Timberwolves may have just found another recipe for success with two starters out
By Justin Lee
The Minnesota Timberwolves just continue to find ways to win when adversity continues to hit. They are now 15-4, which is their best start to a season ever. This may be the best Timberwolves team we have ever seen. Not to mention, they just had the best month in franchise history.
Now, is that me saying the Wolves will win it all? No. They still have a ways to go, and the inexperience of the postseason certainly doesn't help. However, the fact that they keep beating teams they should beat, keep beating teams they shouldn't beat, and winning games without two of their starters, including their best player, says something.
Against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday, the Timberwolves did it a different way than what we have seen this season. We have seen the Wolves win a multitude of ways, but I'm not sure "have all three big men combined for 77 points" was on the bingo card.
That's what they did, and it worked, even in a gritty win like this one.
"We always play through our bigs," Chris Finch said after the game. "That's kind of the nature of our offense. We like a lot of early touches with our bigs. Ant [Antony Edwards], of course, is a major focal point to our offense with unbelievable gravity, but certainly, KAT, we haven't forgotten about his talents. Generally, he can score 25-28 points on about 13 shots. Tonight, Rudy was super efficient, and so was Naz."
Now, the Timberwolves do always play through their bigs, but definitely not like they were on Saturday. Usually, they play through Karl-Anthony Towns and use Rudy Gobert in the lob game or on second-chance points. They never really go to him like they did repeatedly on Saturday.
As for Nazz Reid, we know he can score like that. When players ahead of him started getting in foul trouble on Saturday, he stepped up and made some huge buckets over Miles Bridges.
Now, maybe it felt like the Wolves were doing that more this game because of Edwardss and McDaniels not being there and the Hornets just not having much size. Either way, you can add this one to the now thick book of "Ways to win" for the Timberwolves.