Huge comeback leaves Grizzlies celebrating, Timberwolves wondering where it went wrong
Published: April 22, 2022 US time
Publisher: the Athletic
Article author: Rich Hoffman
Article translated by de Gaulle
Before completing the final-minute move to throw the ball into the sky, the Grizzlies' Ja Morant had been thinking about it for a long time. Originally, the ball had been in the hands of Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane when the game was set and the clock was rapidly returning to zero, and as long as he ran out of game time, the Grizzlies could leave the Timberwolves' home court with a comeback win that would go down in history. But Morant felt that wasn't enough, and he ran to Bane and made the move to get the ball. After receiving Bain's pass, Morant swung his hand wide and threw the ball into the sky at the center of the target.
At this point, the game time was just over, the scoreboard was written "104-95", and the winning side was the Grizzlies. Not only did they crawl out of the quagmire of trailing by 26 points, they also turned the big score of the series into 2-1, taking back their home field advantage.
"The reason I made such an irreverent move is because they were so disrespectful to us," said "they" in Morant's air, the Timberwolves fans who kept booing, "and that's why you saw the ball thrown into the sky." Our goal is to come here, win the game away and let the fans of the opponent go home with uncomfortable emotions. So, there should be a lot of people drinking in the bar tonight. ”
It is not only the Timberwolves fans who are drunk, but also the Timberwolves players who have experienced such a reversal on the court, their emotions are even more imaginable.
Originally, the Timberwolves started the season in the first official playoff game and played very well. With 10 minutes and 30 seconds left in the second quarter, they were already 47-21 ahead of the Grizzlies by as many as 26 points. However, as the second in the West, the Grizzlies' strength is still not to be underestimated, and under The Attack of Bane's consecutive three-point attack, the Grizzlies have narrowed the point difference to only 7 points at the end of the half. However, after the start of the second half, the plot seemed to repeat itself again, and the Timberwolves scored 32 points in the third quarter, widening the point difference with the Grizzlies again, this time reaching more than 25 points.
But with about 2 minutes left in the third quarter, the situation on the court began to reverse. In the next 14 minutes or so of the game, the Timberwolves hit just four athletic goals. At the end of the third quarter and throughout the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves scored only 14 points. At this time, the Grizzlies threw off all the burdens, slashed 46 points, and knocked the opponent directly to the ground.
"I'm not quite sure exactly how we did it," Grizzlies coach Jenkins said after the game.
Compared with the somewhat "confused" manager, Bane, who scored the team's highest single-game 26 points, has some personal opinions on the Grizzlies' reversal. "The change we made on the pitch was to correct the body movements," Bane said, "and I think we lost a little bit of energy after we got too early in the game and didn't start the game that we wanted." ”
When the Grizzlies were in trouble, two players re-injected the team with their individual play. The first person, of course, was Bane, and the man who led the team to a counterattack in the final 14 minutes of the game was Morant. While athletically inefficient on 5-of-18 shooting, Morant contributed 10 rebounds and 10 assists in addition to 16 points, earning his first playoff triple-double. With a very comprehensive play, lead the Grizzlies to a strong counterattack.
The Timberwolves, on the other hand, responded far from enough while the Grizzlies went on the offensive. With three-pointers not as accurate as they were at the beginning of the game, the Timberwolves couldn't find a better way to score. One of the negative examples is the Timberwolves' inner core Towns. In the whole game, Downs only made four athletic shots, got 8 points and 5 rebounds. In the second game of the series, Towns has only made a total of 11 shots in the last two Games the Timberwolves have lost. Regardless of the efficiency of the attack, Downs's involvement in the attack is clearly far from enough.
Towns is limited, and in addition to his personal subjective factors, there is another objective reason that cannot be ignored, that is, the Grizzlies' adjustment of the lineup. From the second half of the second game of the series, the Grizzlies no longer let center Adams start, but sent "sledgehammer" Kyle Anderson and Jalan Jackson Jr. to partner the inside line, plus substitute Clark and Tillman, the Grizzlies' inner rotation, although highly reduced, has significantly improved mobility, and both offensive and defensive ends have given the Grizzlies great benefits.
In his personal career, Towns often does not shy away from opponents who are taller and stronger than himself, but when opponents change to more flexible small lineups, he often struggles on the field. This time, the timberwolves and Towns came back at the cost of being reversed by their opponents by more than 20 points ahead of the team, while falling behind by a large score in the series. For the Timberwolves, they need to make adjustments in time for Game 4, because if they lose one more game, their fate this season may not be rewritten.
On the other hand, the reason why the Grizzlies did not give up the game after falling so far behind may be because they have experienced similar scenes in the past, but they were the reversed side at that time. That was 10 years ago, the Grizzlies had met the Clippers in the first round of the playoffs, and in the first game of the two-side series, the Grizzlies once established a 27-point lead, resulting in the Clippers' Nick Young firing frequent cannons on the outside and the decisive three-pointer of Reggie Evans on the inside, allowing the Clippers to achieve the biggest reversal in playoff history, pinning the Grizzlies to the column of shame.
Although the Grizzlies, who experienced a reversal at the time, are no longer on the team, the cycle of history is sometimes so dramatic. Later, in 2019, the Clippers also achieved a reversal after 31 points behind the Warriors. And now, the grizzly bear, who has experienced pain, has let his opponent the Timberwolves taste so bitter.
"I've never experienced two games in the past that were 20 points behind and ended up winning," Bane of the Grizzlies said after the game. ”