Turmoil was brewing 1,800 miles away in South Florida as the Minnesota Timberwolves watched the Phoenix Suns eat into their 64-51 halftime lead on Wednesday night. While Phoenix surgically dismantled the upstart Wolves sans Chris Paul, the Miami Heat’s tenuous grip on the Eastern Conference was slipping.
A shorthanded Golden State Warriors team flew cross-country and beat the Heat 118-104. Golden State started the third quarter on a 19-0 run, and tempers flared on Miami’s bench. Jimmy Butler and Erik Spoelstra exchanged words during a timeout. Then Butler got into it with Udonis Haslem. Teammates eventually separated Butler from Spoelstra and Haslem.
Spoelstra guided the Heat through the Big Three era chaos and won two NBA championships. Haslem, 41, is from Miami, went to the University of Florida, and has been with the Heat since the 2003-04 season. Butler is on his third team since forcing his way out of Minnesota.
Phoenix clinched the best record in the NBA shortly after their 125-115 win over the Wolves. Chris Finch and Minnesota’s big three – Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, and D’Angelo Russell – were curt after the game. They took the loss hard. The Timberwolves led 88-85 entering the third quarter but quickly relinquished the lead. Devin Booker’s 30-foot three-pointer over Edwards essentially sealed the game with five minutes to go.
“They were tight. They were tight with everything they were doing,” Russell said after the game. “We could learn from that and try to take some things from that.
“Their schemes, everything they do [has] a purpose to it. You can see it, and you watch League Pass, and you see the teams that don’t have that. It’s somewhere you want to be.”
Minnesota’s loss to the Suns came 48 hours after they had led the Mavericks 103-102 with three minutes to go and lost 110-108 in Dallas. The Mavs are the 5-seed in the Western Conference; Minnesota is the 7-seed. If the Timberwolves can move into the sixth spot, they get a playoff series. Otherwise, they will play in the play-in tournament.
The Los Angeles Lakers could get Anthony Davis back by the play-in. There’s an outside chance Zion Williamson or Kawhi Leonard could return for the Los Angeles Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans, respectively. Anything can happen in two must-win games. Minnesota’s season is over if they lose twice in the play-in. Monday and Wednesday’s games had massive stakes.
A feel-good year could end with a thud if the Wolves lose in the play-in. However, they’d go into next season with momentum if they can go on a playoff run or lose a hard-fought series to the Memphis Grizzlies or the Golden State Warriors. Every game matters now.
That’s why Minnesota’s 116-95 win over Dallas on Friday was encouraging. Not only did the Timberwolves hold serve at home against a team that just beat them, but they won the game emphatically. The crowd pulsed with excitement as the Wolves got scoring from up and down their roster. Nathan Knight and Taurean Prince stepped up when Naz Reid and Malik Beasley suffered injuries. Jordan McLaughlin scored 16 points. It was a win they needed, not only to curtail their losing streak but to go into a critical four-game road trip feeling good.
“Yeah, they’ve done a pretty good job of not allowing one loss to lead into another,” said Finch. “They rallied themselves really, really well. They knew how big this game was. We were very, very disappointed that we lost in Dallas. We were disappointed that we lost the other day. We took those losses really hard, so that motivated us. I think in the back of our mind, we knew we had another shot at Dallas.”
The Timberwolves have expectations this year. Think about that for a second. They went into a matchup with Phoenix, the best team in the NBA, and expected to win. They lost to Dallas on Monday and sought revenge at the end of the week.
“One thing I love about this team so much is that this team holds grudges. I like that,” said Towns. “We talk countlessly, and I can’t tell you how many times our group chat went off about that game in Dallas and this game coming up tonight. The importance was understood.”
The last time the Wolves had expectations, Tom Thibodeau had traded for Butler during the draft, and he was supposed to guide Towns and Andrew Wiggins to the playoffs. They got as high as the 3-seed before Butler got hurt, dropped to the 8-seed, and lost to the Houston Rockets in five games. Butler took a separate flight after Game 5 and started his push to get out of Minnesota.
That team won, but they were rickety from the start. Butler never embraced Towns and Wiggins, and Thibodeau mortgaged the future to get him. The 2017-18 Wolves were an aging team, chiefly because Thibodeau retrieved many of the players from his heyday with the Chicago Bulls to play with KAT and Wiggs.
Conversely, this year’s team is young. Outside of Minnesota’s spiritual leader, Patrick Beverley, almost every other player on the roster is in their early- to mid-20s. Finch is willing to pull his superstars from the game when they play loose on the court. Similarly, Beverley is confrontational with his younger teammates but never makes it personal.
“That’s one thing I [highlighted at the beginning of the season],” said Prince, 28. “In the midst of battle, in the midst of competition, even coach, he’ll yell, but he’s probably just telling you to get back.”
The Wolves insist this team is for real. They go into each game believing they can win and have each other’s backs no matter what happens. They handle conflict internally, and the players expect Finch to confront them when they do something detrimental to the team.
Minnesota will enter the crucible after beating the Mavericks on Friday. They will face the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, and Denver Nuggets on their four-game road trip, and each game will bring its own share of expectations and chaos. The Timberwolves have to win pressure-filled games if they’re going to make the playoffs.
The Timberwolves can’t let losing compound, and they can’t let things boil over. The win over Dallas is an indication that they won’t. Just for good measure, the Heat lost on Friday. Their opponent? Thibodeau’s 11th-seeded New York Knicks. You’ve gotta imagine somebody mentioned that on the text chain.
