How does a team that’s seemingly lost its competitive edge over the past week regain it in the middle of a campaign? Get after one another in practice, both in film sessions and on the floor.
That’s what Minnesota did this week, with practices Wednesday and Thursday.
“It kind of lets us focus on our identity, and that’s kind of how you do that; you bring it out by bringing it out of each other,” Wolves forward Naz Reid said. “I think, you know, it shows the level of intensity that we can bring each and every night.”
Minnesota focused nearly all of its efforts on the defensive end Wednesday because, much as it did a year ago, that’s where it starts with this team. The Wolves are at their best when the defense is igniting the offense.
Minnesota allows 105 points per 100 possessions in wins, an elite mark. and nearly 117 in losses. Poor defense, particularly while guarding the ball on the perimeter, has led Minnesota to drop three of its past four games against opponents it was favored to beat.
Those defeats have the Wolves currently in eighth place in the Western Conference standings with just more than two weeks remaining in the regular season.
At this point, it’s tough to envision Minnesota making a deep playoff run. But the same was true after the team’s final regular-season bout a year ago, when it was blown off the floor by Phoenix. The Wolves got a week off between that game and Game 1 of their postseason series against those same Suns. They returned to the floor as a team on a mission and swept the Suns out of the playoffs.
Could this mini break — with three days off between games — have the same effect? It needs to. Minnesota has been a team that seems to flip the proverbial switch when playing against a high-profile team, or in a game with bigger stakes. It’s one of the most frustrating parts of this squad.
“Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not. That’s one thing that’s definitely hurt us,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “I think that’s kind of just a microcosm of other things that have come and gone in our season, when we’re good and when we’re not good.”
But it’s also a fair bet to say when the postseason begins, Minnesota will look like the rabid defensive team it was so often a year ago and has been at times this season. But Reid noted that change needs to occur now, because “our playoff lives are at stake.”
Minnesota still aims to climb into a top six position in the West, which would secure a playoff spot without having to participate in the play-in. If Minnesota ends up in the No. 7-8 play-in game, one loss would put the Wolves in a win-or-go-home game — and the reward for winning would be a first-round series with Oklahoma City.
The prospects of advancing past such a foe are slim.
There’s urgency in the now.
“That part of the future is uncertain. Right now it’s just about controlling what you can,” Wolves guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker said. “Sometimes looking too far ahead can almost get you burnt. Right now, it’s the next game, getting prepared and doing the things that we did this practice to carry over. And the game after that, and then the game after that and then hopefully we get a week to prep before the (postseason) series starts and then we’re off and running.”
Wolves guard Mike Conley said the Wolves need to be “comfortable … playing with that urgency.”
“We are a team that’s built on our high-energy activity, physical nature,” he said. “It requires energy. It requires you to work at it. It requires you to work hard on both ends of the floor, run both ends of the floor. We have to collectively find our energy together. I think for the better part of the last few games, we haven’t been able to do that consistently.”
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