From howl to whimper

The Timberwolves are coming up empty on offense too often, and their defense can only contain the Spurs so long.

Light in the Forest; Albert Bierstadt; 1870s

The Timberwolves are coming up empty on offense too often, and their defense can only contain the Spurs so long.

Good morning. It's Free Newsletter Wednesday. Let's basketball.

Victor Wembanyama came back for Tuesday's Game 5 between the Spurs and Timberwolves after missing most of Game 4 after that ejection for literally coming at Naz Reid's neck. The officials tried to keep physicality in check early in this one – 23 fouls and 24 free throws combined in the first half alone – but this is the Spurs and Timberwolves: it's going to be physical.

But it resolved to what has become the stasis of this series: the Spurs defense is doing much more to disrupt the Timberwolves offense than the Timberwolves defense is doing to tamp down the Spurs offense, and San Antonio won 126-97. After Minnesota totally wrecked the Nuggets' excellent offense in the first round, this is a surprise. San Antonio has a good offense, but the Wolves just threw it into constant crisis with aggressive play. Jaden McDaniels wore out Jamal Murray, Rudy Gobert wore out Nikola Jokic, and McDaniels, Ayo Dosunmu and Anthony Edwards were able to take great advantage on the other end.

It's not happening to San Antonio. The Spurs are scoring about seven more points per 100 possessions than Denver did last round. Stephon Castle, who is still painfully young, has been really efficient on offense despite picking up fouls due to overaggressive defense. He has an eFG of 56% and has been the Spurs' No. 2 scorer. You wouldn't call Game 5 a Stephon Castle game – we've seen him make bigger scenes, even in the first round. And yet: there he is with 17 points on 8/11 shooting, 6 assists, 2 steals and a block. The only "he's young" critique you can offer is that he's been foul-prone and turnover-prone. When he's scoring efficiently to help make up for the fact that De'Aaron Fox is watching almost every lay-up attempt roll off the rim, you'll take it.

One of the few Spurs most efficient than Castle this series is rookie Dylan Harper. His eFG is 57% and he's the team's No. 4 scorer while being sixth in minutes. He was questionable going into Game 5, and then he was doing this.

He turned 20 two months ago. And he's already this good in this big a moment.

The biggest reason that what happened to Denver is not happening to San Antonio is that the Spurs can defend in a way the Nuggets can't come close to meeting, especially without a healthy Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson. That doesn't excuse the Nuggets from essentially giving up on defense at times. But the relative ease with which Minnesota scored against Denver allowed their defense to pick up full court and trouble the Nuggets. Minnesota's offense is scoring 11 fewer points per 100 possessions this round.

And the biggest reason is the biggest dude. The Wolves constantly kicked the ball out for jumpers when Wembanyama rotated to defend the rim. Constantly. I wish some brave YouTube clip maker would compile all of the NOPEs he creates on a game-by-game basis. It's truly amazing. Even outside the paint he's forcing Wolves to put extra arc on their shots, or rush their shots, or dribble and relocate their shots. He has good defenders around him, too, and the Spurs have been aggressively doubling Ant to force other Wolves to beat them. Julius Randle is not remotely up for that task. Rudy Gobert has been a total zero on offense in this series after getting some buckets on Jokic last round. (Keldon Johnson got a clean block on Gobert under the rim in the second half. Yeah.)

Wembanyama is suffocating the Wolves offense, which helps fuel San Antonio's offense. And the best offensive player for San Antonio is ... also Wembanyama.

Let's look at that last play again, along with Harper's reaction.

Sheesh.

I remain incredulous that 24 hours ago this series was tied, because the Spurs have looked a tier better than the Wolves overall. San Antonio is +67 for the series. The Wolves need more magic – or maybe another Wembanyama ejection – to survive until Game 7. Otherwise, Spurs-Thunder is on.

Rest In Peace

Jason Collins, the man who became the American sports world's first openly gay active male athlete in a major team sport, died Tuesday at age 47 after a battle with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. Collins was maybe the best writer to ever appear in the NBA; his coming out essay is beautiful and poignant, and his piece on his fight against brain cancer is powerful. He is a legend, he did immense good for the world, and he will be remembered.

Brandon Clarke, energetic big for the Grizzlies for the past seven seasons, died on Tuesday at age 29. ABC News is reporting that the Los Angeles Police Department is investigating a possible drug overdose. Clarke hasn't been healthy for an extended period for a while, and was arrested for possession of kratom in Arkansas a few months back. He faced an arraignment on those charges on Friday. This is a tragic twist for a universally liked player, and unbelievably sad.

May Jason and Brandon rest in peace.

More Like Daryl Lessy

The Sixers have fired Daryl Morey after six seasons running the NBA's most cursed team. Bob Myers, who works for Sixers owner Josh Harris across all of his sports properties now, will take over on an interim basis while a search begins. Nick Nurse surprisingly will remain the head coach. (It's not surprising in that Nurse had earned an exile; it's surprising that Harris and Myers aren't just cleaning house and letting a new GM hire a coach.)

Morey's teams have made the playoffs in 15 of his 19 seasons as head of a front office, and in 13 of the last 14 seasons. (The especially cursed 2024-25 Sixers season is the lone outlier.) If you want a playoff team, Morey can deliver that. Only two of those 15 playoff teams have won multiple rounds, though: the 2015 Rockets and 2018 Rockets, who were an ill-timed slump from knocking off one of the greatest teams of all-time and putting Houston in position to compete with the final LeBronian Cavaliers team for a championship.

Harris talked about "a fresh start" in his comments on Morey's dismissal. That's weird given that Nurse is still around and the top four players on the roster – Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, V.J. Edgecombe and Paul George – are all really likely to be back (Maxey and Edgecombe because no team would want to trade those guys, Embiid and PG because no team is likely to want to trade for those guys). It's unclear exactly what a new GM will be expected to do. I'm also intrigued by Myers' continued role here, likely something Morey was weirded out by over the past year. From Shams Charania at ESPN (emphasis mine):

Bob Myers, the president of sports for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, will lead the search for the new head executive for the 76ers and will oversee the franchise's basketball department in the interim. Myers is a four-time championship architect of the Golden State Warriors. The incumbent staff will be evaluated by Myers and then the incoming top basketball official.

This sounds like Myers will effectively run the team but also work on the Washington Commanders and other sports ventures for Harris. Huh.

If Morey wants to work again, it won't be long. He talks a lot and is probably somewhat annoying to employ and makes plenty of mistakes. But he'd be an instant upgrade on at least half of the current GMs in the league, and we know he'd build you a playoff roster.

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