Anthony Edwards’ eyes bulged when a reporter told him the Minnesota Timberwolves had gone 12-for-76 from 3 in Game 5 against the Los Angeles Lakers and Game 1 against the Golden State Warriors. Edwards knew the Wolves weren’t shooting well, but didn’t realize it was that bad.
“You know, that’s how it go,” said Edwards. “You have stretches where you shoot the ball really, really well. You have stretches where you shoot the ball really, really bad. You just hope the good outweigh the bad.”
The Golden State Warriors lost Stephen Curry to a hamstring strain in Game 1, and he’ll be out at least a week. Until Game 5, they’ll rely on Buddy Hield (32), Jimmy Butler (35), and Draymond Green (35) to carry them.
Even with Curry, the Wolves had a size and depth advantage. Minnesota also had beaten the Los Angeles Lakers in five games, and Golden State was 48 hours removed from a seven-game series against the Houston Rockets.
The Wolves should have taken Game 1. Instead, they relinquished home-court advantage to a team with championship pedigree.
If the Warriors turned into the Monstars and sapped Minnesota of a skill, they’d have taken their 3-point shooting. The Wolves shot 5-of-29 (17%) from 3 in Game 1. As a result, they tried to drive and score near the basket, and Golden State packed the paint.
“You start missing a little bit, you get a little tight,” said Edwards. “I just be telling my teammates, shoot it, because they pack the paint. That’s what they do. Anytime you get downhill, Draymond leaves his man, and it’s two, three people in the paint.
“We kick it out. We just got to shoot it with confidence.”
The Wolves were the fourth-best 3-point shooting team in the regular season. However, they must strike a balance if their shooting fails them in this series. They’re wise to try to score inside when the outside shot fails them, but it makes defending them pretty easy.
In Game 1, the Wolves lived in a world where Hield paced Golden State with 24 points. Green is a 32.5% shooter this season, but he hit four of his first five 3s. Gary Payton II shot 32.6% from 3 this year but hit 2 of 3. Pat Spencer, a mustachioed player wearing No. 61, played 11 minutes.
Minnesota should have known they were entering the Twilight Zone when the Warriors took a timeout less than a minute into the game because Hield was wearing the wrong shorts.
Still, shooting alone didn’t doom them in Game 1.
“Poor spacing. Terrible rhythm,” Finch said after the game. “Didn’t make the next pass a lot of times.
“Really poor in transition. I think that’s where we kind of cost ourselves the chance to stay in the game early. We had opportunities to run out. Our transition decision-making was diabolical. Obviously, we couldn’t hit a shot, but I didn’t like the fact that we couldn’t repeatedly generate good shots.”
“We just didn’t work hard enough for that second and third look,” said Conley. “There were times where they close out hard on the corner, and we make the extra drive. We’d get everybody kind of crowded in an area instead of getting out for that re-spacing and swing, swing type action.
“That’s what you’re going to have to do against them. They’re a very good defensive team, and they load up really well. So we have to move them around. In order to do that, we have to move our body and make the right reads.”
Conley said there is a correlation between not making the second pass and poor shooting. Ultimately, he said they must make their shots. However, it would help if they shot within the offensive flow.
“There’s a difference between a good rhythm shot when you know somebody is supposed to get that shot and you get that swing, swing, and you feel the energy within that play. And we weren’t getting enough of those. We were getting decent ones, but it’s out of broken situations, a late read, or off-timed.”
The Wolves made things harder on themselves by losing Game 1. If they split at home and in San Francisco, they’re putting a lot of pressure on Game 5. In a 2-2 series, the team that wins Game 5 advances 80% of the time. That means Curry could be returning for a series-defining game.
Minnesota should have beaten the Warriors without Curry. The Wolves probably would have if they shot like they did in the regular season. However, that wasn’t their reality. The quicker they snap out of it, the more likely they will return to the Western Conference Finals this year.
