4 days Ago By Jace Frederick / St. Paul Pioneer Press
The Minnesota Timberwolves have been far from impressive through 14 games this season. Sunday’s victory over Phoenix certainly won’t hang in the Louvre. There are lengthy periods of forgettable basketball flush with defensive lapses and/or ill-timed turnovers, many of which are the result of poor decision-making.
The general teeth of the team aren’t nearly as sharp as the bite exhibited a season ago. And yet Minnesota still currently stands at 8-6 and is the owner of consecutive victories. The Wolves are taking solace in that.
Minnesota led for just 15 seconds of Sunday’s win over Phoenix, but its name was on top at the very end. The Wolves’ current play is ugly, but effective enough. “Guys found a way to hang in there,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said.
“It’s a little bit of a microcosm of our season so far. We just got to find a way to keep battling and eking out some results until we can catch the rhythm that we know is there.” What does that rhythm look like? “Well, I would hope defensive consistency, for sure,” Finch said.
“A little smarter play. We have opportunities to take control of the game, seize the game, capitalize. We just have a few too many ill-advised turnovers, still.
Our turnover numbers are down, but we had some unfortunately-timed ones (Sunday).” The idea is that time will fix all. There’s merit in the belief.
Minnesota struggled mightily for an entire season after trading for Rudy Gobert, then reached the Western Conference finals a year later. Even the LeBron James, super-team Heat struggled out of the gates in LeBron’s first season in Miami, and failed to win the NBA title in Year 1. And Rudy Gobert noted it can be difficult to gauge where things are at when the teams is in the midst of difficult travel schedules.
The Wolves all noted they were slow from the tip Sunday because it was an afternoon game fresh off a west coast road trip, though Phoenix was playing on the tail end of its own trip. Gobert likes that the Wolves continue to find ways to win regardless of general performance. If the first 14 games have been one giant test of adversity, the Wolves have delivered a passing grade.
That’s better than the alternative. “I can feel when I look at the schedule, this stretch might be tough or this is one stretch that’s supposed to be really tough, physically, mentally and I like that we don’t find excuses, keep competing and even in the games,” Gobert said. “Obviously we lost the two in Portland, but even in Sacramento when we’re up 20, then we get flat and we’re down four, a lot of teams would fold in that situation.
We did not fold. We refocused and we won that game, and (Sunday) is the same. Down 10, I think in the second half, and we didn’t fold.
“So for me, that’s what matters is that our mindset is still always going, always competing, always resilient. Then we get better, figure it out. We have guys that wanna win.
We have a lot of talent in this room and I think we’ll keep re-finding our identity defensively, and once we do that, everything else is gonna click.”.
