Anthony Edwards recently said his Timberwolves haven’t been playing hard enough. Rudy Gobert has admitted to not playing up to his standards.
The Wolves haven’t been delusional about their flat start to the season, and that is commendable. That doesn’t detract from the fact that they resemble little of last year’s squad that stymied teams on the way to the Western Conference finals.
They know it but haven’t responded.
“I mean, first of all, you just gotta go out and do it,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said before Tuesday night’s game. “And that’s, you know, I think it’s a consistency of effort. I think it’s not that the effort hasn’t been there. It’s just like it’s not been there consistently. I think our offense in particular is affecting some of our defensive effort right now, which you can’t have. You gotta be, we gotta be, mentally tougher.”
For two-plus quarters Tuesday, the words seemed like lip service. But then a 19-2 run in the second half brought the Wolves back from an 18-point deficit. The intensity was there throughout the fourth quarter. And the game headed into overtime before the Wolves lost 117-111 and dropped to 8-9 on the season.
The Wolves responded to a good Houston team without injured point guard Mike Conley. They failed to push through in overtime when they needed to do so.
The first words from Finch following Tuesday’s game: “I didn’t really like our effort and energy in the first half.”
Combine Finch’s statements with Edwards’ and Gobert’s admissions and that is troubling so early in a season when intensity shouldn’t be an issue coming off a conference finals appearance.