Timberwolves

2/13 RECAP: Rockets Show Separation in Western Conference in Win Over Wolves

(photo credit: Jim Faklis)

The Timberwolves and the Rockets are only split by two spots in the playoffs, but the difference everywhere else is fairly staggering.

“When they’ve got it rolling like that, it’s very hard to stop them,” Karl-Anthony Towns said.

Towns wasn’t wrong. The Rockets shoot and make the most 3-pointers in the league, and have the league’s second-most efficient and seventh-most efficient defense.

That was put on display Tuesday, even if Houston’s 126-108 victory wasn’t the blowout defeat the score may suggest.

Early on, the Wolves – who are efficient in one of those categories – held it together for a while.

In the game’s first three-and-a-half quarters, fans got to see a bit of why the Timberwolves are indeed the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, and how they can hang with a team as elite and impressive as Houston.

“The start of the game I thought was very good, the first quarter I thought we struggled to start the second quarter,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “Down four at the half. The third quarter was pretty good.”

For the faults that have been laid out at-length, the Wolves have a deep roster of guys who can score. Andrew Wiggins had a historically-bad night from the field, and was joined by Jamal Crawford and Tyus Jones to combine for an 0 for 17 combined start to the game.

Even Jimmy Butler, whom the team has relied on for consistency through the bulk of the year, never strung together a good chunk of baskets.

Meanwhile, Jeff Teague had his best game of the season and Towns showed off why he’ll participate in his first All-Star game this coming Sunday.

The Rockets got good production from both James Harden and Chris Paul. They got the early switches they wanted, planting the big man – usually Towns – onto Paul, which often resulted in exciting mid-range action from the future Hall of Famer.

Harden’s eventual 34-point effort didn’t become ridiculous until the fourth quarter, but he was still producing when it mattered.

Like the Wolves – and even more so, in most cases — the Rockets relied on their depth to keep them in the game. And, for the most part, it worked. The Rockets hit more 3’s through three-and-a-half quarters, and looked like the better team.

But through all that, the Wolves stayed in it.

The Rockets had a massive lead in 3-point shooting, but the Wolves aren’t far behind them in offensive rating. With just under eight minutes to go, the Wolves were down 95-91.

Four points.

But then the Rockets showed the Wolves how wide the separation between the two teams truly is.

Ryan Anderson, the Rockets stretch big man with a history of killing the Wolves, had a huge night from deep.

“He shoots it deep,” Thibodeau said of Anderson. “We have to understand he shoots it deep.”

Anderson had six 3’s in the game, four of them coming in the final quarter.

Two of them were of the literal depth Thibodeau was referring to. Even scarier, some of them were well-defended, contested shots. Simply put, Anderson just made some tough shots.

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But he also made some uncomfortably wide open shots, especially given his – and his team’s – reputation.

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The Rockets winning the game here wasn’t necessarily the big story. The Wolves played well enough to stay with their opponent for most of the game. Even looking past Anderson’s 3-point barrage, the onslaught Harden would follow with was just as devastating.

And while the 3’s will be what sticks out to those watching the box score, it isn’t what sticks out to the Wolves players watching the ball fly through the hoop.

“Everybody talks about their 3’s but they spread out so much that they can sit around and get wide open layups,” Teague said in the locker room. “They’re a tough team to guard.”

Teague is correct, too. As great as the Rockets were from outside, the mere threat it presents makes shots in the paint that much easier when the interior defense gets caught sleeping.

And while the 3’s might look like a lot to handle, the Wolves have never been that far off from them offensively. Even after Tuesday’s matchup, the Timberwolves are still third in the league in offensive rating, with Houston sitting the spot above.

“If you go back over the last 10, we’ve been basically averaging the same number as they have, except they score different,” Thibodeau said. “They score one way, we score another way.”

Only one of Clint Capela’s four makes, for example, did not come from a cut to the basket when the defense was busy monitoring the 3-point line.

On this play, the direction of the help defenders’ bodies says it all. They hardly helped on the cut, mostly out of fear of leaving a shooter open.

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While this game might appear like a total dud, for the Wolves, it really wasn’t.

The Timberwolves are a good team, but the Rockets are a lot better, despite the two-seed difference in the playoff standings. Similar to the Jan. 16 matchup at Toyota Center in Houston, Tuesday’s matchup proved, more than anything, that Houston and Conference-leader Golden State sit atop the conference without much threat from any other teams.

It’s entirely possible that the Wolves could finish third in the West and face Houston in the second round of the playoffs. The Wolves are fully capable of taking a game from them, especially if they come at it in the fashion of Tuesday’s first three quarters.

But the Rockets are good enough to turn it on and put just about every team away in the league. Including the good ones. Including the Timberwolves.


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