The Timberwolves are really getting some use out of their end-of-bench players, much to my (and your, presumably) delight. First it was Kelan Martin, then Jordan McLaughlin, then Naz Reid, and now, Jaylen Nowell. I’ve gotten to make a vid for all of them now, and I’ve had a smile on my face the entire time. Screw Karl-Anthony Towns. Screw Andrew Wiggins. This is REAL Timberwolves basketball right here.
The interesting factoid with Nowell is that, over his first five games, he was a perfect 7-for-7 from two-point range as well as a perfect 0-for-9 from three. A perfect shooting dichotomy that no player will ever match, ever. That perfection is broken now, as he made some threes and missed some twos this game, but hopefully this factoid lives on forever in the minds of trivia-obsessed NBA statheads.
The Timberwolves announcers inform me that Nowell’s stroke is “pure”, so if his team keeps having an absurd amount of injuries and he keeps getting minutes along with the green light to chuck, I’m imagining that he breaks this career-high soon enough. Possibly in a major way, like 20, or maybe even 30. I don’t know anything about him, really, but on the Timberwolves, anything seems possible. Except winning. That remains, despite the close outcome of this game, mostly out of reach.