Led by Anthony Edwards, the Minnesota Timberwolves made huge strides last season, culminating in the franchise’s second Western Conference Finals berth and their first since 2004. After trading Karl Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in the off-season for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo the offense looks a little different and will take some time to gel, but the framework of a dominant defense anchored by Rudy Gobert still remains firmly in place. Whether or not they have enough to make the NBA Finals this year after coming up just short last year though likely lies in the hands of Edwards, who is coming off a year where he made his first All NBA Team appearance with a selection to the 2nd Team.
November for the San Antonio Spurs is heavy on home games (10 to be exact) with a majority of them against some quality opponents. In a lot of ways when watching them so far this season, it has sort of felt like last season never ended for the Spurs. How easy it is to forget though that they’re not whole yet with injuries to two key players and that the season is still so young. Victor Wembanyama had his best game of the season in Thursday’s win with an historic 5×5 performance over the Utah Jazz, but can he set the tone for the Spurs tonight on defense against his fellow countryman Gobert and on offense against the dynamic Edwards?
San Antonio Spurs (2-3) vs Minnesota Timberwolves (3-2)
November 2nd 2024 | 7:00 PM CT
Watch: | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)
Spurs Injuries: Tre Jones, ankle (OUT), Devin Vassell, foot (OUT)
TWolves Injuries: NONE
What to watch for
- Anthony Edwards is off to a strong start this season, especially scoring the ball, and Minnesota will need him to be special on a nightly basis if they hope to be playing late into at least May again in a deep Western Conference. Edwards, a dynamic athlete with a hunger to grow and improve, has shown throughout his young career that he’s capable of doing special things that only the all-time greats are capable of. One such example is the 24 points he scored in the opening quarter earlier this week in Minnesota’s WCF rematch with the Dallas Mavericks. He still has moments where things can get messy though, and after that 1st quarter flurry, Dallas was able to limit him to just 13 total points the rest of the way.
- Minnesota’s offense was in the bottom half of the league last season, ranking just 17th in Offensive Efficiency. While the defense was dominant, the offense last year was very thin on playmaking, and in a sense that’s true once again this season. Mike Conley, at age 37, has looked his age to begin his 18th season in the Association, but Julius Randle is a more than capable scorer who can break down a defense somewhat and is happy to set guys up. Minnesota will need to see further growth from Edwards in that department to take this team to the next level, but relieving him of some of that nightly load is important too.
- Victor Wembanyama bounced back from his 6-point blunder in San Antonio’s loss to Oklahoma City with his second career 5×5 game and a win against the still-winless Utah Jazz. As PtR’s Marilyn Dubinski recently pointed out, the Spurs are 2-0 when he leads the team in shot attempts so far this season. He’ll have his hands full tonight going against fellow Frenchman Gobert, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year.
- Chris Paul has scored in double figures in 3 straight games, his season-high of 19 coming in the win over the Jazz. While Paul isn’t the dynamic guard he once was, the Spurs will need opposing defenses to at least consider him a threat to score if they’re going to make life even a little bit easier for Wembanyama.
- Minnesota boasted not only last season’s Defensive Player of the Year, but also its 6th Man winner in Naz Reid. Reid made real strides as a 3-point shooter last season, taking and making career highs (2.1/5.0 per game), and he’s come out strong this season as well.
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