Minnesota has three more games at home this week, the first of which is Wednesday against Chicago. That should serve the Timberwolves well as they attempt to halt their current two-game losing skid and get back on track.
If only things always worked that way.
Target Center hasn’t been any kind of safe haven for Wolves’ for a year-plus now. Minnesota is 0-2 amid its current five-game home stand, with losses to Sacramento and Washington, two contests in which the Wolves were favored.
Those defeats dropped Minnesota to 12-12 at home for the season, compared to 15-11 on the road. It’s not a trend specific to this season, either. Timberwolves coach Chris Finch was quick to note the team wasn’t inspiring in front of its home crowd at the end of last season.
Minnesota was just 13-9 over its final 22 regular season home bouts last year, abysmal for a team that won 56 games. Then the Wolves lost five of their final six home playoff games last spring while going 6-2 away from Target Center.
Why is this team better on the road than at home?
“When you look at the splits,” Finch said, “it comes down to defense.”
Finch cited numbers ranging from transition rebounding to on-ball contain and off-ball pursuit. More broadly, since Dec. 1, the Wolves allow just 107 points per 100 possessions on the road, and 112.6 at home.
“I challenged the guys to change their approach,” Finch said, “and we’ve got to change some things about how we prepare at home, too.”
Minnesota has made minor adjustments throughout the campaign, reducing the number of shootarounds and the times of meetings. Finch noted there’s been no correlation between schedule and result.
“We’ve been good and bad in every situation,” he said. “I think that’s a little bit of a frustration, too.”
Finch noted that everything on the road, everything about a player’s schedule, revolves around game preparation. That’s not always the case in Minnesota.
“There’s parts of the day that are up to them (like) when they get to the arena,” he said. “Obviously, they try to find their own routine, and most of them stick to it. But what they do in between those times, I don’t know, or the mindset they show up at the arena with, it’s all individual. I can’t affect that.”
Life happens.
More Timberwolves players have become fathers over the past year, including Rudy Gobert to Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Donte DiVincenzo. Veteran guard Mike Conley noted he had some “rough years” in the league just after his kids were born.
“The first six, seven months of that is really tough on athletes,” he said. “You’re trying to sleep and you can’t really sleep at home. You look forward to the road trips, honestly, because that’s the first time you really get to sleep. Your wife is dealing with most of it, God bless them, but it can be tough.
“I don’t know if that’s what they’re dealing with — if they’re not able to keep their same routine and stuff. But like I told them, when they’re having kids, you’ve got to adjust to it. You might not get a nap like you normally do. I certainly don’t anymore. It’s really hard to keep that same, consistent schedule. You just have to morph into what your life is now, and be better at when it comes to the court.”
For the Wolves, that means playing with an edge, regardless of the arena. Minnesota possessed a certain level of tenacity nearly every time it stepped onto the floor a year ago, which guided the Wolves to the West Finals. This year, that aggression ebbs and flows, particularly on the defensive end.
“Some of the things that we’re not able to do on a nightly basis,” Finch said. “I know we can do and I’ve seen us do it.”
You think the Wolves find something, and then a seemingly different team takes the floor the next time out. The good is more frequently occurring on the road — or at least when the Wolves are playing against a high-quality opponent.
“We just have to come with more of an edge and urgency. It’s easy on the road when you don’t have the crowd behind you. There’s a lot of motivating factors behind that where you just have to go out there and compete,” Conley said. “At home, there’s a comfort level we just have to get out of, a little bit.”
Finch said he has challenged players to bring more urgency about where Minnesota resides in the standings. The Wolves are currently positioned to be a play-in team for the third time in four seasons.
“Of course, physically, you have to put the work in. But it starts with your mindset. Every night these games are all so meaningful,” Finch said. “I’ve said it before, I’m not sure the average NBA player is cut out to play 82 meaningful games. They don’t have the mindset for it. But this year’s different. It’s unique in that way. We don’t have cushion and we didn’t give ourselves cushion with a lot of early season slip-ups, or part of the learning curve or whatever it is. Now we’ve gotta have a different approach.”
Whether games are in Minnesota, Memphis or Manhattan.
“We should be able to carry different things on our shoulders, motivational things that should push us every day,” Conley said. “Coach pushes us every day. As players, we challenge each other. All that should lead us to being more urgent on the floor, and we’ve just got to find that consistently.”
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