The Minnesota Timberwolves entered Wednesday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans having pulled off one of their best regular season wins in recent memory, making it a classic disappointment. And that was before the Pelicans announced they would be missing six rotation players — including Zion Williamson, who will welcome the birth of his first child.
Wolves head coach Chris Finch spoke before the game about how New Orleans has a lot of experience without its superstar and emphasized that his team needs to bring the same maturity that it brought during this three-game home winning streak.
Minnesota brought that early, which undoubtedly contributed to: 1) the mood to unveil an incredibly fitting City Edition jersey and court, and 2) playing through Karl-Anthony Towns and helping the big man find a rhythm . After picking up an offensive foul on an open post-up drive on the first possession, Towns recovered by making his first two 3-pointers. That sparked a 14-2 Timberwolves avalanche as the team scored on five straight possessions, including three-pointers from Mike Conley and Anthony Edwards, who also added a tough left-field layup. KAT increased its lead to 10 points in the first quarter on 4/5 shooting.
New Orleans extended its former 17-8 lead thanks to some hard balls from Brandon Ingram, who used his seemingly endless game to create crazy scoring angles that he finished with a feather-light touch. Old friend Matt Ryan also added a 3-pointer to help the cause. Two goals from Naz Reid helped the Wolves maintain their lead, while backup point guard Shake Milton came into the game with a nice 1-0 finish, extending the lead from one to four at 28 after one quarter was -24.
Milton’s commitment was important for the Wolves, especially after fellow backup Jordan McLaughlin suffered a knee injury on Monday, which J-Mac will re-evaluate in a month. Finch said before the game that Milton’s season-low 2:41 on Monday had nothing to do with the performance, but rather that he liked McLaughlin’s speed to break down a shifting Boston Celtics defense.
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The team continued its concerted effort to get Milton involved in the second quarter as he hit a three-pointer early in the frame that gave his game confidence that continued throughout the game.
“Shake played really aggressively. Things we knew were coming. Hopefully we can move on now,” said Finch after the game. “One thing we’re learning is that Shake is probably a little better at handling the ball and getting him involved in things off the ball where he can really unleash his aggressiveness.”
That’s exactly what happened on Wednesday as Kyle Anderson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker took most of the ball reps on the bench.
“Nickeil was really good at running our stuff in a different way than Mike and Kyle. I like that, we have three different guards that all focus on different areas of our offense,” Finch added.
From there, Conley continued his shooting with two three-pointers that extended the game from 10:23 to 6:06 as part of an 18-4 run. The five-man unit of Conley, Edwards, Kyle Anderson, Reid and Rudy Gobert played phenomenal defense and came out in transition to some balls that cheered up a very loud and energetic Target Center crowd that welcomed Crunch Howlers before the game. That run was capped by an emphatic one-handed throw from Gobert after a lob from Edwards.
It was one of eight assists in the first half (a career-high for most in a half) for Edwards, who excelled at manipulating defenses in the pick-and-roll, splashing the ball in the corners and wide-open 3s to achieve -point looks. Six of his eight dimes created open triples – an extremely encouraging development considering the pressure he can put on a defense with his handle, explosiveness and scoring arsenal. But as he begins to develop the ability to manipulate defenses with his basketball mind and vision, beware.
“Certainly I think he’s a lot more aware when he sees certain defenses and what that defense is going to get him,” Finch responded when asked whether or not he sees Ant’s vision expanding. “That’s just part of the maturity of playing against enough different types of defenses and trusting your teammates to make the pass.”
The Timberwolves basically got everything they wanted offensively, largely due to their unselfish play in the halfcourt. Everything fell into place, pretty much regardless of the lineup combinations out there. Gobert played above the rim for dunks and putbacks and also made good short roll passes, the guards reached the baseline to take corners, everyone shared the ball, Edwards prevented ill-advised shots and instead moved forward to create better ones The shooters take shots everywhere.
As a result, the Wolves led the Pelicans by 44 points in the second quarter en route to a 72-point half in which they shot 61% from the floor, 14/27 from deep (51.9%) and only four free throws made. Regardless of the strength of the opponent, it was a “leave no doubt” performance that showed what this offense is capable of when it creates stops, shares the ball and makes the open shots it creates.
To put it simply, this game was over at halftime, with the score at 72-44 after 24 minutes. But that didn’t mean the Wolves stopped playing. They gave it their all and extended the lead to 31, 82-51 before Minnesota went on the show.
Reid came away with a rebound, hit the circle button (s/o to my PlayStation players) before throwing it forward to Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who became a legend for throwing the lob that broke the Pelicans’ spirit .
The home crowd was beside themselves with disbelief at what they had just witnessed, so Edwards made sure to give them another incredible highlight before Finch called a timeout in the fourth quarter to take the starters out of the game .
