Good morning. Let’s basketball.

A couple days ago, we had a legitimate four-way tie for first place in the Western Conference. The Minnesota Timberwolves had spent most of the season atop the pile, but were stumbling with some odd losses. In fact, coming out of the weekend, Minnesota had gone 6-5 in their last 11. All five losses were in close games. Most of the six wins were not. (They included huge blowout wins over the Mavericks and Bucks.) This run nodded to the Wolves’ known issues with crunchtime offense, which is a reflection of the team’s surprisingly mediocre offense overall.

All season, the Wolves had aced their “test” games: you put a high-level opponent across from them, and they raise their level of play. Coming into Monday’s test game against the Clippers, the Wolves were 7-4 against top-4 seeds in either conference. They had beaten all of the top-4 seeds in either conference at least once with the exception of the Cavaliers, who they haven’t faced yet.

Minnesota had faced this version of the Clippers already, too, having handed L.A. one of its three losses in January. Facing them again with a potentially important tiebreaker game on the line, wanting to rebuild a little cushion atop the West, with the Nuggets having lost earlier in the night, the Wolves had another rest. Another test aced.

The Clippers have the No. 3 offense in the NBA. The Wolves held them to an offensive rating of 104, which is dreadful in today’s league. The Clips shot just 50% in the restricted area (league average is 66%) and 45% in the paint overall. Minnesota schemes to prevent corner threes — L.A. took just one all game. (By comparison, the Wolves took 10.) The Clips were able to get to the line (the one flaw of Minnesota’s defense) but it didn’t matter because when they didn’t get a whistle they couldn’t hit anything. This is all to say that Rudy Gobert is the Defensive Player of the Year and Jaden McDaniels belongs on one of the All-Defense teams with him.

Here’s the other wrinkle about the Wolves’ offensive flaws: there’s only one top West team equipped to really make that painful. The Thunder have the No. 5 defense in the league this season, but neither the Nuggets or Clippers have defenses that rank in the top 10 in the NBA. In fact, other than the Wolves and Thunder, the only Western Conference likely playoff team with a top-10 defense is New Orleans, who is a possible first-round match-up for the Wolves. All the other teams the Wolves could face — the Suns, Kings, Mavericks, Lakers, Warriors — are average or worse on defense. That could help relieve some of Minnesota’s offensive struggles.

It’s also worth noting that most fundamentals of the Wolves’ offense are fine. The major flaw is turnovers. Minnesota committed just 11 on Monday. That’s another thing really only the Thunder are equipped to exploit among West contenders. (It’s worth noting that the Wolves are 2-2 against the Thunder this season and now 3-0 against the Nuggets and Clippers.)

The Wolves are poised to claim just their fourth 50-win season in their 35-year history — they’ll quite possibly get to 50 by Spring Equinox. They have a shot at their best record ever (on pace for 57, they won 58 in 2003-04) and just their second No. 1 seed finish ever. The Gobert era got off to an exceedingly rough start: the on-court friction between the two bigs as they learned how to play together, Karl-Anthony Towns’ disruptive injury, the Kyle Anderson-Gobert fight at the end of the regular season, McDaniels’ frustration punch that broke his hand. When the Wolves began this season rough, too, it looked like the plane wouldn’t ever get off the ground. But it has, and it’s soaring, and it’s real. The Minnesota Timberwolves are a legitimate contender to claim the West in the regular season and beyond.

Scores

Sixers 123, Cavaliers 121 — Philadelphia led the smoking hot Cavaliers by 10 with 85 seconds to go. AND YET … the Sixers required a Paul Reed block on Donovan Mitchell on the last possession to preserve sweet victory. What a win for Philly.

Pacers 102, Hornets 111 — Indiana forgot its offense at the airport.

Spurs 122, Raptors 99 — Holy hand grenade. A triple-double … with blocks. 27-14-5-2-10 … in 29 minutes. Victor Wembanyama is the center of the basketball universe.

I suspect anyone who didn’t see these clips Monday night will have great difficulty turning away, but please make sure you stick around for the final highlight, a dope pass from Devin Vassell.

Bulls 136, Hawks 126 — I think Trae Young has put in better effort on defense this season. He’s still among the worst defenders in the NBA. And for some reason, Ayo Dosunmu absolutely tortures him on both ends of the court.

Nuggets 95, Bucks 112 — This will fly under the radar because of some controversial endings and big performances, but Giannis Antetokounmpo hosted his rival for Best Player In The World and beat that reigning championship team down.

Pelicans 96, Grizzlies 87 — These teams scored 24 points combined in the fourth quarter.

Knicks 103, Rockets 105 — Nightmare finish with a terrible foul call that the refs disavowed immediately after the game.

From the pool report:

QUESTION: After seeing the replay, do officials believe it was the correct call?

MALLOY:  After seeing it during postgame review, the offensive player was able to return to a normal playing position on the floor. The contact which occurred after the release of the ball therefore is incidental and marginal to the shot attempt and should not have been called.

The ref robbed fans of hard-earned overtime, and might have cost the Knicks a win. Brutal.

Wizards 104, Mavericks 112 — Kind of sweet for the Mavs to let the Wizards lead the entire second half until the last few minutes. Very generous.

Warriors 129, Jazz 107 — Golden State is cooking. Won seven of eight, and the loss was in overtime.

Timberwolves 121, Clippers 100

It Sounded Better in His Head on the Car Ride to the Arena

Spencer Dinwiddie on choosing the Lakers over the Mavericks:

First, it’s rare to hear anyone claim the Mavericks organization is a loving, supportive environment. Second, … what?

Book Recommendation

My old SB Nation pal Jason Kirk has an incredible novel about growing up evangelical and de-churching at the turn of the millennium. It’s called HELL IS A WORLD WITHOUT YOU and it’s strongly recommended. Funny, heartbreaking, illustrative, touching and — if you’re a fellow Millennial — replete with nostalgia, whether you grew up in the church or not.

I did not, but I was adjacent to the evangelical world in this period of suburban American history — I went to youth group with an acquaintance, had friends with purity rings, had a co-worker in a Christian pop-punk band — and this novel explains so much!

Anyways, great book, strong recommend.

Schedule

More basketball. All times Eastern.

Celtics at Nets, 7:30
Thunder at Magic, 7:30, TNT
Heat at Bucks, 8
Kings at Suns, 10, TNT
Timberwolves at Blazers, 10
Pistons at Lakers, 10:30

Alright, back on Wednesday. Be excellent to each other.