It almost felt like the Warriors were begging to be knocked out on Thursday night at Target Center. They exited the locker room at halftime trailing by 17 points and seemed more than willing to lay down if they were forced to eat another haymaker.
Instead, the Timberwolves gave them life, putting forth a stretch of play unbecoming a true contender.
Is that being too hard on the Timberwolves considering they ended up winning the game by 24 points?
Not if the ultimate goal is truly winning an NBA title.
The fact that the Timberwolves earned a 117-93 win over the Warriors to even the series at 1-all is more or less irrelevant when looking at the bigger picture. Frankly, if Steph Curry is unable to return from a strained hamstring, this should be the expected outcome moving forward.
As far the Timberwolves are concerned, the rest of the Western Conference Semifinals should be viewed through the lens of, “Is this getting us ready for the rest of the playoffs?”
There were far too many times throughout the game when the answer to that question was a resounding, “No.”
You might be able to get away with mental lapses against the Warriors when they are playing without their best player.
You won’t be able to get away with mental lapses against the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t stretches of brilliance from the Timberwolves over the course of the 48 minutes of play. They deserve credit for responding the right way after such an embarrassing effort roughly 48 hours earlier.
Not only did the Timberwolves start the game on a 13-0 run, which took the edge off in the early stages, they followed it up with a separate 12-2 run to take complete control. They also closed the game with an impressive finishing kick that emptied both benches well in advance of the final buzzer.
Some other bright spots for the Timberwolves included Julius Randle and Jaden McDaniels, who finished with 24 points and 16 points, respectively, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who was outstanding while chipping with 20 points off the bench.
It also can’t be overstated how important it was that Anthony Edwards was able to shake off a sprained ankle. After going down in a heap and being unable to put any weight on his leg as he made his way back to the locker room, Edwards emerged from tunnel after halftime to a massive ovation, then went on to finish with 20 points.
That alone should’ve given the Timberwolves enough energy to deliver the knockout blow rather than momentarily let the Warriors back into the fight with some unforced errors on both ends of the floor.
The offensive execution stagnated. The defensive intensity waned.
Luckily for the Timberwolves, the Warriors are vastly undermanned, so they ended up getting away with it in the end.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, everybody in attendance basked in the glory of what ended being a blowout. Some chants of “WOLVES IN 5” erupted from pockets of the home crowd.
If anything is clear by now at this point in the series, it’s that the Timberwolves might not even need their best for that to be prophetic.
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