Timberwolves vs. Rockets: Will Game 5 be a wrap on Wolves’ season?
By Ben Beecken
The Timberwolves head back to Houston on Wednesday night to take on the Rockets in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.
After a fun close-and-late loss in Game 1, a blowout in Game 2, and an exciting Timberwolves win in blowout fashion in Game 3, things fell apart for the Wolves in Game 4 on Monday evening.
Indeed, the Wolves had a solid chance to even the series at two games apiece, but couldn’t take advantage of a cold start from the Rockets, including an 0-for-7 start from the field by James Harden.
It would be easy for the Timberwolves to fold up and head home with their tails between their legs, but if the fourth quarter of Monday’s embarrassment is any indication, don’t expect that to happen in H-Town on Wednesday night.
In what was at one point a 39-point game, the Wolves buckled down and threatened to get the deficit back to single-digits late in the fourth quarter.
Now, is that effort that significant? Probably not, no, but it’s better than the alternative, and the fact the Wolves essentially outplayed Houston for three of the four quarters in what was still a 19-point loss has to give some hope to the coaches and players.
A strong showing in Game 5 will surely need to be combined with another stinker from Houston if Minnesota is to win, but we’ve seen more uneven play than play worth of a 65-win team throughout the first four games of this series, so it isn’t exactly far-fetched that they may struggle again, especially in a series that they surely believe is all but over already.
A win, of course, would send the Wolves back to Target Center only needing one more win to force a Game 7. And as we all know, anything can happen when it all comes down to one game.
What must happen for the Wolves on Wednesday?
A lot, actually. The shadow double-teams on Harden that were so successful early in Game 4 must continue with that same urgency for all 48 minutes, or however long Harden is on the floor in Game 5. After halftime, Houston came out with far more energy than the Wolves and took advantage of a soft defensive effort.
The tricky thing is that the Wolves should not be counting on Trevor Ariza, Ryan Anderson, and Gerald Green combining to shoot just 7-of-21 (33 percent) from beyond the arc. That trio is far better than that, with each player individually shooting north of 36.8 percent in the regular season from 3-point land.
On offense, the Wolves need to continue to attempt to run through Towns. It worked early in the game on Monday, and while the Rockets’ defensive scheme against KAT is actually quite genius, the Wolves found a way to exploit fairly regularly in their Game 3 victory.
Next: Timberwolves Roundup: Timberpups, Jimmy Butler's future
At any rate, we’ll have a game wrap after it’s all over, and hopefully, we won’t need to have postmortem coverage as soon as Thursday…