Transition defense reappears as a Timberwolves weakness

NEW YORK — An old problem for the Timberwolves popped up in their loss to Portland on Sunday.

The team's transition defense allowed the undermanned Trail Blazers to run up and down the floor and score 25 fast-break points. This was a problem that appeared early in the season when the Wolves deployed the two-big lineup of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, but it became less of a problem after Towns went out for an extended time because of a right calf injury.

The Wolves have wanted to exploit an advantage they might have on the offensive glass given their height, so they have not wanted to simply have everybody retreat once a shot goes up.

Guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker said the Wolves are caught between wanting to crash the boards and getting back, and that's why Sunday's loss happened the way it did.

"We're getting caught in the middle of both," Alexander-Walker said. "You got to do one or the other. If you crash hard enough, you might cause a disruption in their transition, where they're maybe tipping it. Maybe you keep the ball alive. … If we just definitively do one or the other between all of us, and we have rules on it, but if we just stick to our rules, everything will be a lot better."

Some of those rules include not crashing to the top of the key, or a rule that if you're out of position and have no shot of getting a rebound, don't even try to get one.

"It's getting back with urgency and before the shot goes up .. make sure you get back even before the shot hits the rim," forward Jaden McDaniels said.

In that way, transition defense can be a commentary on a team's effort. Of late, the Wolves have been allowing more points in that area.

The Wolves allowed 14 fast-break points per game in the time Towns was out. Since he returned, that number has increased to 16.5. That ranked 24th in the NBA. Alexander-Walker said even though the Wolves have rules, and their transition defense isn't simply to just run back as quickly as possible, it still requires focus and effort to observe those principles.

"To apply a rule is effort," Alexander-Walker said. "Anything you set, you set a boundary, you have to make a conscious effort to stay within that boundary. If we make it a rule between our team, we have to make a conscious effort to abide by that rule for each other."

Coach Chris Finch said the team was in "no-man's land" related to its transition defense against Portland. As the season has gone on, the Wolves have had a greater focus on crashing the glass, and they don't want to give that up so easily. But they have to clean up what happens when they don't get an offensive board.

"The crashing is one of those things that you have to be all in," Finch said. "If you go hard, sometimes it works, well it should work, to your advantage. You either get the ball back or they have to stay in and get the rebound before they can run. When you're a bigger team and want to play big, you got to do things that big teams do, so you've got to commit to that."

Center Naz Reid, who is out because of a fractured left wrist, was with the team in Brooklyn for Tuesday's game. Reid is set to have surgery on the wrist while in New York and is looking at about a six-week recovery post-surgery. He could rejoin the team should the Wolves advance far enough in the Western Conference playoffs.