Wolves sink Grizzlies

The absences of two starters, Desmond Bane and Steven Adams, may be too much for Memphis. However, we didn’t get to know Taylor Jenkins’ practice, which led Minnesota to the Target Center.

D’Angelo Russell launched his team perfectly with 8 quick points including two baskets behind the arc (18-10). When Memphis got back to -1, he restarted the engine to allow the locals to stay the course after 12 minutes (38-31).

The Nowell-Knight-Reid trio then brought their rock to the building from the bench, bringing their enthusiasm and their scoring prowess to make the first significant difference (51-40). Despite the difficulty, Ja Morant’s teammates stayed in the game at the break (62-53).

The Grizzlies were expecting a burst of pride when they returned to the locker room, but instead, we were treated to the “Anthony Edwards show”, who was plagued by a sore right wrist in the first half and poured in 13 points on 5/7 shooting in the first. 9 minutes of the third quarter (87-70).

This time it seemed like a draw, but Memphis finally regained hope by going on a 7-0 run to end the period (87-77). The pressure increased dramatically when Ja Morant punished a bad pass from Jaylen Nowell on a dazzling counterattack (89-81).

But Minnesota continued and found the thread thanks to Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson, authors of many key finishing or passing actions, ending with a fantastic alley-oop between the winger and his pivot. Offensively, Memphis couldn’t resist, quickly finding themselves down -16 with five minutes left to end up losing 111-100. This is the 5th straight loss for the Grizzlies.

WHAT YOU SHOULD REMEMBER

– With the strength of the pulse. A bit quick on the wrist, Anthony Edwards still put up 13 points in the first half, but we saw slower movement of his wrist than the action. Fortunately, in the second half, we found the real “Ant-Man”, completely freed and back on his game. In 9 minutes, he showed his talent, a passage that allowed the locals to stay the course against an ever-tough opponent. 25 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists on arrival for him, more fear than harm in summary!

– Memphis head elsewhere? If we didn’t get to know the Grizzlies very well, maybe it’s because of the recent news that shook the United States and specifically the city of Memphis, following the publication of a video of a new police error that led to the death of Tire Nichols after firing five city ​​police Taylor Jenkins spoke before the game to deliver a message of peace and support for the family of Tire Nichols. Obviously not the best contexts to play an NBA game.

TOPS/FLOPS

✅ The Russell-Edwards-Anderson trio. Everyone had their moments in this game, D’Angelo Russell at the beginning of the game, Anthony Edwards with a big pass in the third quarter and Kyle Anderson ending with the apotheosis.

⛔️ Rudy Gobert. We saw the ghost of Rudy Gobert for three quarters until he awoke in a final act worth the bend, with activity on both ends of the floor, a major dunk, a crowd-pleasing “reverse” alley-oop and a excellent blind pass for a dunk by Jaden McDaniels.

⛔️ The Morant-Jackson duo. Logically, we expect more from the Grizzlies’ 1-5 axis in this context. For Ja Morant, author of a triple-double, the situation is verified almost every time: when Memphis is struggling, he tends to force and therefore lose balls. And when he loses more than five balls in a game, Memphis usually loses, and he lost six tonight. Meanwhile, Jaren Jackson Jr. struggled to get into his match, and very rarely had his head in the water.

THE FOLLOWING

Minnesota (26-25) : The Wolves continue tonight by hosting Sacramento (02:00).

Memphis (31-18) : Grizzlies host Indiana this Sunday (midnight).