One side effect of the increased number of series in the NBA regular season since the pandemic started is dynamics such as the one the Minnesota Timberwolves and LA Clippers face Friday night. The two teams just faced each other a couple days ago and now play again in the same venue.
Let’s take a look at what we can take from Wednesday’s game and apply to Friday night’s rematch.
Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 things to continue and 3 things to change in Clippers rematch
The consecutive-games-against-the-same-opponent wrinkle was introduced to limit travel time and mitigate COVID-19 risks, but it still exists this season and presents both teams with an interesting challenge. They just played each other in their last game, which means all they’ve been thinking about for the last four or five days is how to combat each other.
It’s a bit like a mini-playoff series in that the dynamic changes because both teams have been able to focus just on what works against the other and now have a game under their belt to make adjustments. Given their recent slide, the game feels almost like a must-win for the Timberwolves in order to emerge from this early, home-heavy stretch of the season .500.
Here are three things that went wrong and three things that went right in Minnesota’s 126-115 loss to the Clippers Wednesday that the Wolves can use to optimize their approach on Friday.
What didn’t work: The Minnesota Timberwolves’ 3-point defense
The Clippers lit Minnesota up from behind the arc, making 21 of 36 3-point attempts. Not all of it was bad defense — sometimes it was broken plays creating wide open, back-breaking looks — but there were certainly things the Wolves could have done better.
Namely, they got caught off-guard or unaware too often. Eleven of the Clippers’ 21 makes came in transition or off high ball screen actions. Watching the plays below, you can see the Wolves are late to pick up when the Clippers get out and run but also are unable to sift through the screens and misdirections in Los Angeles’ ball screen plays.
The number one thing for Minnesota to improve this time around is its attention to detail in tracking and closing out on shooters. The Clippers probably won’t get historically hot again, but they can absolutely shoot the Wolves out of the game if left open.
What did work for the Minnesota Timberwolves: Anthony Edwards
Edwards was impressive against a Clippers team with plenty of athletic, rangy wing defenders. He scored 28 points on 11-of-21 shooting and added a season-high six assists in what was probably his best performance of the young campaign.
In particular, Edwards was cooking off the bounce, burning defenders to the basket with dribble moves and then using that threat to set up pull-up jumpers. Edwards is typically at his best when he’s primarily getting downhill and then picking his spots with jumpers based on the extra space he gets from toasting defenders, and Wednesday was a great example of that.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it: The Timberwolves should ride Edwards tonight and see if he can match or even exceed his output from the first game of this series.
Until D’Angelo Russell returns from his ankle sprain, Edwards is the one reliable source of perimeter offensive creation on the roster.