Game 1 saw the Timberwolves start the game extremely well. Rudy Gobert was getting the better of Nikola Jokic on both sides of the ball early on, and the Wolves' role players started out hitting their shots.
Unfortunately, as the game unfolded, the Wolves reverted to bad habits, and despite a less-than-ideally officiated game, these bad habits ultimately did them in.
When I talk about bad habits with the Wolves, I'm mostly talking about poor ball movement and shot selection. The second half saw the ball get really sticky, and the Wolves were trying to erase 10-plus point deficits on one shot, it seemed.
Instead of swinging the ball around to open shooters and driving on the Nuggets' nonexistent rim protection, the Wolves shot a plethora of contested, isolation jumpers early in the shot clock.
The Wolves played right into what Denver wants them to do
The Nuggets aren't a good defensive team, at all, honestly. They ranked in the bottom 10 for defensive rating in the regular season. But when the Timberwolves bail the Nuggets out by settling for contested, early-clock shots, the Nuggets breathe a sigh of relief.
They don't have the bodies to contain guards and wings that can break the paint like Anthony Edwards, Ayo Dosunmu, and Jaden McDaniels. When they do drive, it's easy buckets a lot of the time. Jokic doesn't want to play aggressive paint defense due to the risk of him picking up bad fouls, because of how important he is to everything they do.
The Nuggets aren't a team that should require the Timberwolves to settle for so many poorly selected jumpers. They weren't doing that to start the game, but as it went on, they started to rely on a bad offensive process, and that won't work to win against a prolific offense in Denver.
The Wolves have the recipe to flip the series -- they just need to stay disciplined
A lot of the bad shots came from the two stars in Edwards and Julius Randle. I trust Edwards to make those adjustments and come out with his hair on fire in Game 2.
Randle, on the other hand, is a little trickier. His matchup is Aaron Gordon, an extremely strong and physical defender. He made it tough for Randle to get to the rim, forcing him to take inefficient jumpers. To remedy this, Randle needs to lean into his playmaking more and kick out to the open shooters. He's too talented a playmaker to only have two assists.
If the Timberwolves can be disciplined on these adjustments, I fully expect a tied-up series headed back to an electric Target Center crowd. The big picture is that this simple playstyle change could help the Wolves pull off an upset.
Add us as a preferred source on Google