What To Watch For: Timberwolves at Raptors

After a surprising loss in Atlanta on Monday night, the Timberwolves will try to log an unexpected win in Toronto on Tuesday.

The Timberwolves started out Monday’s game against the Hawks well, leading by five after the first quarter and by three at halftime. After building an 11-point third quarter lead, however, things took a turn for the worse.

Jeff Teague‘s worst game in a Wolves uniform, combined with shoddy defense and disorganized offense down the stretch, led to an embarrassing loss to the worst team in the Eastern Conference. And now, Minnesota is faced with heading to Toronto to take on the 33-15 Raptors on short rest.

Yes, the Wolves defeated the Raptors at Target Center just 10 days ago. And yes, Jimmy Butler didn’t even play in that game. But on the second night of a road back-to-back, and especially coming off of a deflating loss the night prior, a win in Toronto would be a surprise.

Let’s take a look at a couple of items to look out for in this one.

1. Point Guard Matchup: Slow down Kyle Lowry

In the first meeting between the two teams, four-time All-Star Kyle Lowry went off, scoring 40 points on 14-of-25 shooting, including 6-of-10 from beyond the arc. His counterpart, Jeff Teague, scored only five points on 2-of-11 shooting in Butler’s absence.

Having Butler on the court should help when it comes to slowing down Lowry; the 40 points weren’t all Teague’s fault. But Teague’s defensive issues are well-documented, and when he shoots 2-for-11 on the other end of the court (or 1-for-12, as he did on Monday in Atlanta), he provides negative value to the Wolves’ cause.

Teague simply can’t afford to go under screens against Lowry, and forcing the 31-year-old to beat him off the dribble will certainly be the best play.

2. Play through Towns

In four of the last six games, Karl-Anthony Towns has attempted nine or less field goal attempts.

Let that sink in for a moment. Timberwolves All-Star and one of the consensus top-20 players in the NBA, Karl-Anthony Towns, has only managed double-digit shot attempts twice over the past 10 days.

Part of this is offensive flow, part is poor decision-making, and part is Towns’ own lack of aggression at times with the ball in his hands. More on this later this week, but there were absolutely multiple times during the loss to the Hawks that Towns passed up drives to the rim, and instead turned and swung the ball to a teammate.

Next: Checking in on the Timberwolves ICE defensive scheme...

Towns must be aggressive if the Wolves are to beat the Raptors; he scored 22 points on just seven shot attempts in the Butler-less win last time against Toronto. He’ll need to shoot more often than that this time around.