The Timberwolves were trailing by six points in the first quarter of their 114-93 victory over the Charlotte Hornets when reining Sixth Man of the Year, Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo checked into the game. As the starting five continues to go through the motions and flounder its way through the early part of the season, the Timberwolves should thank their lucky stars that their second unit is as consistent and lethal as it is.
“I’m lucky. I have eight starters,” coach Chris Finch said. “Really spoiled for choice there.”
The choices in awarding minutes have been a piece of cake for Finch, considering he has stuck to playing his top eight players with only a sliver of time left over for sharp shooter Joe Ingles or Josh Minott in the ninth spot in the rotation. But when Nickeil Alexander-Walker is balling as well as he has in the early part of the season, and Reid and DiVincenzo turn the table of a game the way they did Monday, it is hard to argue with Finch giving those players as many minutes as he can.
He did not want to take out Reid or DiVincenzo at all. They each played over 14 consecutive minutes without a break.
“I mean, Donte played for Thibs,” Finch said, referring to former Wolves and current New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. “He’s got a big gas tank, and I think that’s probably the most we’ve played guys. … We have that type of team — guys are playing well; you want to keep riding them. Nobody really logged over 30 minutes. Still a challenge for me to get a solid ninth guy in there, but that’s coming.”
Hornets Taj Gibson opened the scoring with the 55th made 3-pointer of his 18-year career. The teams traded a bunch of jumpers in a hot start to the game, but those started to dry up as the quarter went along. The teams were tied at 24 after one.
The game started to get away from the Hornets in the second quarter. The Wolves went on a run with their best player Anthony Edwards taking a rest on the bench and established a double-digit lead. There were a few minutes where the teams were pretty even but relatively poor basketball, then the Hornets went on a three minutes drought to let the Wolves extend the lead to 16. It was a 12-point game at halftime.
Brandon Miller is still looking for his groove. He made just 3-of-10 shots and scored only 10 points. I’m not worried that he’ll find it, but I’m anxious to see him and Ball both playing well together.
Miles Bridges continues to not play well or generally make his presence felt on a nightly basis. He’s shooting sub-40% from the field and sub-30% from three on the season.
Reid took advantage of a Charlotte team who is small in stature, with a game-high 25 points on 9-for-13 shooting, while DiVincenzo had 14 points and three dimes. They both finished as plus-33 for the night, while Alexander-Walker was plus-22.
“He’s [NBA] sixth man of the ear for a reason,” DiVincenzo said of Reid. “What’s underrated is both ends of the floor. He covers up for a lot of stuff for us. I think the beautiful thing about him is he can get it off the board, push it himself, so you can just take off, get to the corners and he’s going to find you. He also can score the bucket better than a lot of other people.”
The bench and the starters are still in the feeling out process of incorporating the styles of DiVincenzo and Julius Randle. The defensive end has been just as inconsistent as the offensive end early on, and the Wolves were focused on tightening the screws on that end of the floor Monday. They did so in holding the Hornets under the century mark, the first time they did that this season after doing it 23 times a season ago.
“Take offense out of it,” DiVincenzo said. “Tonight’s focus was us on the defensive end. I think ball pressure was there, second-layer defense was there, rebounding was there. So, it was a good game to get under our belt of getting back to who we are.”
DiVincenzo was 3-for-6 from beyond the arc after shooting an ice cold 31% to open the season. He said it is not unusual for him to start the season off slow, but his shot looked just fine Monday, especially as he closed the third quarter with a stepback three that got Anthony Edwards (21 points) off the bench cheering. The Wolves are also getting used to playing with him, and Finch has been mixing him in more with Mike Conley Jr., who had one of his best games of the early season with 11 points on 4-for-8 from the field. He added five boards and four helpers.
“I honestly love it,” Conley said. “I love being out there with Donte and Nickeil, just a bunch of multiple playmakers, multiple passes. The ball moves really well. I don’t have to do as much, honestly. I literally can just be a basketball player. … We don’t really have to truthfully have a point guard or somebody designated as that. It gives us another layer of attack for our offense.”
LaMelo Ball scored 19 points for Charlotte. Bridges, Miller and Tre Mann each added 10.
After winning their season opener, the Hornets has dropped five of their last six. They were missing starting center Mark Williams (strained left foot tendon) and backup big man Nick Richards (sore shoulder).
The Hornets return home to host Jaden Ivey and the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday.
The Timberwolves travel to Chicago to face Zach LaVine and the Bulls on Thursday.
