Wolves 116, Kings 106: Minnesota Musical Chairs

DISCLAIMER: This summary is brought in part by our friends, The Kings Herald (For those who do not know, they were squeezed out of their previous SBNation home). Will Griffith provides excellent content for the Sacramento Kings, hosts a podcast with former Kings head coach / GM / Broadcaster Jerry Reynolds, and is my best friend who constantly motivates me in life. I can assure you that he will be one of the best followers for you on social media! @WillofThaPeople

Will is going to throw me some help by helping repeat this trio of Kings-Timberwolves games in April. He will provide insight from Sacramento’s perspective, with Game 1 as our collective pessimistic approach to our franchises, Game 2 as optimistic and Game 3 as our most realistic expectation. Enjoy it!

Timberwolves Pessimistic Outlook @ TheKingsHerald

Kings Pessimistic Outlook by Will Griffith:

Every motivational YouTube video made to pump 21-year-olds to the gym for the first time in their lives has one proverb at some point in an illegally cut voicemail or at the end on a bad one photoshop poster:

“Good is the enemy of the great”.

For a team that has missed the playoffs the previous 14 seasons, it is much, much closer to ‘moderately the enemy of decent’. The Kangz sit in the worst spot in the league – not talented enough to make noise in the Western Conference, but not so likely or without talent to really find themselves in a position for an elite draft prospect of 21. I do not mean to say that this is absolute rubbish. De’Aaron Fox shows longer and longer flashes of 1A count capabilities. Tyrese Haliburton is much faster than expected and much better than many predicted when he dropped to 12th place in last year’s draft. These two in themselves are the core elements for any future success the Kings achieve. Nor will it be enough if the Kings want continued success in the Western Conference.

Many people had hoped, and some even expected, that the Kings would eventually enter a youth movement by the deadline and one or both Buddy Hield or Harrison Barnes. But first year GM Monte McNair found nothing worthwhile or the mini-tank, and now the Kings are here: beg the basketball gods and their new bank pieces to get them to a 10th seed while their fans fight a civil war over the merits of a tank with a player of Fox’s caliber (and contract) pushing for a playoff game. Neither side is right or wrong, but damn it, they’re going to try to argue it until the other side is destroyed. All the time, Richaun Holmes has ceased to be the best kept secret in the NBA and is in danger of stepping away from the Kings at the end of the season – the Kings are limited on what they can pay at this point and Holmes an unlimited free agent. It’s the same season, unlike Kangz’s and we’re all tired of it. Some are still hoping for a play-off battle, some were hoping before the deadline that it was not too late to fall into a Top-5 pick. We’re all just hoping for a direction that includes a long play – something that is not entirely feasible with the current group. I would bet a lot of money that the Kings will break Minnesota’s playoffs and have very little for that.

Game recap by Will Griffith:

This game is stereotypical Kangz performance. On paper, they should have traveled in this match. They are much healthier, much more trained with each other and simply put, more talented. Yet they allowed this Timberwolves group to hang around and even take the lead a quarter of the way through the second quarter. The Timberwolves only occasionally plagued these kings and it is quite surprising that Sacramento made this happen. They averaged 114.6 points per game, and they only scored the 40-point mark until 4:30 in the half. For the worst defensive rating in NBA history comparing the fourth worst in the NBA this season, the question is’good defense or bad offense“Was a pretty damn easy answer. Usually the Kings go like fox go – he was almost 40% of their offense with 20 points in the first half and the Kings only drew 55-55.

The only thing that needs to be said for the third is that for all the ugly sound and the heavy breathing in the third, the teams were level again at 82.

I’m curious about what impartial fans think of the Kings group they watched tonight. Would you believe it when I say that the Kings have won two different times two different times this season? They follow the first run-up with 9 losses in a row and lost three in a row before tonight’s loss to your team. A better writer than me would probably be able to set up this story as two emerging teams struggling in the basement before they end up as future rivals, but I think we all know that does not happen for any of us and if I had to guess , Minnesota is actually closer to the goal than the Kings at this point. These are some games that make the play-in ?! How can the Wolves be – Listen. The best way I can put it is that the Kings are waiting for them Jimmy Butler to show up and prove that they are finally ready for playoffs. It will probably go, too, and affect the future of the Sacramento Kings franchise in similar or worse ways than it did in Minnesota. In the words of our mutual friend:

Nemanja Bjelica: f *** it, they will deserve it.

Game Highlights

Game notes

• The most important talk of tonight’s game is the constant music chairs that Timberwolves keep playing. First it was CAT x2 (Pulse, COVID). Then it was D’Lo (Knee). Toe Ricky (Back). Dan Malik x2 (Suspension, thigh muscle). These four players have barely shared the track together, and at this point you have to wonder if they ever will move forward for an extensive range of games. All that was said was tonight D’Angelo Russell‘s night and I can not say how wonderful he was back in his first game. He was absolutely coupled tonight and made a personal 8-0 run to really put the Wolves in the driver’s seat to end the game. I loved how Finch the (Waiting for it …) 2-point waiting list. He ran off-ball ripples to get D’Lo more than a catch-and-shoot SG who was absolutely stunning. It appears D’Angelo has been locked down and downloaded for the latest series of games.

• Karl-Anthony Dorpe had a nice evening again and returned with a 23/13/5 line. The Kings were able to come back within 4 with only about 2 minutes left until CAT scored 5 in a row. This is what we will expect and still expect from our leader.

• We looked at what the matches of the remaining season might look like Anthony Edwards as the third point option. He had his moments tonight when he hit some 3s early and a big basket in the fourth, but he sifted his way to 19 points on 15 shots (.333 FG%) supplemented by 8 boards, 5 thumbs and steel. Not too bad at all, Ant.

• Dave Benz said ‘Ants can swim !!!“Tonight. I’m going to do the Timberwolves community a favor and compile all the facts about the ant of Benzsies at the end of the season.

• Jordan McLaughlin tonight looked the best he had in a while, giving Hassan Whiteside on a number of clever finishes in the paint that kept the Wolves going during a second half. And just like that, we healed from the not 3 healthy and capable point guards!

• Juancho Hernangomez, because of all his mistakes, it had a net positive effect on tonight’s match with a number of headers. Finch’s steadfast confidence in Juancho has continued to be one of the more surprising stories lately. He finishes with 17 points, 9 (!) Rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal.

• Big Mac struggled again tonight and looks like one of the few times this season. Harrison Barnes forced him to five fouls and just 20 minutes of action. Better days lie ahead Jaden McDaniels.
• There was a moment today where Coach Finch inserted Jarrett Culver to try and help slow down a Kings run, but he would immediately be turned into a broiler by Barnes and give up an en-1. He would hilarious unfortunately get bank only seconds later.

• Big shout for Naz Reid who was a +21 team and posted 10 points, 7 boards and 2 shares. Nazreon made 2 of 3 three tips tonight, which is an important development. Finch tried the KAT-Naz combination and was largely complementary to it.

• Buddy Hield tonight introduced 16 three tips and made 6 of them. He missed the only non-3PA he took tonight.
• Harrison Barnes “Net” had 21 points in 37 minutes, but shot 0.643 off the field tonight. It was criminal of Luke Walton to limit his efforts as much as he did.
• De’Aaron Fox quickly changed into the Karl-Anthony Towns of the Sacramento Kings, though the former plays more defense (I think). CAT is usually more dominant in attack, but today Fox seems absolutely unstoppable. He scored 31 points on just 16 shots. This is ridiculous. I do not look forward to the “Get Fox out of SacHeadlines coming soon.