One minute, Bones Hyland was hitting a 3-pointer before the halftime buzzer and throwing his trademark celebration toward Jamal Crawford and Reggie Miller, who were calling the Minnesota Timberwolves’ game against the Boston Celtics for NBC. The next, he was jousting with Hugo Gonzalez, pointing at the Celtics’ energizer after drawing a foul and getting to the line.
This all came just days after he Rondo’d the Utah Jazz, faking a behind-the-back pass in transition on his way to a swashbuckling layup. It seems like every time Hyland steps on the floor for the Timberwolves these days, the fun quotient goes through the roof. For a team and a fan base that has often been gritting its teeth through much of this season, the pure joy pulsing through him has provided much-needed respite.
Basketball is supposed to be fun, and Hyland is having a lot of it. That’s how a player who joined the Timberwolves on a two-way contract last season and signed a non-guaranteed minimum deal this summer wound up as the featured guest on NBC’s postgame show following the Wolves’ 102-92 victory over the Celtics on Sunday night.
Hyland led the Timberwolves with 23 points, coming off the bench to ignite a comeback from 15 points down to secure Minnesota’s first win in Boston in 7,685 days, dating back to March 6, 2005. The Wolves (44-28) outscored the Celtics by 26 points in Hyland’s 30 minutes. That earned him a date with Maria Taylor, Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter on the postgame show, an introduction of sorts to the wider NBA audience that may not be as familiar with his game.
“It feels good to be here,” Hyland said. “Everyone loves each other. We go out shopping together. We eat together. It’s a fantastic team, phenomenal team. Everyone can step up and contribute to winning. That’s what we’re doing right now, creating the vibes for the playoffs.”
For much of the season, it hasn’t felt that way in observing how this team plays and interacts on the court. They have been a brooding group, which was only exaggerated when Anthony Edwards went out with inflammation in his right knee. Julius Randle, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo and Rudy Gobert all go through their emotional ups and downs. More importantly for this team, almost all of them do it quietly.
Hyland is a human volume dial perpetually stuck on 11. He is the team’s CVO — Chief Vibes Officer. Few teams have needed one more than these Wolves. Few fan bases have needed a reason to smile more than this one, which had such high expectations coming off back-to-back Western Conference finals runs.
This team has been hard to watch at times this season. Coach Chris Finch has been openly disappointed with their lack of second efforts on defense and on the glass. They were blown out three times in a four-game road trip two weeks ago, then lost both Edwards and Reid to injuries in what otherwise has been a remarkably healthy season. After wins over the Phoenix Suns and Utah, the Wolves dropped a home game to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night that put their hopes of securing a top-four seed in the West in serious jeopardy.
The game in Boston on Sunday was the start of a murderer’s row of opponents, including the Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons at home later this week. The Wolves couldn’t make a shot in the first quarter against the Celtics, hitting just 26 percent from the field and 12.5 percent (1 of 8) from 3. Randle and McDaniels combined to shoot 2 of 11 in the quarter, but Hyland hit two of his three shots when he checked in midway through the period and helped get the Wolves back into the game.
He scored 10 more points in the second quarter to push the Timberwolves in front, 47-44, an impressive achievement given they trailed 29-14 one minute into the period. He got out in transition for easy buckets, pushed the pace to make sure his teammates started running with him and didn’t show an ounce of backdown against one of the best teams in the league.
One by one, his teammates started to follow him into the fight. Ayo Dosunmu, the other half of the “Twin Turbo” combo with Hyland, put up 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists. McDaniels shrugged off his slow start to finish with 19 points, six rebounds and three assists and Reid, returning from a two-game absence because of a sprained ankle, found a rhythm in the second half and put up 11 points, seven rebounds and a plus-26 rating in just under 26 minutes.
“Bones was outstanding all night,” Finch said. “But it was really defense and the effort we put in there that kept us in position.”
The Wolves did get a bit lucky that the Celtics were shooting as poorly as they were in the early going. Boston shot 36 percent from the field, including 27 percent from 3-point range. Jaylen Brown scored 29 points, but he needed 26 field-goal attempts and 11 free throws to get there. Jayson Tatum had moments in the third quarter, but was just 6 of 16 in 31 minutes.
But the Wolves — who are in a dead heat with Denver (44-28) and Houston (43-27) for the 4-5-6 spots in the West — were also much more into the game from a defensive standpoint than they have been in weeks. Gobert had 12 of his 14 rebounds and all four blocks in the first half to help keep the Wolves in it while they searched for their offense. Jaylen Clark got real minutes for the first time in weeks, taking the place of Terrence Shannon Jr. in the rotation, and made things difficult on Brown and Derrick White. And the Wolves out-rebounded the Celtics 56-53 after Finch tore into them for their performance on the glass in recent weeks.
“Give credit to Minnesota,” Brown told reporters in Boston. “They went smaller, they went faster, they got more physical and they made shots at the other end that put pressure on us. So, not a characteristic game for us.”
Finch also had a very good night, giving Gobert a quick hook in the second half when it seemed like running with a smaller frontcourt was the best way to combat Boston’s attack. He took a chance with Randle, who was just 3 of 14 for the game, and did not look engaged defensively. Randle came through late, hitting a big 3-pointer and grabbing nine boards after Finch called him out for his lack of production on the glass in the loss to Portland.
“We just played defense at a high level all the way through,” Finch told reporters. “Then it allowed guys to maybe find that little rhythm.”
The night belonged to Hyland. He is now averaging 20 points per game in the four that Edwards has missed. Finch said that the way he is playing will make the coach look at his in-game rotations differently when Edwards returns. Hyland has just been too good to ignore.
“The way Bones is playing right now, it’s really important we keep him in this group when Ant comes back,” Finch said. “That means a couple things: finding more minutes for him and letting him do his thing. We’re playing fast right now, and we’re playing to the strengths of this roster.”
Hyland and Edwards have become quite close since Hyland first arrived in Minnesota. Hyland wasn’t entertaining any suggestion that the Wolves were somehow better without their best player. But he is having fun stepping out from Edwards’ shadow.
“We can’t fill Ant-Man’s shoes. He’s a superstar,” Hyland said. “He’s the head of our team. Trying to fill in his shoes would be tough, but we’ve got a lot of guys on our team that can step up and come out here and put on a show. That’s what we did tonight.”
