The Minnesota Timberwolves feel they have found themselves again after beating the Los Angeles Clippers, 93-92, on Friday.
“We know our identity,” said Rudy Gobert. “The one thing that allowed us to go where we went last year is our defense.”
“We’re a defensive team,” echoed Anthony Edwards.
“We stepped up defensively pretty much all night,” explained Chris Finch. “And that’s what we’ve got to be, particularly until we can solve some things on offense right now.”
Last year, the Minnesota Timberwolves had the NBA’s best defense in the regular season and reached the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 20 years. However, they have fallen to No. 9 and have remained in the top-10 bubble all season. Meanwhile, they remain a middle-of-the-pack team offensively.
As a result, they’ve gone from a top-3 point differential (+6.4) last season to 13th (+0.8). The Karl-Anthony Towns trade is influencing Minnesota’s .500 start, but it’s uncertain why. Towns isn’t a good defensive player, and his erratic fouling made him a liability in high-leverage situations.
The most straightforward answer is that the Timberwolves completed their trade with the New York Knicks immediately after starting training camp on October 3. The Wolves were used to playing with Towns, even with his defensive shortcomings.
However, Donte DiVincenzo is scoring 8.9 points per game and shooting 32.6% from three. Meanwhile, Julius Randle can be a ball-stopper who hasn’t played good off-ball defense. The result has been clunky offense that occasionally grinds to a halt and missed rotations on defense.
“This is a game of instinct and automatism,” said Gobert. “So every time there’s a change, it’s going to take time to adjust. The question is, how long? And I think when we have experience, when we have guys that really want to make each other better.”
However, the Wolves snapped their four-game losing streak by playing sound defense. They held the Los Angeles Clippers to 42.9% from the floor and 32.3% from three. Like last year, they hustled to make game-changing plays. Naz Reid raced across the court to block Terance Mann, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker played stout defense while grabbing ten boards.
“Winning play,” Gobert said regarding Reid’s block. “That’s the difference between winning and losing.”
Edwards criticized himself and his teammates after the Sacramento Kings went on a 26-6 run to beat the Timberwolves 115-104 on Wednesday. He called the Wolves “front-runners” who were “soft” and didn’t communicate. “We can’t talk to each other,” said Edwards. “Just a bunch of little kids.”
On Friday night, the Wolves responded. Nobody verbalized anything to Edwards, but he said he saw it in their actions. The Timberwolves didn’t allow their 21 turnovers to turn into poor defense and clamped down late when the Clippers had an opportunity to win. Edwards felt Alexander-Walker was the catalyst defensively.
“He starts it on defense every night,” said Edwards. “I mean, he’s one of the players that comes in and gives us the energy, especially when the first group don’t got it. He comes in for Mike [Conley], push the tempo, bring energy defensively, pick up the ball, talk to everybody, get everybody involved.
“We need stuff like that.”
Alexander-Walker agreed that Minnesota’s hustle plays, like Reid’s block, made the difference in the game.
“Those are small little things that turned into, around here, we call them big little things. Those were just what they were,” Alexander-Walker said. “Big little things, for us, those were needed. They helped us win.”
The Wolves are still going through growing pains with their new roster, and they may need to change their starting lineup to fully reach their potential. Jaden McDaniels is still struggling offensively, and the ball moves more when Rob Dillingham runs the offense.
Instead of using Alexander-Walker as the backup point guard, they should move him into McDaniels’ spot in the starting lineup. That would allow McDaniels to get more touches against the opposing team’s second unit while maximizing Alexander-Walker’s 46.3% shooting from three.
Minnesota should also replace Randle with Reid in the starting lineup. Reid moves the ball and is shooting 37.4% from three. Randle can help drive offense on the second unit while learning the rotations on defense.
Changing the starting lineup will be difficult because the Wolves recently signed Jaden McDaniels to a five-year, $131 million deal, and Randle was the centerpiece of the Towns trade. However, the Timberwolves made that trade to get under the NBA’s second apron and create financial flexibility to sign players who do the big little things like Alexander-Walker and Reid.
Becoming a winning team team starts with players who make winning plays.