On April 20, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs continued, and the Grizzlies played at home against the Timberwolves. In a two-day previous game, the Grizzlies had lost at home. Today's game, the two teams are very fierce, full of gunpowder, and the Timberwolves, the most disappointing thing is downs, and the previous playoffs to play the Clippers, 5 early fouls, no performance, play very impatient. The Grizzlies blossomed in the second and third quarters with Moreant, Bain and Jackson, at one point stretching the gap to 27 points. By the fourth quarter, Clark and Jalan Jackson blossomed more and the game went into garbage time early. In the end, the Grizzlies beat the Timberwolves 124-96 at home to draw the score at 1-1.
Let's start with the data. On the Timberwolves side, Towns had 15 points, 11 rebounds, five turnovers and five fouls, Edwards had 20 points and six rebounds, Russell had 11 points and four assists, Reid had 12 points and seven rebounds, and Prince had 12 points. On the Grizzlies side, Morant had 23 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists, Bane 16 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Clark 13 points, Dillman 13 points, Zaire Williams 13 points, Jones 10 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, and Jalen Jackson 16 points.
Before the series began, many media predicted that Morant would not play too comfortably because the Timberwolves had Beverley. Beverley was really "tough" enough for Morant today, and just after the game began, Beverley was in the defensive round, and with the referee already blowing the whistle to signal that the Timberwolves player had fouled, Beverley gave Morant a head from behind. The slow-motion replay showed that Beverly's action was to hit the ball hard, and then the ball directly hit Morant's right eye and brow bone, and Morant flew out with the ball, and finally Beverley ate the technical prisoner. To be honest, Beverley's way of defending, I don't appreciate it. Adams then slapped Vanderbilt in the face and was blown for a first-degree malicious foul. Including the game played until the third quarter, in a blocking round, Downs to the top of Morant's thigh position, Morant covered his legs and returned to the locker room to accept the value, fortunately, Morant returned in the fourth quarter.
To be honest, the Timberwolves' worst performance today is Towns, perhaps the outside world has given him a high expectation, this kind of key game, he is difficult to play, even less than Edwards who played in the playoffs for the first time. Towns also had some wonderful rounds in the game, such as breaking through Jaren Jackson and completing the dunk. But more often than not, he played very impatiently, holding the ball under the basket and attacking, either being cut or making mistakes, including offensive fouls. Of course, the Grizzlies today, although Adams only played 3 minutes, the team lacked a real interior center, but the confrontation was not less, from Anderson to Zaire Williams, including Jarlen Jackson, they are very good at using the body to provide confrontation. In this case, Downs himself was visibly out of rhythm. On the defensive end, Towns was too easy to play, and when Bane, Morant, and Clark were all rushing inside, Downs lacked protection around him, and the Grizzlies hit him. Of course, Russell also performed badly, the feel was very bad, relatively speaking, Edwards was in stable form, but he was in a small amount of money.
When Morant returned in the fourth quarter, the Grizzlies hit the whole momentum, Jaren Jackson hit consecutive three-pointers, Clark rushed to the basket to create a kill, Andrante himself continued to break through the throw, but then was replaced, the game was completely flowered. In fact, this game is also a good reminder for Morant, in the last game, he tried too many personal attacks, lack of contact with his teammates, although he has 20 free throws, but on the one hand, it consumes a lot, on the other hand, the opponent only needs to focus on you. Today's game, from the first quarter, including Clark and Bane are scoring, Morant focused on tandem organization, the results are not bad, the whole team today 7 people in doubles, which is much easier than a person carrying the team forward. Of course, the gap between the two teams today is close to 30 points, which is not a real strength embodiment, but Downs's performance of pulling his crotch at key moments is often seen, no wonder when Harden was questioned, Downs supported it, indicating that he understood Harden, because sometimes the pressure faced is different. But Harden can lead the team to win, but Towns can't.
At present, the Warriors are leading the Nuggets 2-0, and there is basically not much suspense in that group of matches. For the Grizzlies, they must reduce Morant's attrition and avoid some deliberate retaliatory fouls by Timberwolves players as much as possible, and the Grizzlies have the ability to quickly end the series under normal performance, provided that Morant fully leads his teammates. With the Grizzlies losing in the first game, they still lack home advantage, and Minnesota have no second option on both roads and must go all out. In addition, if the Timberwolves want to be more competitive, Downs is the key, and he is the core of the current team.