Donte DiVincenzo had the opportunity to emerge as the hero in his second game back in the lineup after missing 19 straight with a toe injury. He slipped past the first line of defense in the waning seconds on Friday and got all the way to the rim, where John Collins and Walker Kessler met him at the apex. They forced DiVincenzo to miss at the horn as the Utah Jazz walked away from the Minnesota Timberwolves with a 117-116 win.
“We can’t just rely on getting bodies back,” DiVincenzo said after the loss. “There are only 19 games left. I think we are staying together. It’s not [hitting the] panic button, but if you look at the standings, you string 4 or 5 together, and you climb four spots. But you lose 4 or 5, and you drop five or six spots in the standings.
“There has to be a higher sense of urgency. We know that.”
The Timberwolves held an 11-point lead at halftime in Utah. They shot 26 of 51 (51%) from the floor and 13 of 27 (48.1%) from deep. They also had 24 assists and one turnover while missing Anthony Edwards (league suspension), Julius Randle (groin), and Rudy Gobert (back).
However, Utah — the lowest-seeded team in the Western Conference — flipped that 11-point deficit into a 12-point lead 6:31 into the third quarter by outscoring the Wolves 27-4. Minnesota lost all of its composure, giving a young team life. It was the last thing Chris Finch wanted to see after Minnesota’s wonky 111-102 loss against the Los Angeles Lakers.
After losing to the Jazz, Minnesota dropped to ninth in the West, only half a game above the Sacramento Kings. The Wolves were down three starters in Utah, but that shouldn’t have mattered. DiVincenzo wasn’t ready to panic, but the loss put the Wolves in desperation mode.
Discerning which Wolves team to believe in this season has been difficult.
One game before losing to the Jazz, Minnesota came back from down 25 points to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 131-128 on the road. However, with every impressive win, the Wolves lose two games they should have won or almost lost to inferior opponents.
Since early in the season, the Wolves have been unable to kick their bad habits. However, some of those struggles have recently stemmed from a rash of injuries. Minnesota went 11-8 since DiVincenzo’s injury, 5-8 since Randle went down, and 3-4 without Gobert.
Thankfully, health is on the horizon as the regular season winds down. Randle returned to the lineup Sunday vs. the Phoenix Suns after he missed the previous 13 games with an injury and was tending to a family matter in Minnesota last week.
Minnesota was 9-4 over its last 13 games before Randle injured his groin on Jan. 30. They had beaten the Los Angeles Clippers, New York Knicks (without Karl-Anthony Towns), Denver Nuggets, and a banged-up Dallas Mavericks team.
Randle averaged 16.7 points on 44.4% from the floor and 18.9% from deep in that span, but he finally looked comfortable with his new team. He also put together his most complete game right before his injury, dropping 28 points, seven rebounds, and six assists on 10 of 16 from the floor while committing zero turnovers in 35 minutes against the Suns on January 29.
Randle’s injury allowed Naz Reid to enter the starting lineup, where he thrived. However, the timing of Randle’s injury was unfortunate. His performance against Phoenix at the end of January could have been a launching point for the rest of the season.
Instead, he injured his groin 10 minutes into Minnesota’s next game.
Randle’s fit has often been clunky. His playstyle usually led to blackhole possessions, forced shots, or head-scratching turnovers. However, the Wolves missed Randle, especially with how he was playing immediately before getting hurt. They missed Julius’ tempo in the open court and shot-making alongside Edwards, which he immediately displayed in his first game back on Sunday.
“I thought he was awesome,” Finch said postgame. “His activity was amazing, cutting out there and just getting the tempo of the offense revved up.”
The Wolves got off to another one of their slow starts against the Suns, recording 13 points in the first nine minutes. However, Randle was a constant from the jump. He had a team-high 11 points and grabbed three rebounds in nine first-quarter minutes while shooting 4 of 6 from the floor, 2 of 2 from the free-throw line, and 1 of 2 from deep.
Randle immediately injected pace. However, it wasn’t until DiVincenzo, who’s still on a minutes restriction, subbed in that the Wolves found a groove that eventually lifted them to a 116-98 win.
“His defense was awesome,” Finch said. “He was very active early in all of his spots and got a lot of steals as a result. His on-ball defense was really, really good.”
DiVincenzo missed his first shot attempt in the first quarter, but he then recorded two steals and two 3-point makes in less than a minute, which allowed the Wolves to finish the final four minutes of the frame on a 16-11 run.
It was precisely what Minnesota missed in DiVincenzo’s absence: a knock-down shooter next to Edwards who brought non-stop energy on defense. Both of his 3s in the first quarter were from a few feet behind the line, which adds a different dynamic to Finch’s offense. Having a player who can space from that deep, as KAT did, opens up the rest of the floor.
Both teams went cold in the second quarter. Minnesota shot 6 of 21 (29%) from the floor, and Phoenix was 4 of 19 (21.1%). The Wolves had an opportunity to take a double-digit lead into halftime, but they trailed by two points.
Still, Randle and DiVincenzo had a combined 31 points, and Edwards was stuck at 15 points. Phoenix also went 3-10 in February, creating an opportunity for Minnesota to build a cushion in the standings after the All-Star Break. However, Finch needed his guys to come out of the break focused and energized. A third-quarter meltdown like they had in Utah would lead to another panic-button loss.
Edwards was frustrated watching Minnesota lose to the Jazz from his hotel room after the league suspended him for one game because he had 16 technical fouls. Edwards would not let the same thing happen against Phoenix by dropping 17 points in the third quarter on 4 of 7 from the floor, 6 of 6 from the free-throw line, and 3 of 5 from deep.
DiVincenzo quietly recorded nine points on 3 of 4 from deep as the Wolves outscored Phoenix 34-21 in the frame, taking an 11-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The Suns continued their downward spiral over the last month as the Wolves went on what has turned into one of their patented euphoric runs in Phoenix.
Edwards finished the game with 44 points, 29 of which came in the second half. DiVincenzo had one of his best performances of the season, notching 24 points on 8 of 13 from deep. Randle poured in 20 points, six rebounds, and three assists in his 34-minute return. More importantly, he put the bow on Minnesota’s deadly run in the fourth quarter by saving a loose ball and putting Ryan Dunn on a poster.
The vibe meter sky-rocketed, and the Wolves picked up their seventh straight win against the Suns. Their win Sunday night bumps the Wolves into the eighth seed and keeps them in the thick of an anxiously close race with the Clippers (sixth seed) and Golden State Warriors (seventh) to avoid the Play-In Tournament.
The Clippers and Warriors made meaningful trades at the deadline. L.A. acquired Bogdan Bogdanović and Drew Eubanks, and Golden State made a blockbuster move for Jimmy Butler.
Minnesota is one of three teams in the West that didn’t make a trade at the deadline. However, getting Randle and DiVincenzo back has already injected the Wolves with the same juice as acquiring new players at the deadline.
Minnesota’s remaining schedule is the second-easiest over the final 20 games. The team is finally starting to get healthy, and Finch seems willing to extend his rotation ten deep once the Wolves are fully constituted. All signs indicate the Wolves are hungry.
DiVincenzo might not have been ready to press the panic button after the loss in Utah, but it is do-or-die time for the Wolves. Given how close the standings are, they could rise out of the Play-In Tournament or miss the playoffs entirely. As the Wolves get healthy, there are no more excuses. There is no more time to truly figure things out. There is no more time to think about last season’s success and this season’s pitfalls.
The Timberwolves must get desperate.
