On Thursday night in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Timberwolves will try to win their fourth straight game at home against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Timberwolves, who defeated the Detroit Pistons 124-117 on the road on Wednesday, will be playing with little rest. Minnesota was led by Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards, who both scored 27 points, while Rudy Gobert recorded a double-double with 16 rebounds and 19 points.
It was Minnesota’s fourth victory in the previous five games; their only loss during that run was an overtime loss to the Boston Celtics on January 10 by a score of 127-120.
Chris Finch, the coach of the Timberwolves, stated that he wants his team to be focused while they are winning. Even with the win over Detroit, he pointed out certain things that were missing.
“We got a little more serious in the second half,” Finch stated. “I didn’t think the first half of our seriousness was all that great. Though I didn’t think much of our performance on Wednesday, we managed to win. That’s what counts in the end, even though it’s not the outcome we had hoped for.”
When the Timberwolves play the Grizzlies, who are coming off a 116-107 victory at home over the Golden State Warriors on Monday, Finch will be looking for a stronger start.
Vince Williams Jr. scored 24 points, going 6 for 11 from the field, to lead Memphis. Jaren Jackson Jr. ended with eighteen points, and GG Jackson added twenty-three points off the bench.
The Grizzlies, who are currently without injured stars Steven Adams, Desmond Bane, and Ja Morant, hailed their winning group, which featured a number of youthful and inexperienced players.
Huge victory, said Jenkins. “… I mean, this is the product of full-on development.”
A further illustration of that evolution is Jacob Gilyard, a two-way player with the Grizzlies. He grabbed two steals in the fourth quarter to help secure the victory, and he finished with 11 points against Golden State.
Gilyard claimed that playing with Williams and GG Jackson has increased his confidence with each match.
“At the beginning of the year, I would have been surprised if you told us all three of us were playing, let alone playing together,” said Gilyard. I feel that everyone has faith in one another. Everyone has faith in one another.
Now, the Grizzlies need to figure out how to stop Towns and Gobert together, who are a formidable duo. On Wednesday, Towns converted all five of his 3-pointers against Detroit, and Gobert controlled the glass with 11 defensive and five offensive rebounds.
As the team’s leading scorer and a player who can get heated at any time during a game, Edwards needs to learn more self-control, according to Finch. Edwards was assessed his eighth technical foul of the year on Wednesday.
Finch expressed some anxiety over it. He will occasionally get fouled, but the call won’t be made. He needs to set that aside.”
This matchup marks the third of the teams’ four encounters together this season. The first two meetings were won by the Timberwolves, 119-97 on November 26 and 127-103 on December 8. Those two games happened in Memphis.