The Minnesota Timberwolves did a lot right in order to advance past the Denver Nuggets in six games in the opening round. They are facing a much different team, though, in the Western Conference semifinals in the San Antonio Spurs.
This San Antonio team is certainly more defensive-oriented than the Nuggets. The Spurs have the ultimate rim protector in Victor Wembanyama. His presence will deter Minnesota from taking it to the basket at times.
One thing that the Wolves didn’t do at their best in the first round was connect on their 3-point shots. Improvement is needed if they want to reach the conference finals for the third straight year.
Need to be accurate from long range Â
In their six-game series win over the Nuggets, the Timberwolves shot 62-for-184 (33.7 percent) from beyond the arc. That is a good amount lower than the 37.0 percent they shot from deep in the regular season.
Minnesota also attempted 6.5 less per outing in the opening round when compared to the regular season (30.7 in the playoffs, 37.2 in the regular season). Now, part of that is because they were having so much success driving to the hole against Denver.
That likely won’t be the case against the Spurs. During the regular season, San Antonio allowed the fourth-least shots within five feet and forced opponents into the fifth-worst shooting accuracy from that range. A lot of that has to do with the length of Wemby.
It won’t be easy. Of course, the Timberwolves will be without Donte DiVincenzo, their team leader in 3-pointers made. If Anthony Edwards does actually return in Game 1 (surprisingly listed as questionable), that should help see their 3-point volume increase (although he made just 8 of 31 attempts in the Denver series prior to getting hurt).
Minnesota had the same number of games shooting under 27 percent from 3 that they did shooting over 40 percent in the first round (two each). Bones Hyland, Terrence Shannon Jr., Julius Randle, Naz Reid, and Jaden McDaniels (as well as Edwards) all made no more than one-third of their 3-point attempts. Ayo Dosunmu was seemingly the only Wolves player throughout the series who was consistently hitting them, and Ayo is listed as questionable for Game 1.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to score inside with Wemby on the court. When getting a breather, Luke Kornet is a solid rim protector, but obviously not at the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year’s level.
It just seems likely that it will be done less frequently than they did against the Nuggets, making the 3-point shot more of a necessity.
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