Jace Frederick: The Timberwolves deserve praise for fielding their players each and every night.
Before this season, the NBA implemented new “rest” policies to address the epidemic of players missing games.
The highly anticipated 76ers-Timberwolves game on Wednesday at Target Center was without Joel Embiid.
It was just one more disappointment during the NBA season—there are a lot of them.
When the schedule is out in August, you start to circle games, and Philadelphia’s Thanksgiving Eve trip to Minneapolis was significant.
When you combine it with the teams’ explosive starts, the game was definitely worth seeing.
Instead, Minnesota’s top centers were up against Marcus Morris Sr., Paul Reed, and Nic Batum. Well done, 76ers (10-5), everyone played well on Friday even without Embiid.
Simply put, they were unable to compete with the Wolves, who put on another professional show in a 112-99 victory.
Minnesota never felt like they were in danger as the Wolves led from the opening basket.
Jimmy Butler missed the Timberwolves’ home opener due to the same setup. Zion Williamson was also forced to miss Saturday’s game in New Orleans against the Wolves due to it.
The fact that Minnesota’s opponents aren’t as good undoubtedly improves their record.
However, it also keeps shining brightly on the league’s availability problem. The best players on teams are what fans want to see in action.
As long as they are physically able, they want to know that when they buy tickets, all of the names at the top of the billing will be present.
In an effort to curb the plague of stars missing games, the NBA implemented various “rest” regulations before to this season, but the most of them were designed to safeguard games that were nationally televised.
A game on Wednesday night
Minnesota is currently 7-0 at home and 11-3 overall, which is the finest start in the history of the team.
Would anything have changed on Wednesday if Embiid had been present? We’ll never be aware of it.
To be fair, Embiid missed his first game of the season on Wednesday. In addition, the 76ers defeated Cleveland in overtime on Tuesday, with the current MVP playing 41 minutes.
Wednesday is the day to skip the game, if there were such a day.Furthermore, though it might feel like semantics, Embiid missed the game on Wednesday due to “hip soreness” rather than “rest.”
Again, the NBA’s criterion of availability is demonstrated by the casual manner in which absences are handled.
Someone is applauded for participating if they play 70 of the 82 games on the slate.
Here’s where the Timberwolves defy the norm. Minnesota engages in player play. Though it helps that the Wolves have only played one back-to-back this season, the Timberwolves had a great opportunity to gamble on a game in the second half of that set, which was a road game in Phoenix that was played in a different time zone the night after a road game in Golden State where the starters saw a lot of action.
Rather than that, Minnesota played with its entire roster against Phoenix and lost handily.
It was a scheduling defeat in almost every way. Nevertheless, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch offered no justifications regarding tiredness following the game. Since they are experts, competition is what they do.
There will be times during the season when you must participate in these kinds of games, according to Finch.
“I think it’s important because if you guys are always sleeping, then you won’t have the resilience to go battle through that.”
Furthermore, fans attending Target Center on any given night are aware that, if healthy, Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, and other players will be playing, regardless of who is available for the opponent.
