In Greek mythology, Styx is the river that separates Earth and the underworld. The river contains mythical powers that can make people who bathe in it invulnerable. Achilles’ mother famously dunked him in the river. The hero of the Trojan war and the greatest of all Greek warriors was invincible, except for his heel, which his mother held as she dunked him. The cantankerous ferryman Charon famously transported the souls of the newly dead across the water into the underworld.
Halftime has become the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Achilles heel. They often enter the locker room with a lead, only to squander it in the third quarter. Sometimes they make up the deficit in the fourth. Recently, they’ve come up short. There is no Charon dragging them into the depths of hell. Only the familiar clanks of hero ball. With each missed contested jumper or isolation drive, they fall further into the abyss.
On Saturday, Minnesota led the tanking Detroit Pistons 64-50 at halftime after Kyle Anderson’s three-point shot beat the buzzer. Nicknamed SloMo, Anderson’s shooting motion is dial-up slow in the fiber optic NBA. It’s a trebuchet in modern warfare. But he got it off, and the Target Center crowd responded with unbridled joy.
The Wolves were walloping the nine-win Pistons. Minnesota may have suffered a heartbreaking loss to Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans in the Big Easy. Edwards was likely playing through pain after a hard fall in Milwaukee. Still, the Wolves looked like a team hell-bent on curtailing their five-game losing streak upon returning home.
But they came out flat in the third, and into the eternal flames of damnation they went.
Detroit’s bench piled it on in the second half. The Pistons outscored Minnesota 38-24 in the third and 28-16 in the fourth. Bojan Bogdanović, 33, dropped 28 points on them. The Wolves wasted Edwards’ 30-point effort 24 hours after he had injured his tailbone, and they suffered their sixth straight loss. It felt like they had played two separate games. They blew the roof off the Target Center in the first half. But they let it collapse on them in the second.
“Old demons,” said a deflated Chris Finch. “Got outcompeted in the third. Just lifeless, and not sure exactly where it comes from. But we just thought in the first half we were finding some good rhythm out there. I thought we were getting some stops, and we were moving the ball, getting really good looks.
“Then the second half, ball movement stops, the competitiveness stops, and they get…40-something in transition and the offensive glass. Those are just effort categories. Obviously, they just wanted it more than we did. We got really selfish in the second half.”
Old demons. Eternal flames. Build up a lead in the first half. Squander it in the third. Battle to recover in the fourth. They continue to push the ball up the hill, only to see it roll down again. Instead of coming out of the locker room energized and rejuvenated, they leave it lifeless and disoriented. Instead of bathing in the water of the river Styx, they ferry across it.
On Monday, the Timberwolves played the Denver Nuggets, a Western Conference contender. Minnesota was shorthanded. D’Angelo Russell was out with an illness; Reid was experiencing back spasms. Still, they led 59-53 at the half. Edwards orchestrated the offense and finished with 29 and 10. Jaden McDaniels had 21 points on 9 of 10 from the field. Anderson had 19; Jaylen Nowell started and finished with 17.
Denver outscored Minnesota 32-31 in the third, but the Wolves polished off Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Co. 34-26 in the fourth, winning 124-116. Forty-eight hours after one of the worst teams in the league paddled them, the Wolves had beaten one of the best in the West. Instead of rowing across the river Styx, they bathed in it.
“Tonight was a great job by Ant of really moving the ball early, getting everybody involved,” Finch said excitedly. “Not necessarily getting them shots, but letting the ball move and people touch it. If we do that – we’ve taken a lot of dribble-up, no-pass shots in our offense. We’ve talked a lot about that in the last 48 hours of getting away from that. That sets the tone.”
Edwards, who claims to walk on water, invited his teammates into it. Better to heal in the calming flow than scurry across into the underworld.
