Timberwolves fall to Grizzlies, their sudden high-scoring approach too low by one basket

Jerry Zgoda, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jan 11, 2025

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MINNEAPOLIS — Recently healed Memphis star Ja Morant scored the winning shot with 18.6 seconds left Saturday in a 127-125 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center.

In his second game back from a shoulder injury, Morant clinched a comeback bid with a floater over Wolves 7-2 big man Rudy Gobert after his team trailed by six points in the game’s final six minutes.

Morant scored only 12 points — 0 for 4 on 3s, too — but it was his final two that counted the most.

The Wolves called timeout to draw up a play but labored to get anything better than Anthony Edwards’ forced 3-point shot as time ran out.

The Timberwolves now are 3-1 since coach Chris Finch shook up his starting lineup and swapped starter Mike Conley for reserve Donte DiVincenzo.

DiVincenzo approached a triple-double Saturday with a 27-point, 10-rebound, seven-assist night. Eighteen of those points came on six 3-pointers.

The Wolves arrived at Target Center 20-17 overall and 6-6 in their past 12 games while the Grizzlies had lost three of their past four. Included was Wednesday’s loss to Houston, which also was Morant’s return from a shoulder injury.

The Grizzlies led 35-33 after the first quarter, 48-43 midway through the second half before the Wolves’ late burst briefly gave them a 65-60 lead 56 seconds before halftime and a 65-64 lead at halftime.

The Grizzlies never led by more than four points, the Wolves never by more than six in a third quarter that ended with the Wolves up 103-99.

The big Saturday night crowd at Target Center got a scare midway through the first quarter when Wolves starting center Rudy Gobert went to the bench and then quickly to the locker room.

He returned early in the second quarter and played on, all the way to a 12-point, four-rebound night in 29 minutes played.

Finch started the same new starting lineup for the fourth consecutive game — and the Wolves now are 3-1 with DiVincenzo among the first five and veteran point Conley coming off the bench.

DiVincenzo now slides into the starting lineup alongside Edwards, Gobert, Jaden McDaniels and Julius Randle.

Before Saturday’s game, Finch said bringing Conley off the bench later in the first quarter gives him more flexibility and options as a coach. Conley entered with seven minutes gone in Saturday’s game.

“Bringing Mike off the bench, I can put him wherever I need him,” Finch said. “I can bring him in early. I can hold him out. I can run him longer. I can sub him for almost anybody. I try to keep his minutes down, and starting him, trying to get him to play with certain lineup combinations, all three of those things were not achievable at the time, but now I feel I can do all that.

“It’s better for him and better for Julius. It frees him up more in the flow now.”

Before the game, the Wolves unveiled in a private ceremony the new Gregg Farnam Training Room at the team’s Mayo Clinic Square training facility. It’s named after the team’s longtime certified head athletic trainer. Now the Wolves’ vice president of medical services, Farnam is in his 28th season there. He helped Finch through knee surgery this past year after Finch ruptured a knee tendon in a sideline collision with Conley in last spring’s playoffs.

Finch called Farnam an “incredible part of this organization” and said, “his humility and his dedication to the job and the people has been such a constant here through a lot of change. For me personally, he has kind of been my own person medical attaché for the last year, and I’m forever grateful for that. He has been a good shepherd.”

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