Timberwolves stay calm after lopsided Game 3 loss: ‘A little adversity will be good for us’

One of the defining characteristics of the Timberwolves this season was their ability to flush a bad performance and move on quickly.

Only four times all season did the Wolves lose two consecutive games, and they never lost three or more.

“We’ve been good all year at, when we take an L, we learn from it and adjust really quick,” point guard Mike Conley said. “Our guys take it personal, get angry and somehow flip a switch. Say it’s-not-going-to-happen-again type of attitude. And that’s what we need to have. We’ve got to continue to be the urgent, desperate team that we’ve played like all year.”

They looked nothing like that on Friday night at Target Center, when the Nuggets controlled the night from the tip and led by as much as 34 before winning 117-90 to pull within 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. The Wolves showed throughout the season they can bounce back, but rarely did a team clean their clocks the way Denver did in Game 3.

Even in losses, they tended to keep games relatively close and only occasionally entered garbage time with five minutes remaining.

Can the Wolves just shrug off Friday as an off night, or did the defending champions re-discover something in themselves — and perhaps some things they can exploit in Minnesota — that could shift the tide of the series?

Game 4 will show that. If Denver wins, the path is there for the Nuggets to take the series on their home court. If the Wolves win, a 3-1 series lead would allow them, at the very least, one crack at clinching the series on their home floor in a potential Game 6 on Thursday.

“Maybe a loss here and there will help even that out and get us back to the back-against-the-wall mentality and not all the praise and things that have happened over the last three days that we’re not accustomed to,” Conley said. “Just a couple days now to lock in and get ready for Sunday.”

Over the course of the season, coach Chris Finch said multiple times he sometimes enjoyed playing on the road more than playing at home. He could even feel his team focus better on the road than at home.

On the road, all the team has in its sights is basketball, and what it needs to do that night. At home, there can be a number of distractions, and Finch said maybe that was the case leading up to Friday, when the Wolves had three days off and people telling them how great they were after winning the first two games of the series in Colorado.

“Need to lock in,” Finch said. “Thought we had a couple good days of practice but apparently we weren’t able to transfer it to the floor.”

The energy was off from the start, Finch said, as the Wolves didn’t have the same “teeth” on the defensive end as the first two games. Karl-Anthony Towns said that showed in the first quarter, when the Wolves were struggling at both ends of the floor.

Towns said the Game 3 loss could serve as adversity for the Wolves, and “a little adversity will be good for us.”

“This is a great humbling experience for us,” Towns said. “The defending champions definitely gave us that experience and it’s going to make us hungrier. I think it’s going to make us a better team, I think it’s going to show how connected we are and it’s good for us.”

Reserve guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who injured his left shoulder in the second half Friday, said the team knew Denver was going to come out playing desperate. What was disappointing was that the Wolves didn’t match their energy or play to the level they knew they were capable.

“You trust each other. The locker room’s tighter than ever,” Alexander-Walker said. “Guys aren’t looking around. We’re not breaking from within. Everyone knows that we’ve got to be ready for Sunday. There’s no sense talking about it. We just have to get prepared. The good thing about it is we’re a family here. Everyone’s connected.”

The Wolves have shown that all season in their ability to bounce back from losses. But they never had to do so in the playoffs and against the defending champions.