On the Timberwolves’ outstanding defense on Kevin Durant

The Timberwolves rendered Kevin Durant inefficient in Sunday’s win over the Warriors; while KD scored 39 points, it took him 32 shots to get there.

On Sunday afternoon at Target Center, a Steph Curry-less Warriors squad still managed to score 103 points. Kevin Durant still had 39 points, and Klay Thompson put up 21 of his own.

But the Warriors shot just 40.7 percent from the floor and 10-for-36 (27.8 percent) from 3-point range as a team. Outside of Durant and Thompson, Zaza Pachulia (16 points) and Draymond Green (10) were the only Warriors players to score in double-figures.

And Durant and Thompson shot combined to shoot only 19-for-54 (35.2 percent) from the field and 8-for-24 (33.3 percent) from beyond the arc. The Wolves defense, especially on the dynamic Durant, was outstanding.

The nine-time All-Star and 2013-14 NBA MVP struggled mightily outside of a scorching-hot stretch in the second quarter. KD had a rough shooting night, to be sure, but a host of individual Timberwolves players should be commended for their efforts.

The Wolves strategy was clearly to switch on screens and funnel Durant towards help in the paint on his drives — easier said than done, of course. On the perimeter, it was obvious: don’t go under screens, and contest everything. Durant has unlimited range.

KD made more than one shot with multiple hands in his face, but I could also count on one hand the number of open shot attempts that he had during the game. Of his 11 makes, nearly all of them were difficult, guarded shots.

Let’s take a look at a few clips of the Wolves’ outstanding defense on Durant. First up, let’s take a look at some excellent defense from Jamal Crawford.

Yep, I said it. And I meant it. Check it out:

Crawford can’t stay in front of Durant, of course — nobody can. But he sticks with him enough to steer him into Karl-Anthony Towns‘ help. Towns can play off of JaVale McGee, who’s kind of hanging out in no-man’s land on the baseline but behind the backboard. Towns turns what would have been a layup into a contested shot, and that was that.

Now, the pick-and-roll game, and solid individual defense from one Taj Gibson.

Andrew Wiggins is guarding Durant here but he and Gibson switch seamlessly after the high ball-screen. Wiggins does his part by getting around the screen quickly as Gibson stays in front of Durant and more or less corrals him, forcing him into an awkward floater of sorts.

Here’s an example of a play in which Towns messes up, apparently forgetting whom the ball-handler is and playing several feet of off Durant.

It wasn’t the only time that KAT hung back to far, either. The next play is also a mistake from Towns, who lingers in mid-range territory, guarding no one. His man, Pachulia, isn’t a threat from out there and Towns doesn’t play up or even stunt towards Durant.

But the play still works out for Minnesota.

Because Towns was nonchalantly playing a potential drive from Durant while kinda-sorta covering a methodically rolling Pachulia, Durant makes up his mind that he’s going to launch a deep three. (It was inexplicable in any scenario, but especially so given the hot streak that KD was on for much of the second quarter. It’s a wonder he still missed even this contested shot.)

But Bjelica had other ideas, lunging at Durant seemingly from out of nowhere and forcing him to double-clutch his shot attempt. Bjelica even recovers from his initial contest and is able to still contest the shot when it finally leaves Durant’s hands, leading to a miss. An outstanding play from Bjelica.

Midway through the third quarter, however, Towns plays the off-ball switch perfectly…

After Bjelica, who is initially guarding Durant, is picked off by a screen, Towns, who was guarding McGee, alertly stepped out from the paint and contests Durant’s 18-foot shot attempt. Sometimes, KAT doesn’t make that play. But he did here, and if this kind of defensive awareness truly becomes commonplace for Towns, then the sky is limit for the Wolves All-Star.

Just minutes later, the Warriors run a similar, although not identical set that is once again designed to get Durant an open mid-range jumper or a free lane to the basket. But Wiggins fights under the Pachulia screen quickly, not allowing KD the space to shoot an open jumper.

And when Durant tries to turn the corner, Wiggins rides his hop directly into the help of both Taj Gibson on the baseline and Towns in the middle of the paint.

Once again, a great individual effort from Wiggins and outstanding team defense from the Wolves as a whole.

Here’s another instance of Wiggins sticking with Durant and forcing him into help from a teammate:

There were plenty more examples of this throughout the game, plus instances in which the defense was nearly perfect but the shot-making from Durant was otherworldly.

The Wolves defense wasn’t nearly this tight on Tuesday in Washington, but it was solid in stretches and especially down the stretch in the fourth quarter.

Next: Report: Andrew Wiggins unhappy as third scoring option?

The overall sense of urgency has been impressive of late, and it needs to continue in San Antonio on Sunday if they’re going to solidify a playoff spot without Jimmy Butler available.