Zach LaVine was matched up against Dwyane Wade, one of the greatest players of this era, late in Minnesota’s game in Chicago on Tuesday night.

The Timberwolves were up two points with less than a minute to play, and Wade had the ball. So many times in similar spots Wade has hit big shots to help propel his team his team to victory. And with LaVine, widely considered a less-than-stellar defender, on him, that figured to be the case again this time.

But it wasn’t. Instead, LaVine stayed in front of Wade and him into a contested look from the perimeter and, when the shot clanked off the iron, leaked out for an easy transition bucket to put the Wolves up four and essentially salt the game away.

“It’s crunch time, it’s mano a mano,” LaVine said after the game. “Dwyane Wade is a future hall of famer, and you’ve just got to buckle up. I always felt like I’m a good one-on-one defensive player, so I just kept him in front, got a (contested shot) up, and that’s what you’ve got to do.”

Andrew Wiggins was asked about LaVine’s play after the game, which led to a back-and-forth between the two friends, whose lockers were side-by-side in Chicago.

When guarding the man with the basketball, LaVine and Wiggins are confident in their abilities to get the job done.

“On the ball, we good,” LaVine said.

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“Off the ball is very tough,” Wiggins said, “for both of us.”

Defense is often thought of as one concept. Either you help your team prevent the opponent from scoring or you don’t. But there are obviously many more layers to it.

Wiggins and LaVine each have the statures and athleticism of players who have the potential to stop players individually, like LaVine did with Wade on Tuesday.

“I feel like, athletically, I’ve always been able to stay in front of people and use my good length,” LaVine said.

“On-ball defense was always more natural to me growing up,” Wiggins said.

But for every time LaVine or Wiggins stops a guy like Wade, there are examples of a missed rotation that led to an open shot for the opponent. There are reasons neither of the Wolves’ star wings feature flattering advanced defensive metrics.

“There’s a lot of stuff you’ve done before the NBA (that) you can’t do in the NBA,” Wiggins said. “As you get older you have to learn about team defense, on-ball defense, and I feel like I’m not a bad off-ball defender, but I could be better in a lot of areas.”

The learning process has proven to be a slow one. There’s a lot to digest.

“You’ve got to be in, you’ve got to tag (the cutter), you’ve got to communicate with your teammates, you’ve got to be on a string, got to know where other dudes are cutting,” LaVine said, “so it’s a lot of things that go into playing. And that includes you’re guarding a (wing), and that’s probably one of the better players on the team, so you’re focused on them. So it’s just a little bit different, but we’re getting a lot better at it.”

Wiggins said he’s improving his off-ball defense every day. He felt he was good in that area against Chicago, and hopes to build off that performance moving forward.

That’s a necessity if Minnesota is to fulfill the defensive potential its athleticism would seem to present.

“I feel like people that are overall good defenders are good at all of it,” LaVine said. “Dudes like Kawhi Leonard, Tony Allen, Draymond Green, they’re great at on-ball and they’re great team defenders, as well. So you want to be both.”

But defensive success isn’t as simple as on-ball and off-ball defense, Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau said.

“As the ball moves, your hands and feet have to move correctly,” Thibodeau said. “So that’s where you have to avoid the fouling. And if you’re not pressuring the ball properly, you’re going to allow that ball to be passed into the paint too easily. … So the individual defense, it’s a lot more than just the initial part. It’s tracing the ball, it’s pointing the ball in the direction that it needs to go in. It’s the correct stance. I think we’re still learning that.”