12 hours Ago
Conspiracy theories got tossed out on social media approximately three seconds after the NBA’s playoff matchups were set. The fix is in! The Timberwolves will have to play five on eight! There’s no way the NBA will let the Lakers lose! That serves as the backdrop in what will be the biggest test of the Wolves’ emotional maturity and mental toughness beginning Saturday night in Los Angeles in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Lakers. Standing in the path is the superstar tandem of LeBron James and Luka Doncic, the Lakers championship mystique and a suspicious perception that the NBA — and, by proxy, the officials — will do whatever it takes to ensure the Lakers advance because they represent ratings gold.
The Wolves can’t allow themselves to get stuck in that quicksand. If they expend time and energy on the wrong thing, it is destined to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Wolves absolutely are good enough to win the series.
But only if they successfully harness their emotions and don’t let negative circumstances derail them, whether that’s questionable calls, momentum swings or the usual playoff drama and tension. “There’s going to be a lot of noise, there’s going to be a lot of distraction,” center Rudy Gobert said. “There’s going to be a lot of things that won’t go our way.
I think we all prepared for that, and we can’t let that affect us. We can’t let that affect us getting to the next play, can’t let that distract us from the game plan or what we need to do.” LeBron and Doncic will work the officials.
Doncic especially. His complaints are incessant from opening tipoff. Wolves Wolves Sports Wolves players and coaches will voice their objections too, as usual, but it becomes a problem if that sideshow causes them to lose focus and creates negative energy that detracts from the greater mission.
“There’s a lot of things that you got to do to stay focused right now,” coach Chris Finch said. “We can’t control [officiating]. As a team, we’ve done a better job down the stretch here of just getting on about the business of basketball, and that’s what it’s got to be.
” Anthony Edwards never hides his emotions on the court. That serves him well most of the time but veers a different direction when it involves officials. Edwards led the NBA in technical fouls this season with 17, which cost him a one-game suspension and nearly a second suspension for the regular-season finale until the league rescinded a tech.
Edwards will be revved full throttle this series when combining playoff intensity, his team being cast as the underdog by national media and the challenge of squaring off against LeBron and Doncic. The Wolves need Good Ant to be present. He vowed to be on his best behavior with officials.
“I won’t get no techs,” he said. “I won’t say anything. I’m gonna be super quiet, 100 percent.
” Emotional toughness goes beyond dealing with officiating. It reveals itself in many other ways. Showing poise under pressure, understanding that series have ebbs and flows, not overreacting to adverse situations.
One example: If Jaden McDaniels picks up a ticky-tack foul guarding Doncic, he can’t let frustration lead him to commit another quick foul. That only compounds the problem because then he goes to the bench and the game plan gets scrambled. Maturity shows up in game awareness, too.
Edwards spent this week preparing and visualizing different defensive schemes he undoubtedly will see that are designed to confuse and frustrate him. Sometimes he will get double-teamed. Sometimes the Lakers will crowd gaps with help defenders.
They will defend him multiple ways in pick-and-roll situations. Edwards showed tangible growth as a player in the playoff series against Phoenix last season by serving as a facilitator for teammates rather than forcing things against help defense. He didn’t fall into the trap of taking hero shots.
“His ability and timing of making the right play and the right read has gotten better and better,” Finch said. “His frustrations about how teams guard him, I think he now embraces it. The maturity around it has gotten better.
” Edwards said it boils down to “trust each other, and trust ourselves, our work.” This matchup will require them to lean into that trust and keep their cool. The Lakers will get some favorable calls.
That’s inevitable. The response is what matters..
