked him off when he didn’t have the ball up the field, and a lot of times they double-teamed him,” Finch said in describing the Grizzlies’ defense against Edwards. “I thought he did a good job of getting out there and finding his teammates. We went through a period there where I thought we had a lot of really good looks, but we just couldn’t pull them off. I thought we had a chance there to open up the game a little bit.”

The Wolves were never able to separate themselves from the Grizzlies because they were eaten alive on the glass. Grizzlies rookie Zach Edey dominated Gobert and grabbed seven offensive rebounds. The only reason he didn’t get more was because Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins limited him to 20 minutes. Jaren Jackson Jr. added four offensive boards to go with his 33 points.

After three straight double-digit rebound games, Gobert had just four boards in 29 minutes.

On several possessions in the game, the Grizzlies grabbed three offensive rebounds, giving them four hits on one basket.

“That’s the game, to be honest with you,” Randle said. “If you take 25 fewer shots, it’s going to be hard to overcome that. And we still gave ourselves a chance to win.”

If the Wolves can repeat this type of offense, more wins should follow. They rank 18th in offensive rating, but are starting to show signs of getting things right with the new rotation that includes DiVincenzo at point guard and Conley coming off the bench. The Wolves put up 103 points in the first three quarters against Memphis, moving the ball and distributing the ball while Edwards struggled to get going.

Gobert made all six of his field goals, working effectively with Conley and DiVincenzo. DiVincenzo stretched the defense with great shots and McDaniels made the Grizzlies pay for leaving him alone.

“We just have to build on it,” McDaniels said. “If we play like that offensively every game, I think we’re going to be hard to stop. Everyone contributed in some way.”

(Photo by Anthony Edwards and Brandon Clarke: Jesse Johnson / Imagn Images)

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