Timberwolves' Game 1 debacle caused by poor shots, poor execution

DENVER – There were a few different explanations for why the Timberwolves scored only 80 points and shot just 37% in their 109-80 blowout loss at the hands of the Nuggets to open the playoffs on Sunday night.

One was a simpler explanation than the other.

"Missed some shots that we normally make," said guard Anthony Edwards, who was 6-for-15. "So, we ain't stressing. Get in the gym, get the lab, watch some film. We'll be all right."

But to hear coach Chris Finch and guard Mike Conley break it down, the Wolves' issues were a little deeper than just missing some shots. The shots they ended up taking were a problem, and if the Wolves are going to make this series competitive against the Western Conference's No. 1 seed, they need to figure out how to generate better looks — or take the good looks that are there and not try to get perfect ones.

"Almost like a group dysfunction," Conley said. "... There was times where we just had guys take tough shots for no reason, bypass the easy play for a harder play, leading to tough situations, leading to turnovers."

Shot selection can have a ripple effect on the rest of the roster, and Denver made the Wolves pay double for a lot of shots they missed by scoring in transition, especially in the third quarter, when the Nuggets blew the game open by outscoring the Wolves 32-14.

"All night long our offense was really off the mark," Finch said. "We kind of set the tone early for ourselves by taking a lot of poor shots to start the game."

Game 2 of the first-round series is Wednesday night. Conley said there are ways the Wolves can exploit this Denver defense and that a lot of the issues they had were "self-inflicted." If they can execute on offense, it will help clean up some of their issues in transition.

"It was the easy reads," Conley said. "If the guy is open in the pocket, hit them and let them make the next play. Things that we had done in the last few games leading up to this. Once we started to lose the lead a little bit and we started getting to five to 10 points, we tried to do it ourselves, it became like one-pass shots, no-pass shots, just driving into traffic. We've got to just trust each other."

Karl-Anthony Towns didn't lose trust in his shot after going 5-for-15 in one of his worst games in a while. Afterward, Towns said his shot "felt good."

"I'm a hell of a shooter. I know that, believe that, know it. Proved it. So I just gotta go out there and just make the shots next game," Towns said.

But even Towns struggled with his shot selection in trying to get jumpstarted early in the game. The Wolves again looked out of sync when Towns and Rudy Gobert — who said his injured back was "not great" — shared the floor together. Spacing on offense with the two of them on the floor is an ongoing battle the Wolves haven't totally figured out.

"Really, it's about the spacing," Conley said. "It's about keeping that floor open for guys to make plays and make easier reads. Because I have all the faith in KAT and Rudy and us trying to figure it out."

Finch also mentioned the Wolves had to play with "more force," and by that he means they need to be more intentional with their actions and attack Denver instead of playing more of a finesse game.

"You got to play quicker, you got to get your shoulder down, you got to turn the corner," Finch said. "We just bounced everything east-west in all of our actions. We didn't get downhill on anything."

The Wolves have a veteran-laden group, with players such as Conley, Gobert and Kyle Anderson who have seen plenty of playoff action. Each of them said they have been in situations like this, when one team wins big in Game 1 of a playoff series, and it's not always a harbinger of how the series will play out. But Sunday night revealed the Wolves have plenty they need to address if they are going to avoid a repeat of what happened.

"You can't be too high. Can't be too low," Gobert said. "But at the same time you want to see the things we can do better. Tonight there's a lot of things we can control that we can get better at."