For the Minnesota Timberwolves, the 2017-18 season had three goals: improve, coalesce, and gain playoff experience. After a 117-101 loss at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs, the latter proposition has become increasingly questionable.
The Wolves entered the evening fifth in the Western Conference standings with a record of 40-29 while the opposing Spurs sat eighth at 39-30. With a Sunday evening matchup against the Houston Rockets, Minnesota could be on the fringe of the playoff picture come Monday morning.
Even if the playoffs don’t happen, there is a silver lining. The closest thing to playoff experience is happening: playoff-like atmospheres. This feeling first percolated in early March when the Wolves played the Blazers and the Jazz. It continued Saturday night in San Antonio and will likely be present against the Rockets.
Unfortunately, a theme is forming there: losing. However, each of those games — including Saturday against the Spurs — felt okay because the effort was there. Just as they did in Portland and Utah, the Wolves sustained early punches and continued to fight back.
In Utah (instigated by Jeff Teague), the Wolves literally fought. And in San Antonio, chippy and ticked off Teague was back. He got away with multiple shoves — maybe punches — to Patty Mills’ chest and he just battled to the tune of 16 points and eight assists.
Healthy Jeff Teague
While that may not be Teague’s most impressive stat line of the year, it was the healthiest Minnesota’s starting point guard has looked in a long time.
At times, when he wasn’t healthy, Teague has stalled the offense. While plagued with a balky wrist, he was noticeably hesitant to shoot 3s. And after suffering an MCL sprain in late-December it took Teague months to look comfortable when attacking the hoop.
He did look very comfortable in San Antonio, including this nasty cross into reverse layup contortion:
But even peak Teague was no match for LaMarcus Aldridge who had 37 points, 10 boards and three blocks. Fueled by Aldridge’s 18 points, the Spurs shot 84 percent from the field in the second quarter and their lead ballooned to double digits. It was a deficit the Wolves could not overcome.
Horrid Bench Play
Teague was good, as were Karl-Anthony Towns (23 points, nine rebounds) and Andrew Wiggins (21 points, five rebounds, five assists) but cratered when those players were off the floor. The Spurs shot 16 of 19 in the second quarter, and that was because many of those shots were defended by the Wolves disastrous second-unit players.
Since Derrick Rose has been signed, the Wolves have spilled out units that include Rose, Tyus Jones, Jamal Crawford, Gorgui Dieng and one starter. These units get worked. On Saturday, in plus-minus terms, Rose was minus-21, Jones was minus-10, Crawford was minus-14 and Dieng was minus-8.
Tom Thibodeau has been persistent with his playing of Rose — which has gone awful. Rose is now minus-37 in 32 total minutes played for the Wolves. If Rose is going to continue to play, it can not be with three other bench players.
The rotation needs tweaking.
Even if everyone continues to play hard, to play as if it is the playoffs, the Wolves will not make it on effort alone. Without Butler, everything on the margins must run smoothly to compete with other playoff opponents. In San Antonio, this did not happen.
Fortunately, the schedule is about to ease up. Minnesota faces Houston on Sunday and then the games become exponentially easier. More than half of the remaining schedule comes against teams tanking or out of the playoff hunt. There is plenty of room to tally wins so as to obtain that goal of playoff experience. But again, adjustments need to be made.
At least, for now, they are playing as if those playoffs are a mandate and that is better than the alternative.
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