It is only natural to look at the Timberwolves’ next five games and think, “Well, there are five wins.”
They play Oklahoma City on Friday, followed by consecutive games against Portland and another game against the Thunder before facing Orlando.
Oklahoma City is 20-42, Orlando is 15-48 and Portland has lost three straight games, all by 30-plus points. It makes sense that a Timberwolves team that has beaten Golden State, Cleveland and Memphis since the all-star break would roll through those teams. But Wednesday served as a reminder that isn’t always the case.
Denver (36-26) is one of the teams Minnesota (34-29) is chasing in the Western Conference. The Nuggets have played very well of late. They were 15-point favorites Wednesday at home against the Thunder but lost by 12 on a night in which Denver’s starters were a combined 1-for-25 shooting from 3-point range.
You cannot take NBA games for granted.
“They’re a really hard-playing team full of young guys. Every single night they’re going to come out and battle you,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said of the Thunder. “We said there’s going to be a lot of twists and turns in this season as it comes down the stretch, whether it be what happens to us or what happens to other teams. Can’t look ahead and can’t predict. We’re not in that business right now.”
Finch re-affirmed Minnesota’s goal to finish in the top six in the Western Conference to bypass the play-in round and go directly to the playoffs, noting the Timberwolves have to get “greedy” right now. Minnesota, currently seventh in the West, is three back of Denver in the loss column, and four losses behind Dallas.
“We’re shooting for the stars,” guard D’Angelo Russell said. “Every game is going to matter, and our focus, our attention to detail is going to get us over the hump on games like that. Just our focus. I think our focus is going to get us whatever we want.”
That focus can be difficult to maintain when the quality of the opponents dips and the wins come easy for an extended period of play. The Timberwolves may blitz the Thunder and Blazers by 20 points each Friday and Saturday. Can they then keep their same approach heading into Monday’s game against Portland?
“I think the most important thing with this part of the schedule right now is just staying focused on the very very next game in front of us. We play, I think, four games against two opponents,” Finch said. “Those are tricky because you learn a lot about a team and you get to run it back right away. They’re tricky, as we learned in Sacramento. It’s hard to maintain focus against the same opponent a couple of times. That’s the most important thing right now — no looking ahead.”
Russell said the key is to keep the focus on self improvement. The Timberwolves need to worry about the way they are playing more than how their opponent plays. Ahead of the all-star break, Patrick Beverley said it’s not about the opponent on any given night, it’s about growing and improving so the Timberwolves are in a position to truly compete with the teams like Phoenix and Golden State come playoff time.
“Any level that I’ve been on, whenever we compete, as the competition rises, I think the attention to detail goes up — your approach, your preparation matters more than your level of play,” Russell said. “You can go out there and not do what you usually do and still affect the game from your preparation and being there on that defensive stop, things like that. And that’s what matters in the playoffs. Every game comes down to that one stop, that possession, that box out, who’s hand did it go off of? Things like that, those are considered little things in our game. Just trying to prepare now so when those become an issue, we’re ready for it.
“We’re trying to prepare for bigger things, obviously. One opponent at a time, execute the plan and move on.”
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Heading into soft portion of schedule, ‘greedy’ Timberwolves know it’s time to stack wins - St. Paul Pioneer Press
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