On December 12, the NBA regular season ushered in the Timberwolves, who are ranked first in the West, to challenge the Pelicans away, and the Timberwolves, who have been in good form recently, have maintained a six-game winning streak, while the Pelicans lost to the Lakers in the last round. At the beginning of the game, McCollum and Zion worked together to lead the Pelicans into an early offensive state, and Towns became the main point of attack for the Timberwolves, and the two teams competed fiercely in the first half of the first round. In the second quarter, the situation was deadlocked, and Ingram scored eight points in a row at the end of the period, and the Pelicans overtook the advantage by seven points. In the third quarter, the Pelicans frequently entered the restricted area with more flowers, which made the Timberwolves fall into a foul crisis early, but the Timberwolves stabilized the situation with a bench lineup, and McLaughlin hit a three-point whistle at the endIn the final quarter, the Pelicans advanced a 9-0 offensive run to extend the results again, and the Timberwolves were unable to recover the decline, and finally defeated the Timberwolves 121-107, ending the opponent's six-game winning streak.
In this game, the Timberwolves without Edwards were like a rocket without an engine, and the offensive and defensive ends were held back by the Pelicans. Facing the Timberwolves, who are the first in the league, have the strongest defense, and have twin towers, Zion blew up the twin towers in the first three quarters. In the first half, Zion played 15 minutes and 17 seconds, shooting 6 of 9 and 3 of 4 free throws, and scored 15 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block, with a plus/minus of +10. Back in the third quarter, Zion played the twin towers in an offensive game. In the end, Tin scored 36 points and 5 rebounds in the game, and Varland got a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds. The Pelicans scored 56 points inside to win the game. And the reason why the Timberwolves lost was that Edwards' absence had too much impact on the team.
As we all know, they only had a 42-40 record last season, and got the last playoff ticket through the play-offs, although they were eliminated by the Nuggets 4-1 in the first round, but referring to the strength of the Nuggets last season, few teams won in their hands, and it can also be seen that the strength of the Timberwolves has improved a lot. Throughout this season, the Timberwolves are undoubtedly the biggest dark horse team in the league, before the Pelicans, the Timberwolves had a record of 17 wins and 4 losses this season, and the winning percentage is not only the first in the West, but also the first in the league. The reason why the Timberwolves have achieved such a proud result is due to Towns and Gobert. It was Gobert who led the Timberwolves' defensive system and allowed the team to play at the top level of defensive efficiency. Gobert has given the team a lot of support in rebounding and defense, and has 20+ rebounds in two consecutive games this season. Not possessing the ball, being good at eating cakes, and having wide defensive coverage make Gobert the strongest defender next to Edwards and Towns. Of course, Downs is also very good, averaging 22+9 per game, and the three-point shooting percentage enters the 180 club.
However, it has to be admitted that this Timberwolves team is already a player for Edwards. This can be glimpsed from last season's playoffs, the Timberwolves' new wolf king Edwards averaged a crazy data of nearly 32+5+5 per game in the series against the Nuggets, as if he has the signs of becoming a supergiant!Edwards is averaging 24 per game this season4 points 56 rebounds and 48 assists, plus/minus as high as +86, ranked third in the league, and the net efficiency also came to +12, ranking 8th in the league. Edwards' hard solution ability is very strong, and it is his several outbursts in the second half that allowed the Timberwolves to win some tough battles, such as playing the Celtics, Edwards scored 38 points, and playing the 76ers, Edwards scored 31 points. The unrelenting nature of playing a strong team has made the Timberwolves quietly undergo a qualitative change. Like today's game against the Pelicans, without Edwards, the Timberwolves' entire offensive and defensive system cannot be opened, and Towns and Gobert can only become the toys of the fat tiger, which is enough to show the importance of Edwards. And once Huazi returns, the Timberwolves are still a very championship-looking team.