It’s a good measuring stick for us.
— Tom Thibodeau after Minnesota beat Golden State 103-102
It still seems odd that Minnesota Timberwolves coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau was a part of a game that ended with a score of 142-130. Known as a defensive specialist who won a championship as a “defensive coordinator” for the Boston Celtics and the fastest coach to win 100 games, mostly by stifling opposing offenses with the Chicago Bulls, Thibodeau has been harping on connectedness on the defensive end all season long.
“Sometimes you might have four guys doing the right thing and one guy’s a step off,” he said at a practice in late December when asked about the team’s poor fourth quarter defense, “that’s all it is.”
“You can’t go rogue in the fourth quarter — you can’t,” he said after a loss to the Utah Jazz in January. “You can’t make it up defensively, you can’t make it up offensively; you have to stay disciplined. That’s how you win.”
“We’ll go as far as our defense is gonna take us,” he said before the team left for the road trip that took them to Houston. “Our offense is fine, we can score plenty of points; it’s our defense. Everyone has to prioritize it, particularly Wig and Karl. They have to set the tone for this.”
It’s not unreasonable to think that Minnesota’s playoff chances would end on that road trip
That message appeared to have fallen on deaf ears during the Houston game. There’s no way Minnesota could play a wide-open, offensive game against the Rockets and win. Not against James Harden. Not against Mike D’Antoni’s system. Not against one of the best teams in the Western Conference. But, alas, they did. And, predictably, they lost.
It’s not unreasonable to think that Minnesota’s playoff chances would end on that road trip. After playing a depleted Sacramento Kings team, they had to play the Utah Jazz, the San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers (which got postponed), the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards. As of Monday night, the Western Conference standings read as such: Warriors (1), Rockets (2), Rockets (3), Jazz (4) and Clippers (5). The Wizards were No. 2 in the East, right behind the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Once again, this would be a season where the Wolves would settle for a good pick and hope that player was the missing piece. Once again they would be selling hope. Once again fans wouldn’t have much reason to show up to games or stay engaged with the team.
This season would be a bit more perplexing than previous years, however. Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins and the now-injured Zach LaVine all had had 40-point nights. Ricky Rubio appeared to be adapting to the system. Gorgui Dieng was emerging as a vocal leader on defense. Kris Dunn came into the league ready to shut down opposing players. And there were no signs of a locker room rift or other off-court issues that affect play on the hardwood. In short, this team should be better, and it was hard to figure out why the players’ efforts were not paying off.
The 107-80 win over Utah was a turning point
“I see the way these guys are working every day,” Thibodeau said at a practice in late December when it was pointed out that his team had not won a game at home in a month, “We’re disappointed in the losing, but I’m not disappointed in them or their effort. I see what they’re doing every day.”
Now, all of the sudden that effort is paying off.
It’s hard to put too much stock in the win over Sacramento that preceded the Houston loss. The Kings had just traded away their best player, DeMarcus Cousins in a deal that was widely panned, so a 102-88 result was hardly a surprise. The 107-80 win over Utah, however, was a turning point. “I feel like we want it more,” Wiggins told the Associated Press. “We want to play defense more. We’ve been doing a lot in practice (and) shootaround, going through it. I think it’s muscle memory now, starting to kick in.”
Three days later they allowed San Antonio, one of the best teams in the West, to sneak out an overtime victory despite leading until the final minutes. Then they returned home, had a game postponed because of the condensation from a hockey rink on the floor (only in Minnesota), and suffocated a healthy Clippers team, 107-91, two days later.
“We’re moving in the right direction, the numbers will tell you that, and we look at them every day,” said Thibodeau after the Clippers game, noting that his team had moved down to 13th in points allowed in the league. “That’s a quantum leap. But it’s still not where it needs to be, and we have to understand that.”
And then came the 103-102 win over Golden State, the best team in the West, in front of a record home crowd. Again they snuffed out a great team’s offense. Again they reinforced that this recent winning streak was not happenstance, but that Thibodeau’s defense was starting to sink in. When asked what the difference is, Thibodeau said: “Defensively, it’s trust the talk, trust the coverage. If you have one guy that goes random on you, then the other four don’t know what’s going on, and then that’s when you’re broken down”.
“Dramatic improvement at both ends. They’re playing with a lot of confidence, playing with a lot of pace and flow. Rubio’s playing really well,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr before the Golden State game. “[Defense] is the biggest area of improvement. They weren’t great defensively last time we were in this building, but they’ve made the kind of strides that you would expect from a young team. And coach Thibs, they’ve just made big strides and are a lot more confident in what they’re doing.”
“I said this to you guys early on, we were disappointed with the losing,” Thibodeau added, “but I was never disappointed with the way they worked and they practiced, and I knew if we kept doing it, we would improve.”
After beating the Wizards last night, one of the hottest teams in the league, this team has to be taken seriously.
Over the course of a road trip — really three games — the Wolves have become the team that Thibodeau has wanted them to become all along. They stifle the best offenses in the league. Ricky Rubio, a player that was rumored to be traded at the deadline, is playing his best basketball. Towns and Wiggins are breaking team records set by Kevin Garnett. Thibodeau occasionally jokes with the referees. It’s a brand-new world.
The ultimate question, however, is if this team figured it out too late. The win over Golden State won over fans that had previously abandoned the team; a playoff series would send the message that this team is done selling hope. But if this team falls short of the postseason, they will be left wondering why it took a 142-130 game this late in the season to create positive muscle memory and why this quantum leap didn’t happen earlier.
