“Maybe next year” is a common phrase for Minnesota sports fans, usually we say it as a joke, or as a gag. But this time, it may be true for some fans of Minnesota Sports teams. As ups and downs continue for Minnesota Sports fans, here’s the week in review for our home teams.

 Minnesota Vikings

          For the Vikings, it was a very good week, winning against their division opponent in the Chicago Bears, in a heated battle at home. They won in almost convincing fashion, winning by 14 and solidifying the win in the last 5 minutes of the game, something different for the Vikings this year. It’s a shame, to some fans, to not have Justin Jefferson break Randy Moss’s franchise record for receiving yards in a single season. He came 16 yards short of tying the record, he needed 17 yards to beat it. Though it was important to Justin Jefferson, he casually said “I’ll get it another time.” In an interview with Pioneer Press Twin Cities. 

          With a final score of 31-17 in the Vikings favor, there was also another final, Mike Zimmer’s final game as Head Coach of the Minnesota Vikings, it was also Rick Spielman’s last game as the Vikings General Manager, as Black Monday hit, the Vikings ownership released via Twitter that they would be continuing the franchise without the both of them.

Minnesota Timberwolves

          The Timberwolves crushed the Thunder again on Friday, but to start out the week, on Sunday the 9th they had a game against the bottom of the Western Conference Houston Rockets in an away game in Houston. The first quarter was very strong for Karl Anthony-Towns, he had 18 points in the first quarter alone, and you might think he would get 40 points by the third quarter, however, it wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter that Towns achieved his 10th career 40 point game.

For most of the night, KAT was on Triple-Double Alert, just from overall projection, however, he didn’t quite get it. Finishing with 40 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists, the person playing second fiddle to KAT’s usefulness, but with a lot more underrated-ness, was Jarred Vanderbilt, who had a career night with 21 points, 19 rebounds, and 4 assists. 

           The way Head Coach Chris Finch has used this roster to their actual potential is amazing, and the other players on the roster, but to name one who has put up some amazing numbers this year,  he’s found an underrated star in Jarred Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt has shown some incredible hidden talent, not just by being a hustle player, but a board getter and a point scorer. It’s mostly his hustle that stands out to most people who watch Timberwolves games because it’s always one of the things you see about his game, he plays the ball no matter offense or defense.

The Timberwolves faced the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night, trying to get past .500. In the game, the Timberwolves looked like their past year’s selves which isn’t ideal for a team who’s trying to get past .500, thru the 1st period the Wolves looked alright, but it wasn’t until the 2nd period until it got interesting. The Referees weren’t very good towards either team, but it felt like they weren’t calling a lot of fouls on the Pelicans’ Centre Jonas Valanciunas, and giving unnecessary fouls to both Karl-Anthony Towns and Jarred Vanderbilt.

In the 2nd period, the T-Wolves lost their backup Point Guard Jaylen Nowell to an ankle injury that would take him out of the rest of the game after a nasty collision with Pels guard Jose Alvarado. The third period came around and all of the Pelicans’ three-pointers were dropping, and nothing the Wolves did could stop them.  In the 4th the Wolves attempted a big comeback after the Pelicans’ largest lead was 13, Anthony Edwards tried to take over the whole game, scoring 20 points in the 4th alone.

His efforts would turn out to be futile as the star of the game for the Pelicans, Brandon Ingram who had been hot all night was left wide open with 4 seconds on the clock and time running down, Ingram hit the 30 foot 3 pointer for the win, making it a final score 128-125. Each player who played out of their minds on Tuesday were Karl-Anthony Towns and obviously Brandon Ingram, Towns put up a full stat line of 26-5-3, with 3 steals and a block, but Brandon Ingram finished with 33-4-9 and also a full stat line with a steal and a block.

On the 13th of January, the Wolves played in what should have been a more contested game than it was if the Wolves were to cement themselves as playoff contenders. But even with what they did in that game, was pretty good to start, the Wolves ended up losing 116-108 after John Konchar hit a dagger 3 after Minnesota’s defense crumbled and left him wide open.

The players overall for the Wolves shouldn’t be mad at this game for what it was though. The player with the most points for the Wolves wasn’t the best player, which was Anthony Edwards with 30 points on 9-20 shooting from the field. But our best player was D’Angelo Russell, who put up 29 points on 11-19 from the field and dropped more assists in 6 than Edwards who had 4, he also had fewer turnovers than Edwards with 2, but eventually fouled out late in the 4th period.

For the Memphis Grizzlies, however, they extended their 10-game win streak to 11 with the win over the Wolves, Jaren Jackson Jr. had the best performance for the Grizzlies with 20 points on 60% shooting from the field and he also had 5 blocks against the Timberwolves offense.

Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild were scheduled to play an away game against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday the 10th, however much like most of the games the Wild are supposed to play in Canada and much like last week’s scheduled game against the Ottawa Senators, it was postponed due to COVID-19 complications. On the 12th of January, the Wild were supposed to play against the Edmonton Oilers, but yet again, since the Oilers are a Canadian team, and they were supposed to play in Canada, the game was postponed due to COVID-19 complications.

Minnesota Twins

The Twins don’t have any news yet, but thanks to the MLB and the MLBPA having a meeting on the 13th, maybe a solution is drawn up to end what feels like forever, the MLB Lockout. Then the Twins can get ready to (hopefully) sign players that they need to their contracts, and so that the season doesn’t start late either.