Minnesota beat a severely short-handed Warriors team Monday to snap the Timberwolves’ five-game losing streak. But Wolves coach Chris Finch was quick to point out many of the guys in Monday’s rotation were the ones pouring it on Minnesota a day earlier.
They had no such opportunity to do so in the Wolves’ 108-83 victory. Minnesota cut off all air space in the win, as Golden State shot just 35% from the field and 23% from 3-point range while turning the ball over 19 times.
Rudy Gobert was dominant, as was the team-wide gameplan discipline.
“Guys just flying around, covering for each other,” Finch said. “With that group, you just gotta keep closing out, keep containing the ball. And I thought that was better for us.”
It was where it needed to be if Minnesota wants to win games at a high clip. Monday marked the 14th time this season the Wolves have held an opponent to fewer than 106 points per 100 possessions in a game. Minnesota is undefeated in those bouts.
Defense is the ultimate barometer for Timberwolves’ team success. When they defended at a high level on a nightly basis two seasons ago, the end result was 56 victories.
That effort has waxed and waned each of the last two seasons, and the success has been equally inconsistent.
Monday was another reminder of what’s possible on that end of the floor. Minnesota still has the personnel to be an elite defensive team, anchored by the likes of Jaden McDaniels and Gobert.
“It’s a start,” Wolves forward Naz Reid said. “With the urgency we had to have, we had to make the step in the right direction and do what we’re supposed to do.”
“Our activity, our trust set the tone for the guys,” Gobert added. “I thought we did a great job just being physical, running back, communicating and contesting everything.”
Asked what keyed Monday’s defensive turnaround, Finch responded: “Desperation, of course.”
It’s easier to muster up effort and energy when you desperately need a victory. The Wolves had a lengthy team chat after Sunday’s blowout loss to Golden State. It was nearly an expectation they’d respond a day later.
A speech or circumstance may be a motivator for a game or two. But it’s not a long-term solution.
“This needs to be something that is a night in and night out thing where you play with energy,” Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “You’re going to miss shots. You’re going to turn the ball over. You’re going to have lapses. But a team to just come in and play harder than us, that’s not acceptable. And that is the collective thought process of what we got out of this. We have the talent. We have the Xs and Os, we have the coaching, we have everything we need, but we need to play hard and, top to bottom, you need to come out there and play with energy at all times.”
Truthfully, that’s not easy. Eighty-two game seasons are long. Reid described the current stretch of the campaign as “the dog days” for everyone across the league. But he noted Minnesota has to push through it and find itself again as a team.
The good news for the Wolves is they know what that optimal identity is – a ferocious defensive collective that makes opponents work for everything on the floor. It’s not what’s sexy. Gobert noted you’re far more likely to get recognized for the number of points you score. It’s why he thinks defense does so frequently slip across the league.
But it’s what wins.
Minnesota is 26-8 this season when holding opponents south of 118 points per 100 possessions in games, and 2-11 when it doesn’t. In wins this year, the Wolves’ defensive rating is 106.3. In losses, that number plummets to 120.5.
“I think hopefully we realize that this is what we need to hang our hat on. That’s what we need to bring every single night. If we bring that every single night, good things happen,” Gobert said. “We might not play great all the time, we might not make shots all the time. But if we bring that level of urgency, that level of intensity defensively, starting from, obviously, the leaders down to everybody else, we’re a great team.”
It looked like Minnesota remembered as much Monday. But is that mentality now here to stay?
“This team forgets a lot of things,” Finch said. “We’ll go through moods, and everything starts at the defensive end.”
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