Jimmy Butler isn’t at 100 percent, but he’s going to give Friday night a shot.
“I’m here to play. I’m here to compete. I’m here to win,” Butler said at Friday afternoon’s shootaround. “If y’all see snot running down my nose, my face, and into my mouth, it might be disgusting, but it might happen a few times.”
He’s new to the team, but the past two games he’s missed signal how important he has already become to the team’s chemistry. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Butler-less Wolves lost by a combined 44 points to the on-paper inferior Indiana and Detroit.
The defense looked off and the team looked disoriented in Butler’s absence, failing to close out on shooters, and seemingly dismissing the idea of getting back in transition. Butler says basketball is “90 percent mental”, has faith his team can get on track.
“If you want to something, you’re going to do it. You can’t fool anybody,” Butler said. “We point it out in film, we talk about it. Now it’s all about going out there and executing.”
Butler’s long-time Chicago teammate, Taj Gibson, thinks that while the team has some catching up to do tactically, the unfamiliarity plays a major role in the team’s early struggles.
“At times, you’re going to go through ups and downs. We’re still just figuring out how to get through the ups and downs,” Gibson said. “Every new team’s going to go through it, but we can’t use it as an excuse.”
After a couple bad losses in a row, even with Butler’s return, the presumed thirst for revenge from Russell Westbrook and the Thunder will be a tough situation regardless.
Other notes:
- Butler gave a profound “No” when asked if he would be on any minute restriction. Gibson said his teammate looked “pretty good” in practice, but also that returning from being sick is more unpredictable.
- Tom Thibodeau brought Friday afternoon’s “back to the basics” after such a rough middle of the week. They had Thursday off, but went at it with an effort to “correct the mistakes” that he saw throughout the week.
- The Timberwolves had major struggle guarding the Russell Westbrook-Steven Adams pick-and-roll on Sunday. Thibodeau attributed Adams’ screening ability as a big “thing to really help the team win”. That said, he’s more concerned about the starting lineup as a whole, rather than that singular play.
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