Already all however locked into the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, the Timberwolves determined to provide a few of their key guys the evening off on the second leg of a back-to-back on Wednesday in Orlando. Anthony Edwards remained out together with his knee harm and was joined on the bench by Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, Ayo Dosunmu, and Mike Conley. However, Jaden McDaniels returned to motion after lacking six video games.
The Wolves’ B squad hung round for many of the first half towards a wholesome Magic workforce preventing to remain out of the play-in event in the East. But Orlando led by 10 at halftime and by as many as 24 factors in the third quarter on their solution to a 132-120 win.
With the Wolves resting guys and now formally locked into their playoff seed, this was a reasonably forgettable recreation. But it wasn’t meaningless. Here are three issues that mattered.
1. Shannon’s profession evening
The star of the night for the Timberwolves was second-year guard Terrence Shannon Jr., who has spent most of this season out of Chris Finch’s rotation. Shannon received an opportunity to tackle a featured position off the bench and wound up scoring a career-high 33 factors in 31 minutes. He had beforehand by no means scored greater than 25 in an NBA recreation. TSJ made 11 of his 14 pictures, together with 5 of his 7 threes, and in addition dished out 5 assists.
He’s simply the second participant in Timberwolves historical past to have a recreation with not less than 30 factors, 5 threes, and 5 assists on 70 p.c taking pictures. Anthony Edwards has executed it twice, most lately in Game 3 of final 12 months’s Western Conference Finals.
Typically, when Shannon performs for the full-strength Wolves, he operates as a task participant who would not have the ball a lot and hangs out in the corners. That generally is a tough ask for him. This context allowed him to play the way in which he did at Illinois or in summer time league, which is as an on-ball initiator on the prime of the important thing. He blew by defenders and received to the rim for buckets — together with a nasty poster dunk — and he did his finest James Harden impression with a number of above-the-break step-back threes.
We most likely should not overreact to this efficiency, particularly contemplating 29 of Shannon’s factors got here in the second half and 20 got here in the fourth quarter with the rating not notably shut. But it was a reminder of how gifted he’s and all the time has been as a scorer. Even if he is not a part of the Wolves’ nine-man rotation when the playoffs start, there may very well be a task for Shannon if the workforce wants a spark. And he might nonetheless issue into their plans subsequent season and past.
“We know TJ can play this way,” Finch stated after the sport. “Obviously, 33 (points), we don’t expect that from him every night. But for him to be able to have the opportunity to go out and play this way, at this point, suits us for playoffs. Because it’s a lot of situational stuff. You never know what the game’s going to need.”
2. Jaden and Naz look good
It was huge for the Wolves to get McDaniels again from his knee harm with a while to spare earlier than the playoffs start, permitting him to shake off any rust that may exist. The most vital factor is that McDaniels regarded wholesome on Wednesday. He additionally performed fairly effectively, scoring 18 factors on 8-of-16 taking pictures in 19 minutes of motion. His three-point shot wasn’t falling, however he was sharp from contained in the arc.
It was additionally one other encouraging evening from Naz Reid, who had been slumping a bit whereas enjoying by a shoulder harm. Reid adopted up a robust recreation in Tuesday’s win over the Pacers with one other good one, scoring 15 factors and including 3 steals and a pair of blocks. He made 13 of his 21 pictures over each ends of the back-to-back.
“Naz’s game today was awesome,” Finch stated. “That’s two games in a row now, he looks like he’s back a little bit more like himself. Found his touch. And I really liked how he made a lot of gritty plays defensively, that kind of stuff.”
3. Beringer nonetheless is not prepared
There have been loads of flashes of upside from Timberwolves rookie huge man Joan Beringer over the course of this season, each in the NBA and in the G League. The most up-to-date one was a driving poster dunk late on Tuesday evening in Indianapolis. There is rather a lot to love concerning the long-term potential of the 19-year-old from France.
With that stated, Wednesday was a reminder that he simply is not fairly prepared for a serious position in the NBA but. Beringer picked up three fouls in his first 6:30 stint of motion, then sat for the rest of the primary half. When he returned halfway by the third quarter, he picked up two extra fouls in a bit of over 4 minutes, giving him 5 fouls in lower than 11 minutes on the court docket.
Beringer wound up enjoying your entire fourth quarter with out fouling out, and he completed with a strong line of 9 factors, 8 rebounds, and a pair of blocks. But the fouling is one thing he will need to work on, amongst a number of different issues. He’s nonetheless uncooked, which is OK and to be anticipated.
“He’s gotta learn to play without fouling,” Finch stated. “He plays hard, he goes after everything, but there’s gotta be an intelligence and a poise that he has to learn, and he will.”