Edwards finished his night with a team-high 26 points on 10/22 shooting, eight assists, two blocks and two steals in just 33 minutes of play, while Towns finished with an efficient final score of 23 points on 9/12 shooting.
The end of the bench made it to the finish line with a final score of 122-101.
This story will continue to be updated throughout the night as coaching and player media becomes available.
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Rudy Gobert delivers another great performance
There is no bigger difference between the 2022-23 Timberwolves and the 2023-24 roster than the version of Rudy Gobert we saw in seven games. He is noticeably healthier, quicker and lighter on his feet, and Finch explained after the game what that means for Wolves’ defence:
“He does everything. “Both on offense and defense, he creates a lot of great offense for us just with his spacing, his defense and his rolling,” Finch said. “When he’s out there, it’s back to back at plus-24.”
Gobert delivered 17 points, 21 rebounds and two blocks, mostly in the background, showing what a premier role player he was; We just expect him to have that level of play now. His activity produced several run-outs in transition that ended in either highlights, points, or both. For Gobert, it all starts on defense because that’s the one side he and his teammates can always control.
“We’re hungry. We know it’s still early in the season, but we’ve set the tone. I really like the foundation that we’re putting together and that we’ve started with [to build] “Since the first day of training camp,” Gobert said after the game. “No matter who we play and no matter what happens, we will play defense. And we will hold each other accountable for that. It was a great test and I’m really proud of the way we responded.”
The four-time All-NBA selection has been at the heart of the foundation on which these reactions are built.
“It’s fun. You can really push on defense when you just know he has your back and you can trust him. And then he always gives me words of encouragement and tells me to be aggressive,” Milton said on his experience with Gobert this season. “We’re constantly talking and communicating about how we can do different pick-and-rolls when I’m coming off a downscreen, just the looks that are open. And he’s playing dominant right now. … that’s exactly what we need from him.”
Minnesota would have played its fifth game in seven games with an opponent under 100 if it hadn’t been for New Orleans guard Dereon Seabron’s 3-pointer. Consider that in all of last season, including the play-in tournament and playoffs, the Wolves only had an opponent under 100 points four times. Despite what we saw last season, Gobert makes it pretty clear that when he’s healthy, there’s no one who impacts the game defensively more than him, and he has three Defensive Player of the Year trophies to show for it.
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A better shot mix
Some of the Timberwolves’ early-season struggles on offense can be explained by the nature of their shooting. As I recently explained in my “4 Positives, 4 Negatives” column, Minnesota has the second-highest hitting rate in the league from mid-range (27.9%, according to Cleaning the Glass) and ranks 19th in the league the frequency at the edge (31.9%). While the Wolves are making 46.8% of their shots from mid-range (fourth best in the NBA), it would be better if they tried to make more three-pointers considering Minnesota still shoots 37.3% from long range shoots (ninth). Cities plunged 23.5% on Wednesday. If Towns’ numbers approach his career mark of 39.2%, the Timberwolves could be a top-five shooting team from beyond the arc.
While this win was a bit over the top in terms of the number of threes the Wolves made, it was a good example of what happens when they manage to break down the defense and throw the ball into the corners where Minnesota has a shooting rate of 48.8%. First in the NBA.
“I think we did a really good job of getting the early pass to the open shooter. We got a lot of looks,” Finch said of the team that made 27 3-pointers in the first half (61.3% of field goal attempts). “We kind of felt like we knew where they were coming from. Sometimes you fight the game, but we didn’t, we took what the game gave us and it generally opened up a lot of space.”
How much this shot mix changes over the course of the season will be a subplot we’ll follow. While Edwards is good in the midfield, he is more accurate and efficient from beyond the arc, as is Towns. Anderson, McDaniels, Milton and Conley are all capable of creating in this area as well, but those shots need to be good mid-range shots.
There is nothing wrong with a good, rhythmic shot from medium distance. But a bad mid-range shot is worse than a bad shot at the rim (higher chance of a foul/put-back) or a bad 3-pointer (worth an extra point and easier for the offensive rebound), and the The Timberwolves’ offense has really stuttered so far because we’ve seen too many bad 2s. The Wolves have shot at mid-range shooting rates of 53% or better in all five of their wins, and shot rates of 28.3% and 38.5%, respectively, in their two losses. Keep an eye on this.
Next up
The Timberwolves, now 5-2, travel to the Alamo City for their first matchup with Victor Wembanyama and the 3-5 San Antonio Spurs, which will also be the team’s opening game in the 2023 in-season tournament. On Thursday, you’ll learn more about what the in-season tournament is, how it works and the Wolves’ schedule in it. Fans can watch the CT tipoff at 7 p.m. on Bally Sports North.
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