The Timberwolves used a balanced scoring attack consisting entirely of role-players and scrubs, with the only real outlier being Shabazz Napier with 22 (the points being the outlier, not the role-player status), to narrowly lose to the Bucks by 2. Sometimes I don’t really like having to make vids for other teams while the Bucks are playing, but in this case, I’m glad I missed the second half. I love scrubs and role-players, but seeing them kick the Bucks’ butt almost all the way to a win would’ve been too much for me.
The only thing that’s going into the record book for Minnesota is one L. That doesn’t seem fair; missing all their “best” players, they went the entire distance with the best team in the league, but it counts just the same as a 30-point drubbing. Can’t the NBA put a little note next to the L that says, like, “Shabazz Napier and his ragtag assemblage of castoffs and G-Leaguers scored 2 fewer points over the course of 48 minutes than a team with the reigning MVP and an elite supporting cast, and are therefore awarded 0.75 wins for their efforts”. That doesn’t seem unreasonable to me at all.
Napier did most of his damage in the first quarter, when I was actually watching, but I wasn’t too surprised. Angry, yes. But not surprised, because I had just gotten done making a sick 24-point vid for him just a few days ago, and I knew that he was hot. And I knew that he was confident, which might have been even more important for him. He knows right now that he’s one of the few players in the rotation with any real NBA experience, so he knows that if he doesn’t impose his will, no one else can pick up the slack.
If only he had imposed his will just slightly harder, like 4 points harder. Then I’d REALLY be mad.