Timberwolves Get Season Started With A W: Beat Thunder 115-108

Welcome to another season of Timberwolves basketball! I feel I say this every year, but my excitement continues to grow as I watch this team. They got it done. It was ugly, per usual, but they got it done. For a team that lost their biggest fighter in Pat Bev, they showed they could push back.

So, without further ado,

Here is what I was looking for in this game and this season:

- Do Jaden/Ant take another leap?

Jaden is definitely ready to take the leap. McDaniels was important last year to knock down open 3’s in crunch time when defenders would double Ant or KAT. But this year his game will be even more developed and that was evident by him going to the rim. He got this game going with a nice dunk on a couple defenders in the first few minutes. That is a sign of growth and someone ready to take a leap!

I still think Anthony Edwards will make a leap this year, this was just a one game sample size. No need to panic, yet…

- Perimeter defense / 3 point shooting

I am not going to lie, I am a little concerned about the Wolves perimeter defense. The Thunder were 14-45 from 3. It “sounds” good, but in reality a lot of those misses were wide open looks. You know who won’t miss those? The Warriors, Mavericks, Suns, Grizzlies (ugh Desmond Bane. Still mad at him torching us in the playoffs), Clippers, and more. This needs to be buttoned up.

On a similar note, outside of Taurean Prince, this was a rough 3 point shooting night for the Wolves from 3. If you take away TP’s three pointers the Wolves shot 7-34 (20.5%). Could it be just a bad game? Or will this team truly miss Pat Bev and Malik Beasley around the line…

- KAT foul trouble

I was pleased here. Plain and simple. He only had 1 foul in the first half and ended with 4. The 4th came in the last quarter on a patented kickout on a three with a few minutes left. Take that away and he comes out of the game with a clean 3 fouls. No complains. Go KAT go!

- DLo / Gobert connection

I didn’t see much, but I was distracted at times during the game. So hand up, my fault if there were some passes I missed. I did however see KAT feed Gobert a couple times. Will be interesting to see if KAT can continue to feed Gobert. Would be a way to get Gobert even more easy offensive touches.

- Other Notes:

• Loved Taurean Prince in this game. He got the team going tonight. Started 4-4 off the bench and had a quick 11 points

• Wolves moved the ball so well in the first half. They had 17 assists. KAT had 7 and ANT had 5. On a night when neither of their shots are falling, impacting the game in other ways will be key!

• Gobert is everything we needed and then some. There was a sequence late in the 4th where he helped get a stop on defense > offensive rebound > putback layup > block. Not to mention this momentum swinging and-1

• I feel like the Wolves always struggle against the Thunder. I am not looking too deep into it. I am really looking forward to the next game. The Wolves get the Jazz at home on Friday! A lot of good storylines coming out of that one.