It’s fair to feel disappointed about the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 26-16 record, even though they are fourth in the West halfway through the season. Beyond that, there are many bad losses and few signature wins mixed in there, and now the Wolves face the crucible of their schedule. They played Cleveland on Monday. Then national games against Oklahoma City and Portland later on in the week, and games in Houston and Oakland after the homestand.
Things are going to get tough.
The excessive minutes that Tom Thibodeau played the starters could be justified because he was looking to build a cushion between the Wolves and the rest of the West, an early-season narrative went, before they had to face upcoming opponents like the Cavaliers, Rockets and Warriors. But losses to the John Wall-less Wizards, a Grizzlies team coming off an 11-game losing streak and the Sixers — who had lost four straight, and then lost the next five games after beating Minnesota in overtime — hardly go a long way toward building a barrier.
Worse yet, all of those losses arguably were a result of fatigue late in the game due to the unprecedented minutes he was playing his starters.
Things have been better lately, however.
Before a “low energy” loss in Brooklyn and getting snuffed out in Boston, the Wolves had won seven of their last eight games. Save for a fourth-quarter collapse in Milwaukee, Minnesota would have won eight straight. Tyus Jones’ ascendance in Jeff Teague’s absence is one reason why. Karl-Anthony Towns’ commitment to defense is another. But, above all else, the Wolves are focusing on the small things, and it’s making a big difference.
Part of the reason is that the players are paying attention to details in the scouting report
“When you work every day, if you do something over and over, and you’re doing it the right way, you’re gonna get better at it,” Thibodeau said after a New Year’s Day win over the Los Angeles Lakers when he asked how his team has held teams under 25 first quarter points for 13 straight games. “For example, if a guy is a strong left-shoulder player, and he makes five jump-hooks over his left shoulder, you know you haven’t prepared properly.
“If you make him go over his right shoulder, and he makes three, that could be the difference between winning and losing.”
The losses to Brooklyn and Boston were the first back-to-back defeats since the Wolves lost to Detroit and Charlotte on Nov. 19 and 20. The Pistons game was really two losses in one, since Thibodeau went all-out to beat Detroit at home before flying out to North Carolina at around 10:00 pm that night. Andrew Wiggins, Jimmy Butler and Teague all played 40 minutes, Towns played 38, while Nemanja Bjelica and Gorgui Dieng played a combined 25.
The exhausted Wolves were vanquished 118-102 by an inferior Hornets team they had beaten 112-94 earlier in the month.
Part of the reason that the Wolves are playing better is that Thibodeau is managing back-to-backs more effectively. The new NBA schedule has eliminated situations in which teams play four games in five nights, so there should be fewer schedule losses. The second game of a back-to-back is the last remnant of a scheduling loss, if mishandled.
Thibodeau had managed a back-to-back against Dallas and Charlotte masterfully in contests on Nov. 4 and 5, limiting minutes against the bottom-feeding Mavericks in the first game in order to power by the Hornets in the second. And he did so in the most recent back-to-back in Indianapolis and against the Lakers, both blowouts of less talented and shorthanded teams — the Pacers were missing Victor Oladipo; the Lakers had Lonzo Ball out.
But part of the reason is that the players are paying attention to details in the scouting report. Following a 109-97 loss to the Miami Heat on Nov. 24, Butler did not hold back on his comments regarding the Wolves defense.
“We haven’t guarded anyone all year long. Eventually, we have to figure it out and want to play defense; stop trying to outscore the opposing team,” he chastised. “I would think, time and time, after watching the film and getting your ass beat on the defensive end, you’d get sick and tired of it. I don’t think it registers in our head like that, it’s just like, ‘Eventually, they’re gonna miss a shot.’ Not in this league.
“In this league, you have to work to make them miss a shot. You’ve gotta do all the right things. We’re letting guys go to their strengths, not making them go to their weaknesses. We’re doing all the things we talk about we’re not gonna do when we’re going through the scouting report.”
The Wolves have had a top-five offense all season long, but lingered among the bottom third of the league in defensive rating. Recently, they have started to turn things around, especially in the fourth quarter. They had the league’s worst defensive rating in the fourth quarter a month ago, but are now are inching towards being a top-10 team.
“When we started winning early, we were winning on talent, we weren’t winning on execution,” Towns said after the Lakers win. “These last two games, we did a good job winning on execution.”
“We are a really talented team, but early on we were getting caught in scoring battles, just outscoring people, not getting stops.” echoed Butler. “We’re always gonna score points, but if we start mixing in some defensive efforts, we look a lot better.”
It’s worth noting that the Wolves are significantly better against Western Conference teams (21-6) than Eastern Conference foes (5-10) this year. Perhaps they are better prepared to play teams in the West because they face them more, and have less muscle memory and little time to prepare for opponents from the East. While the schedule is better than it has been in past years, it still is 82 games long and requires teams to be creative in order to find practice time.
“Our schedule has been our schedule,” Thibodeau said after the Lakers game, snickering. “We’re doing a lot of stuff in ballrooms. We had a great day in Indiana where we had a ballroom session one day, we had practice the next day, and then we had another ballroom session.
“And the guys, their concentration level is a lot better. And I think that’s important.”
The issue is that long stretches without practice can lead to bad habits. It also means that the coaches have to prioritize which aspects of the game to emphasize, and they often feel they’re in the middle of a juggling act. Work on transition defense one day, court spacing may atrophy. Focus on pick-and-roll defense, perimeter defense may lag.
“When you get in a stretch where you have limited practice time, there’s usually slippage,” Thibodeau added. “Offensively you see it with spacing, defensively, it could be you’re off a step, or your hands aren’t level with the ball. Or you don’t have the proper position, and you maybe end up fouling more than you should, and you’re gifting the team points.”
On an individual level, it may be why Wiggins was so good offensively, but struggled defensively early in the season, then locked down defensively and had an offensive slump. It may be why Towns took so long to figure out the defense, or Bjelica has had trouble finding a rhythm after his injury.
The Wolves are starting to find that balance, however, and Thibodeau appears to be managing the schedule better. The Wolves would be hosting a playoff series at Target Center if the season ended tomorrow, even with losses to the Suns and Grizzlies. But to survive this daunting upcoming stretch of games, they cannot repeat the mistakes they made earlier in the season against lesser competition.
