Chris Finch isn’t one to mince words, and he let the Minnesota Timberwolves have it after Monday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks.
“That’s a totally unacceptable second half of basketball,” he said, lamenting Minnesota’s sloppiness, turnovers, and approach. “If we’re trying to go where we’re trying to go, that’s not good enough.”
Fair enough.
Trae Young missed the game with right hamstring tightness. Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, and Larry Nance Jr. also couldn’t play. Still, the Wolves shot 39.5% from the field, 30% from three, and turned it over 18 times – including nine in the third quarter. De’Andre Hunter scored 35 off the bench, while the Hawks held Anthony Edwards to 23 points on 6 of 20 from the floor.
The only catch? The Timberwolves won 100-92.
Still, even though they won, the Wolves locker room heard Finch’s message loud and clear.
“We can’t keep playing well for two or three games and taking a game off,” Mike Conley offered solemnly. “We have to continue to play with the same urgency and fire that we play with when we’re playing against the best teams and fully healthy teams.”
Minnesota is 25-21 after beating the Hawks. However, the loss would have dropped them to 11-11 at home. A year after reaching the Western Conference Finals, the Wolves traded Karl-Anthony Towns and started 8-10. They appeared to regain their form from last year when they won six of seven games in early December, only to go 10-10 after that.
“We were talking about it,” said Conley, looking around the locker room. “We have to be better if we want to consider ourselves not mediocre but trending in the [right direction].”
The Timberwolves elevated their standards after the Denver Nuggets in the second round last year. Minneapolis put up a mural downtown, fans wore “Bring Ya Ass” t-shirts, and everyone expected them to build on their success. Therefore, this season has been a letdown, and the players and coaches know it.
Worse yet? The Wolves’ cardinal sin is that they play down to their competition.
“We see it from time to time against short-handed teams,” Finch admitted. “We come out here, and we bulls—. It starts with our top guys.”
Rudy Gobert believes that he and his teammates must focus on themselves. It’s ultimately about the quality of their play, their consistency, and not getting complacent.
“We know how great we can be,” said Gobert. “It’s not that we want to get complacent. It’s just that we don’t have the time to get comfortable. Whether it’s when we win a couple of games in a row or when we get up to 15 points. We get a little complacent.”
Edwards would like the Wolves to finish off teams when they’re up big.
“I feel like we just missed a bunch of shots,” said Edwards. “We was up 16 coming out. I couldn’t make no open shots; none of us could make any shots. If we would have made shots when he was up 19, we would have been up 30. When we went up 16 again, and we would have made shots, we would have been up 25.”
Edwards didn’t feel like the Wolves didn’t take Atlanta seriously. Instead, he believes they missed shots they should have made. It’s a similar tension that has existed since the start of the season.
Following Minnesota’s season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, Finch emphasized ball movement as the primary reason the Wolves lost. Edwards felt they missed easy shots. “We got great looks. We made those shots, we win,” he said in L.A. “It’s just that simple to me.”
Finch and Edwards’ different perspectives are likely rooted in their respective roles. Finch is trying to mitigate variance by creating easier shots resulting from ball movement. Like many players, Edwards believes he can start a run by scoring.
The truth sits in a grey area between the two thoughts. Ball movement creates open looks, and the players must bury them. The Wolves have had too many stagnant stretches this season where they don’t move the ball. It has cost them winnable games and caused them to get stuck in the NBA’s mushy middle.
Running up the score against inferior opponents would prevent the Wolves from losing games they should win. Against Atlanta, it would have created a buffer that would have allowed them to remove Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker from the game earlier. Reid suffered a shoulder injury but returned and finished out the game. However, Alexander-Walker left the game with a lower leg contusion and didn’t return.
Ultimately, the Wolves must play better in the second half to avoid the play-in game or missing the postseason altogether.
“At least we won and got cussed out,” said Edwards, laughing.
If the Wolves can have a wake-up call after a win, all the better.
