Tuesday night at Target Center, the Timberwolves began their ninth back-to-back games of the season when they played host to Charlotte. On Wednesday at home, Minnesota will face Toronto before the All-Star break. Over their first eight back-to-backs, the Wolves were 5-3 on the front end of those games and 3-5 on the back end, including losses in three consecutive and four of their past five follow-up games.
Timberwolves try to find secret to success in second game of back-to-backs
Being tired or sore going into those back-end games is something players just need to push through, says forward Jarred Vanderbilt.
February 16, 2022 at 2:06AM
Back-to-backs are tough, of course. Especially when there is travel between the games.
Still, after winning two of their first three back ends of back-to-backs this season, the Wolves have struggled. Not that coach Chris Finch feels there is a need to change his approach in any way.
"Not really," he said somewhat jokingly. "You just try to win the first one, try to win the second one."
After the break, the Wolves have four more back-to-backs scheduled: two home games against Memphis and Philadelphia on Feb. 24-25, at Cleveland and home vs. Golden State on Feb. 28-March 1, at Oklahoma City and home vs. Portland on March 3-4 and away games at Orlando and Miami on March 11-12.
So why have the Wolves recently struggled to close out back-to-backs?
"We've been on the road a lot lately," forward Jarred Vanderbilt said, noting the past three back ends were all on the road. "I think it's all a mind-set thing. We're close to the All-Star break. Everyone's feeding into, 'I'm tired, I'm hurt,' all that. Especially on back-to-backs. It's easy to make a lot of excuses: 'We played a game, we just traveled.' Or, 'I just got banged up a little the night before.' The biggest thing is for us not to let those excuses creep in."
The good news is both Tuesday and Wednesday's games were at home, requiring no travel. "I know we've got an All-Star break coming up and everybody's looking forward to it. We need to lock in on these next couple games before we get there," Vanderbilt said.
Finding minutes
In this strange season, Finch guided the Wolves through a COVID-19 stretch in which one player after another were out, and seldom-used players were in and playing big minutes.
Now the Wolves are one of the healthier teams in the league. Suddenly the challenge is finding minutes, especially for players who shone during the team's difficulties.
"It's definitely harder to find worthy players minutes," Finch said. "Because the other situation, you gotta play whoever is available, and hope they play well. And, for the most part, our guys played really well."
But lately, it's been hard finding time for players such as guard Jaylen Nowell and forward Taurean Prince, neither of whom played in the Wolves' 129-120 victory in Indiana on Sunday.
"I know Jaylen's got to be super frustrated," Finch said. "It was never our intention to not play [Prince] the other night."
The decision on Prince had more to do with guard Anthony Edwards (37 points) being so hot, Finch didn't want to sit him much. Still, the game-by-game decisions are difficult.
"Just stay ready," Finch said. "Every game is going to be different. Now we're getting down to this part of the season, the stretch run. We could be very situational in what we do, matchup-wise. And that could trigger any type of combination on the floor."
Etc.
- The Wolves recalled forward Leandro Bolmaro from the Iowa Wolves.
The Wolves cut a 19-point second-half deficit to two, but Naz Reid’s three-point attempt missed at the final horn against the defending NBA champions.
