Naz Reid looked disheartened sitting at the podium after a crushing 99-88 Game 1 loss to the (mostly) Steph Curry-less Golden State Warriors. He slumped over the table and spoke softly.
“We got to remember who we are as a team,” Reid said as Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle looked at the game printouts. “We’ve had these games and moments throughout the whole season, it’s not like it’s foreign to any team. We just have to stay even-keeled. It’s called a series for a reason, like they said (referencing Randle and Edwards). We put this one on ourselves.”
It would seem like Game 1 was just one of those games where nothing appeared to go right for the Minnesota Timberwolves. They had scoring droughts and couldn’t seem to make anything from distance, even when they were open. They occasionally looked confused on defense, allowing for easy Golden State baskets.
A perfect storm allowed Golden State to cruise to an 11-point victory. However, more frustrating than the loss was that the Wolves seemed to get everything they wanted offensively. Their defense looked good enough to handle the short-handed Warriors when they played with connectivity.
However, the Wolves didn’t just struggle offensively; they were historically bad. They shot 0 for 15 from 3-point range in the first half, the first time in seven years a team failed to hit from distance in the first half of a playoff game. The Wolves continued to shoot 5 for 14 from distance in the second half, giving them a 17.2 3-point percentage for the game.
More disheartening is that all but one of their 3-point attempts were considered open or wide open, meaning no defender was within four feet of the shooter. Therefore, 32.6% of Minnesota’s total shots were open or wide-open 3-point attempts. The Wolves hit on 38.4% of these shots in the regular season.
Still, Minnesota’s ball movement was a problem. They had a playoff-high of 16 turnovers, and 27.9% of their field goal attempts came off catch-and-shoot opportunities, 1.4% lower than their regular-season average.
However, just 39.5% of their shot attempts were considered assist-worthy attempts had they gone in, down considerably from their 51.0% season average. That reflects the desperation the Wolves likely started to play with, especially in the second half, when Edwards tried to get himself going and into the flow of the offense.
Minnesota’s lack of assist-worthy shot attempts could also be explained by shots not falling and players attempting to drive to the rim or draw fouls rather than continue to move the ball to shooters on a night when shots weren’t falling.
Edwards summed up his offensive woes perfectly after the game.
“I got everywhere I wanted to get, I just couldn’t finish,” Edwards said on his slow start. “I got everything I was looking for in the first half, I just didn’t finish.”
The Wolves didn’t make shots, but immediately looked out of sorts defensively.
“Certainly some breakdowns, I didn’t like the way we started defensively,” said Finch. “With some of the things we were doing, we didn’t discuss any of that all week. (They) were making stuff up out there. It didn’t look like us at all.”
Although the Wolves held the Warriors to only 99 points, that doesn’t tell the whole story. The final score resulted from Golden State slowing the ball down and only having 21 possessions in the fourth quarter. As a result, the Wolves had a 90.5 defensive rating in the final 12 minutes.
The final score masks that Golden State eviscerated the Wolves defensively. In the 12:54 seconds Curry played, the Wolves had a defensive rating of 116.7. After Curry suffered an injury in the third quarter, Minnesota’s defensive rating ballooned to 138.5.
Just as the Wolves got open looks at will, Golden State’s offense worked wonders. 62.1% of the Warriors’ total shots were considered open or wide open. 85.7% of their 3-point attempts were also considered open or better, and they made 44.4% of them.
56.3% of Golden State’s total shot attempts were also considered assist-worthy, reflecting the ball movement that opens its offense. 41 of 87 total shot attempts came without the player dribbling before shooting, which is remarkable given the team played three quarters of the game without Curry.
The Wolves must be more disciplined on defense to prevent players from getting open off the ball, a core tenet of Golden State’s scheme. The Warriors have thrived on ball movement, cutting, and off-ball screens during the entire Curry era. Against the Wolves, those simple effort plays on offense allowed them to get easy baskets repeatedly.
However, the Wolves left the right players open for 3. Draymond Green is typically a poor 3-point shooter and has shot 29.3% from 3 in the playoffs this season, but he went 4 of 10 from distance in Game 1.
Gary Payton II is a 32.6% 3-point shooter in the regular season and shot 2 for 3 from 3. Jonathan Kuminga even made his only 3-point attempt despite shooting 30.5% in the season. The Wolves guard the shooters fairly well. Buddy Hield continued his hot streak, knocking down five of eight. However, Brandin Podziemski, Jimmy Butler, and Moses Moody combined for 3 of 14 overall.
Still, the Wolves likely game planned to leave open shooters so they could double-team and harass Curry. When he left the game, the Warriors had no credible scoring threat outside Butler. Therefore, Minnesota’s poor defensive game-planning becomes an indictment, especially when they struggled with off-ball defense all game.
They call it a series for a reason. Over seven games, each team will make adjustments. Minnesota’s offense likely won’t be this poor again for the remainder of the playoffs. However, to beat a Warriors team without Curry, they will need to bring more focus and attention to detail on the defensive side of the ball. The old saying is that a series doesn’t start until the home team lose, which means this series is in full swing.
