Hungry Like the Wolf
After the Minnesotta Timberwolves defeated the Boston Celtics in Overtime, on Monday night Minnesota head coach Chris Finch had this to say about his team’s best player and the games brightest young star; “"He loves the moment. We still have to get better with closing out that game in regulation wier decision-making and ball movement. ... But guys who like the movement are often few and far between, and we're lucky we have one on our team." Viewers of a fourth quarter that oscillated between carelessness and individual brilliance eventually saw Anthony Edwards steal the spotlight from the league’s best team, and one of its top five best players. Yes, Anthony Edwards was better than Jayson Tatum tonight, but more importantly, he commanded the game’s final ten minutes with mercilessness and irreverence, dismissing the gentle brotherhood code for an old-school competitiveness that is rarely seen during the season’s early days. He guarded Tatum and Jaylen Brown throughout the fourth quarter with fervor and intensity, relishing the opportunity like a shutdown cornerback shadowing a premier wide receiver. On one possession late in the game, Edwards picked up Tatum above the arc, swarming his handle with his wingspan and foot speed. In the clip, Edwards knocks the ball loose and tries to force a jump ball by reaching over the top of Tatum before a timeout is granted. While the play ends here, it’s ANT’s unabashed posturing once Tatum stands up. Notice how he stands tall, signaling to the everyone on the court that he reigns supreme. For a league attempting to disrupt its perpetual underwhelming regular season with an in-season tournament, ANT’s performance puts other superstars, who use the regular season as an opportunity to round into form and shape, on notice.
This includes his counterpart, Jayson Tatum, who recoiled when the game got tense, finding comfort behind the 3 point line, where he dodged physicality and relied too heavily on contested jump shots. Conversely, ANT utilized ball screens to get the switches he wanted, often finding himself being guarded by the clumsier Kristaps Porzingis and bigger Al Horford. While it would be easy to blame Joe Mazzoula for not calling actions that put Tatum and or Brown in similar positions, when the moment mattered most, the Celtics reverted to a characterlessness that has encapsulated prior seasons. Tatum was outdueled not on the merits of skill, but on sheer hunger and relentlessness. While this iteration of the Tatum and Brown Celtics features the best all-around guard they have ever played with in Jrue Holiday and a big man in Porzingis who is complementary of their respective skillsets, last nights fourth quarter and overtime efforts were reminiscent of years past, when the teams two best players defaulted to Marcus Smart to do the dirty work. While it’s worth noting that the Celtics are enjoying historic offensive and defensive net ratings to start the year, nights like last signal a need for more grit on their pursuit of sustained excellence.
