Rudy Gobert was the center of attention as he returned to the Salt Lake City franchise where he spent his first nine NBA seasons. The French did the job with 22 points and 13 rebounds but if there is one player who has done well, it is D’Angelo Russell, author of a fiery fourth quarter.
“There was a lot of adrenaline around Rudy’s return, but we couldn’t be distracted from the main reason we were here. But he stayed focused and he guided us too, and we just followed,” thus slipped the leader after the meeting.
Click night?
The latter thus distinguished himself by registering 20 of his 30 points in the last act, with in particular six 3-point missiles which contributed to make the difference in the narrow victory of Wolves.
More generally, since the Karl-Anthony Towns package, D’Angelo Russell has raised his level of play, he who remains on three outings at 27, 28 and 30 points. Paradoxically, the fact of losing the leader of the team unbridled him, he who had locked himself up in the box of the simple leader, the one who sets the game up for the others.
“I had a bad approach”, did he recognize. “I was trying to be too focused on being a point guard rather than a basketball player. I changed my mentality and thought that there were a lot of opportunities for me to be myself, instead of overthinking and trying to be the leader of the team.
Kyle Anderson as a caviar distributor
For Chris Finch, the rise of D’Angelo Russell does not particularly coincide with the injury of Karl-Anthony Towns but quite simply with the fact that his leader is more and more comfortable.
“We asked him at the start of the season to set up the game more for us and then to get out of it quickly, and that’s what he did. Unfortunately, I think it slowed him down a bit in terms of pace. But he’s starting to find a little more rhythm, and even before KAT comes out.
In the last act yesterday, he also benefited from the presence of Austin Rivers and Kyle Anderson (7 assists in the last quarter), which allowed him to play a little more without the ball and thus chain the successfully catch-and-shoot behind the arc.
“Kyle is also a playmaker, so it allows me to shift off the ball and be a scorer when needed. The coach believes in it, and I love it.”added D’Angelo Russell.
