The Minnesota Timberwolves were one of the best teams and stories of the 2023-24 season, as Anthony Edwards made the leap into superstardom, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert figured out how to play off of each other around him, and they made a run to the Western Conference Finals.
The vibes in Minnesota were, as they say, immaculate, but then a week before training camp they traded Towns to New York for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo in a trade that has seen both the Knicks and Wolves struggling to build chemistry early in the season. Both teams are still hovering around .500, but the Knicks can get away with that in the East and still have a good look at a top-4 seed. In the West things are very different, as the Wolves came into Thursday’s game in Toronto with a tenuous hold on sixth at 8-6, needing a win to avoid dropping to a tie for 10th early this season.
In theory, the 3-12 Raptors should’ve been a good spot to get a win for the Wolves, but Minnesota found themselves in a dogfight with Toronto (on their incredible alternate court) late in the fourth quarter. With the game tied at 95-95 and five minutes to play, the Wolves chemistry issues became apparent when Randle waved off Gobert who had deep post position under the hoop, and the 4-time DPOY responded by walking to the other side of the lane to get a 3-second violation.
While Gobert’s frustration is understandable, as he had two feet in the restricted area with a seal on a smaller defender and didn’t get the ball, you also can’t purposefully get a turnover in a tie game in the fourth quarter. That was what Anthony Edwards was thinking, as he got on Gobert as they came down the floor, letting him know that’s not an acceptable reaction to not getting the ball. That turnover proved to be important as the Wolves saw the Raptors pull away late for a 110-105 win, dropping Minnesota to 8-7 and a tie for 10th in the West with Dallas and Sacramento.
