Substance before form for Wolves
Without any noise, Wolves they currently have the second-best winning streak in the league, behind the steamroller that is the Thunder (13-game winning streak). Chris Finch’s men have just sealed their fourth straight win in New Orleans.
If this performance is achieved in the shadows, it is because the defeated opponents are not among the season leaders (BostonSan Antonio and New Orleans twice) and also because the Wolves are not playing.
“There’s a difference between a good win and a good performance”, Chris Finch recalled before the Thursday night meeting. “Long-term success is built on good performance.”
Strong with strong, weak with weak…
The second win against the Pelicans fully enters this analysis. Minnesota waited until the final quarter to go on a 15-0 run to make the difference, still allowing 116 points against one of the worst offenses and teams in the league. Two days earlier, Anthony Edwards and his gang had taken 142 points, forced into overtime to win…
“We’re not the best version of ourselves right now and we accept that”, assure Naz Reed. “We still won four games in a row. Sometimes, no disrespect to the Pelicans, we can underestimate the competition. Sometimes it hurts.”
We are used to this speech in Minnesota, already present last season. Rudy Gobert and company are erratic and too often tend to put themselves on their opponent’s level. If he is very strong up front, Wolves play at a high level. If it’s weak, Wolves don’t fare much better, and sometimes even get killed…
That’s why these four successes make you smile. The bottle doesn’t matter, as long as you’re drunk… “We were able to step up when we needed to. We have the ability to win in several ways and at this point we are counting on that.”concludes Chris Finch.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | That | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Ft | Pts |
| Anthony Edwards | 17 | 34:07 | 49.4 | 41.3 | 82.1 | 0.9 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 3.9 | 2.7 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 29.8 |
| Julius Randle | 21 | 33:29 | 49.8 | 34.6 | 81.9 | 1.6 | 5.8 | 7.4 | 6.0 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 2.5 | 22.7 |
| Jaden Mcdaniels | 20 | 31:48 | 52.8 | 47.8 | 86.0 | 1.3 | 3.5 | 4.8 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 3.7 | 15.6 |
| Donte Divincenzo | 21 | 31:31 | 42.1 | 39.2 | 83.7 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 14.0 |
| Naz Reid | 21 | 25:14 | 45.9 | 37.5 | 74.1 | 1.2 | 4.4 | 5.7 | 2.2 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 2.8 | 13.3 |
| Rudy Gobert | 21 | 32:09 | 73.8 | 0 | 53.2 | 3.4 | 6.8 | 10.2 | 1.9 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 3.0 | 11.1 |
| Mike Conley | 21 | 19:29 | 39.8 | 41.0 | 92.6 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 3.3 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 5.7 |
| Terence Shannon Jr. | 12 | 14:45 | 41.3 | 39.1 | 73.7 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 5.1 |
| Jaylen Clark | 19 | 14:51 | 41.8 | 37.1 | 59.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 4.3 |
| Rob Dillingham | 19 | 10:19 | 35.3 | 31.6 | 69.2 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 1.1 | 3.9 |
| Bones Hyland | 14 | 8:30 | 48.8 | 32.0 | 75.0 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 1.1 | 3.6 |
| Joan Beringer | 9 | 4:07 | 72.7 | 0 | 66.7 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Leonard Miller | 9 | 4:13 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 60.0 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.7 |
| Johnny Yuzang | 8 | 2:45 | 33.3 | 28.6 | 50.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 1.1 |
| Joe Ingles | 6 | 3:50 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
2025-12-05 07:43:00
