While the Timberwolves were likely annoyed by blowing a winnable game Sunday in San Francisco, Mike Conley noted that post-loss feeling was far different than the ones they experienced before their recent four-game winning streak.
Because the reasons for defeat were easily identifiable — Minnesota squandered a double-digit lead late — and not recurring issues.
Anthony Edwards made poor decisions down the stretch, forcing up “hero ball” shots over the final five minutes. Minnesota also experienced a number of lapses in transition defense at the start of the third quarter, which got the Warriors’ offense rolling.
The hope, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch noted, is those were blips of regression.
The coaching staff looked back on end-of-contest scenarios from every game this season and found that Edwards made the right play 80 percent of the time, up from what Finch guessed was about 50 percent of the time in years past. That’s a high hit rate for anyone, let alone a young guard who seemed to simply get caught up in the moment of trying to top a shining Steph Curry on Sunday.
The transition defense was a major bugaboo early in the season but had been well ironed out prior to the third quarter against Golden State. Perhaps they were just caught sleeping a few times.
Regardless, there was no need for player accountability sessions
Veteran point guard Mike Conley noted there were lapses Sunday that “we can point out and be like, ‘That’s something we did. It’s self inflicted, and we can control that.’ ”
“Going forward, can we fix that, can we improve on that next game, and if it ends up being a win or not, who knows?” he added. “But we’ll continue to improve and progress each game. Finding out what we do and don’t do earlier in the film session helps out a lot.”
It was a relief, because it can be exhausting and infuriating when you’re searching for answers to a list of questions that’s far too long.
“You don’t want 20 different reasons why you lost the game,” Conley said. “It’s better to have three or four and focus on those three or four and have our foundation be the same … and be what we lean on late.”
Conley is confident that foundation is being established. He said the last five games — four of which the Wolves dominated defensively — represented who the Wolves need to be this season. Minnesota was relentless defensively, while also displaying a reasonable amount of ball movement.
“We’re not going to hold teams under 100 every game or 90 points, but the effort that we’re playing with and the communication that we’re playing with defensively, the way we’re finishing possessions — especially late in games — has been key for finding out who we are,” Conley said. “And hopefully we can stick to that.”
If Minnesota did finally find and establish its identity, the obvious question is, What took so long? But it’s not unusual for a team that made a fairly seismic roster move just prior to the opening of training camp to need 20-plus games to re-find itself.
Conley shared a profound message with the team recently that stuck with Nickeil Alexander-Walker: “What got you here won’t get you there,” meaning, essentially, last year’s answers won’t necessarily serve as this year’s solutions. Every team has its own riddles to decode. And once the answers are found, everyone has to buy in.
That’s why Alexander-Walker believes Minnesota is starting to experience success.
“It’s just a willingness, I would say, from 1 through 15. It just had to be at the same collective time,” Alexander-Walker said. “Guys have shown (they’re) more willing to do what it takes to win. Whether that’s defensively, whether that’s playing as a unit, making the right play. And now I think we’re doing that.”
“I think it just tells us also,” he added, “our room for error, how tight that window is for us.”
The formula has been established, now it’s about following it with some level of consistency.
“Everything is what you make it. I’m a firm believer of that, and we’ve made it tougher on ourselves at times,” Alexander-Walker said. “Now that we stopped fighting the game — that’s like comments you’ve probably heard from all of us at a different point in time — now that we’ve stopped, we’ve been able to get to a point where we’re seeing it crescendo in our favor.”
Originally Published: December 11, 2024 at 5:56 PM CST