If there was one word used to describe the Minnesota Timberwolves since losing a nationally televised game to the Philadelphia 76ers on Dec. 12, it would be “energized”.
In the locker room after that loss to Joel Embiid and crew, the Wolves weren’t just sad; they were ticked off.
When Karl-Anthony Towns was approached by the media that evening, the traditionally well-spoken 22-year-old, dropped a genuine F-bomb to illustrate his frustration.
That outburst and that game seemed to have an igniting effect on a (then) 16-12 Minnesota team. The Wolves went on to rattle off eight wins in ten games after Philadelphia. That run brought them to Brooklyn on Wednesday night with the seventh-best record in the NBA.
The Nets were supposed to be a bump on an extended roll entering a four-game set over the next week against Boston, New Orleans, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City.
Real teams.
But, against Brooklyn, the Wolves delivered a decaffeinated performance in a 98-97 loss.
Taj Gibson has been handed the “glue guy” label by Jimmy Butler – and others – this season, but really Gibson has been more than that. The veteran has been the team’s energy generator. The offense and defense can survive without him producing buckets or stops but the energy cannot.
On Wednesday, back in his hometown, he played flatly.
Gibson being off seemed to affect the team. It wasn’t until the third quarter when Tyus Jones delivered his first career dunk that the team seemed to provide any sort of collective pulse.
(And it was pretty sweet.)
The team needed that.
Following the dunk, the Wolves went on a 20-7 run as energy was restored and all began to feel normal. The normalcy continued as the always-electric Butler started his fourth-quarter routine of dominance early. But this time Butler alone wasn’t enough. They needed something more. They needed Taj.
With 14 seconds left in the game, Gibson had a shot at redemption. After switching onto the Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie — who finished the game with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting — the Wolves, despite the early slog, were a defensive stop away from victory.
But Dinwiddie penetrated left and hit a floating right-handed jumper, over the outstretched arm of Gibson, to take the lead. The bucket would be the eventual game-winner.
Gibson is having a phenomenal season. No player on the roster has exceeded expectations more than the Minnesota big man. But Wednesday night, as he proved his humanity in an off-night, he also showcased his value much in the way Butler did in the two games he missed with an illness earlier this season.
Wednesday night, the lack of “normal Taj” played a key role in loss 15 of the season for the Wolves.
Tyus Jones: Pick-And-Roll Maestro
The Timberwolves will be without Jeff Teague for much of the month of January. In his place, Minnesota has lost very little – if anything – with Tyus Jones. The two guards have proven to be very different offensive conductors. With the ball-in-hand, Teague’s eye is first on the rim where Jones’ eye is keen on successfully distributing. Illustrated by Jones’ assist-to-turnover ratio; second-best in the NBA.
On Wednesday, Jones was a little more loose with the ball — accumulating a season-high four turnovers — but that was in-part due to a higher volume of possessions with the ball in his control. Outside of those four possessions where the Wolves lost the ball, Jones looked great. He was consistently finding rim-rolling big men and dropping off pocket-passes. As he did here with Karl-Anthony Towns.
Confusing End Of Bench Rotations
Marcus Georges-Hunt continues to play very short shifts, simply as a defensive sub. On Wednesday, in two stints, MGH played 50 total seconds. For the inexperienced wing, this role has to be confusing. Situational defensive substitutions happen all the time in the NBA but typically that player is in the rotation to some extent; Georges-Hunt often is not.
This is obviously splitting hairs and doesn’t have a massive effect on the end result but when he plays is peculiar. On the most crucial defensive possession of the game — the Dinwiddie game-winner — Georges-Hunt checked in after having played 27 seconds in the game up to that point. Flow and comfort are completely being ignored here.
Aaron Brooks played four minutes in the first half and sat the whole second half (again). Brooks has been patently awful but this tactic of trying to steal four minutes of rest a game seems to be pointless as Brooks has never looked comfortable in the role. At some point, using Brooks simply to steal a couple minutes doesn’t make sense.
Towns Post-Touches
In a game when Gibson wasn’t doing anything, the Wolves needed there main interior presence to do more. Towns is finding consistent post-touches rarely; maybe once every few games. Brooklyn should have been one of those games. Brooklyn’s power forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson – only 6 feet 6 inches in height – was guarding Towns for much of the game and it was a matchup to be exploited.
Per usual, the Wolves got Towns touches in the first half — and he exploited them — but at the end of the game they, again, went away from Towns inside.
Far too many jumpers were taken by the likes of Jamal Crawford and Andrew Wiggins instead of searching for Towns. A steady diet of 3s and post-touches for Towns seems possible but has not been capitalized on of late.
On to Boston.
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