The regular season opened Tuesday, with Minnesota taking center stage in a nationally-televised, standalone game in Los Angeles.
The Timberwolves didn’t seem to get the memo.
The Wolves were lifeless for the duration of their 110-103 season-opening loss to the Lakers.
Minnesota had no defensive edge, was beat up and down the floor and were, frankly, very easy to play against on both ends. It was the exact opposite of everything the Timberwolves were a season prior. The 2023-24 Timberwolves made the opponent earn everything with their harassing defense that never gave even an inch.
On Tuesday, Minnesota was lackadaisical from the outset. Defensive lapses and apparent miscommunication was evident as Lakers players were left largely uncontested. Los Angeles ended up with fastbreak layups fresh off Minnesota made buckets.
“There was a lot going on in the game plan tonight, maybe too much at times,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “We might have to simplify some things early, here. But I didn’t see a lot of resistance. Even when we had an opportunity to contain, we didn’t do a good job of that early on.”
Nothing the Wolves did exuded any type of urgency. Anthony Davis looked like the best player on the floor at both ends, with his motor putting Minnesota to shame. He finished with 36 points, 16 rebounds and three blocked shots.
The Wolves trailed by 19 in the first half.
And their offense wasn’t nearly good enough to dig them out of that type of hole. Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle set a tone of zero ball movement on that end of the floor. As a result, no one established any type of rhythm early.
Minnesota shot just 41 percent from the field and 31 percent from deep. Edwards scored 27 points, but required 25 shots to do so. He was 2 for 9 from the floor over the game’s final nine minutes as the Wolves tried to pull even after getting to within four early in the final frame.
Randle struggled for much of the game. Mike Conley had no impact in his 20 minutes. Jaden McDaniels was limited to just 16 minutes of action as he battled foul trouble.
Minnesota (0-1) committed 16 giveaways that led to 19 points for the Lakers (1-1).
“Obviously, we had a ton of turnovers,” Finch said. “Those turnovers were mostly a result of trying to do everything 1 on 5.”
Any concerns anyone may have had about the Wolves heading into the season were re-enforced with Tuesday’s performance.
That’s not to say that was any indication of who this team will be this season. Minnesota did drop two of its first three games — to two eventual non-playoff teams — to kickoff last year’s campaign that ended in a trip to the Western Conference Finals. It’s a good bet the Wolves will figure things out in short order this time around, as well.
But it certainly wasn’t a good leaping off point.
“We’ve got to find another level of urgency,” Finch said. “The season started, and we didn’t answer the bell.”
Leave a Reply