Anthony Edwards recently said his Timberwolves haven’t been playing hard enough. Rudy Gobert has admitted to not playing up to his standards.
Neal: Timberwolves say the right things, but to quote Chris Finch, ‘You just gotta go out and do it.’
The coach and best player both see too little effort, and those of us watching from a distance see nothing at all like last season.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 27, 2024 at 4:43AM
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.
On Sunday in Boston, they fought back from 19 points down but lost by two to the Celtics. So in their past eight quarters of basketball, they have played well and hard for about three of them. That doesn’t cut it.
They have put the “oof” in woof.
It’s not time to blame the trade of Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. At least not yet. The Wolves thought they were getting a scorer and rebounder in Randle and depth piece in DiVincenzo. Randle has scored, has not rebounded and plays defense at times as if Stickum is on the bottom of his shoes. DiVincenzo simply has not found his game. He was in the starting lineup Tuesday but was on the bench in crunch time.
The Wolves’ problems run deeper. Conley is shooting 31.9%. Jaden McDaniels’ offense goes more than it comes. Gobert is here to protect the rim, rebound and score when he can.
It’s hard to sustain offense when teams only have to worry about two players hurting them. The world champion Celtics have five starters who must be guarded. Three of the Wolves starters Tuesday — Gobert, DiVincenzo and McDaniels — combined for 17 points.
There is little resemblance to last season’s team that thrived behind a Doberman defense that was marvelous through most of the postseason. The Wolves led the NBA in defensive efficiency. They entered Tuesday ranked 14th.
The Wolves are home for a four-game stretch in which they can address their sputtering offense and troubling defense. They fed off the energy from the Target Center crowd to promptly fall behind 20-11 nearly six minutes into the first quarter. Houston hit 60% of its three-point tries, moving the ball faster than the Wolves could rotate and then burying shots. Gobert was 0-for-1 in the first quarter with no rebounds, assists or blocks.
The Wolves trailed 57-47 at halftime, committing 10 turnovers. A turnover and Jalen Green jam in the third quarter brought sustained boos from spectators as Houston took a 70-58 lead.
Finch is trying to use his hammer — the bench — to get his team back on track. The reserves had some success in the second quarter with Rob Dillingham, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Naz Reid on the floor. Dillingham got minutes during crunch time instead of the ineffective DiVincenzo. Finch indicated more lineup combinations are coming.
The Wolves have lost games to inferior teams or teams decimated by injuries. They look nothing like the team of a season ago. They need to find the motivation, either intrinsic or extrinsic, to bring it for 48 minutes.
Finch, during the Wolves’ media day, said it would take about 20 games for the offense to find its footing. Tuesday marked game No. 17 this season.
We don’t need three more games to conclude that this is not working.
Dealing with an injury to the starting point guard, the team has tried Donte DiVincenzo, but rookie Rob Dillingham has provided the better spark.
