On Wednesday, the Minnesota Timberwolves faced the Houston Rockets in Game 2 of its first-round series. Despite an off night from James Harden, the Rockets rolled over the Wolves and won 102-82.

The good

The Wolves started off strong in this game. They lead Houston throughout the entire first quarter. During this time, their offense was rolling and they successfully contained Harden. Minnesota was shooting with no hesitation and making hustle plays on both ends of the floor. They exhibited the same kind of energy that kept them in Game 1 until the last second.

PICK



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ROLL



DEFENSE



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WIGGINS



OFFENSE pic.twitter.com/csPKlM05Nu — Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 19, 2018

Another positive is the performance of the bench. Nemanja Bjelica was excellent in his 16-minute stint, despite playing just five minutes in Game 1. He had 16 points on 5 of 9 shooting, in addition to eight rebounds and two steals. Bjelica made two three’s, which is exactly what the Wolves need from him.

Although Gorgui Dieng and Tyus Jones didn’t score many points, it is worth noting that both of them were plus one in the contest. This is pretty impressive considering they played 24 and 28 minutes respectively in a blowout loss.

This series continues to be shocking in the fact that Minnesota’s defense is not the reason they are losing. The Timberwolves struggled constantly on that end of the floor in the regular season, and yet now they are handling the Rockets’ state-of-the-art offense extraordinarily well. They held Houston to just 102 points in Game 2 and 104 in Game 1. While this is partially due to luck, the eye test confirms that the Wolves are doing a great job of focusing and communicating on the defensive end.

The bad

This season, the Timberwolves have been notorious for playing their starters heavy minutes and under-utilizing the bench. In a shocking turn of events, Tom Thibodeau relied heavily on the bench for the much of Wednesday’s game. Andrew Wiggins lead the Wolves’ starters with 30 minutes, while Jeff Teague played just 19.

This seems a bit backward. Why rely exclusively on the starters for the regular season only to throw the bench players in during the playoffs? The reserves did not get a chance to build much rhythm or experience earlier this year, so it was impressive that they were even able to hold down the fort in Game 2.

The #Timberwolves' usage breakdown through 2 games….. isn't pretty:



Rose – 28.5%

Teague – 26.9%

Wiggins – 26.4%

Bjelica – 24.1%

Dieng – 19.8%

Crawford – 18.7%

Butler – 17.5%

Towns – 15.9% — Tom West (@TomWestNBA) April 19, 2018

If the Wolves are going to win, they need to play Karl-Anthony Towns and Jimmy Butler more than 25 minutes a game. Though Bjelica, Jones, and Dieng were able to do some moderate damage control, they cannot win a game on their own, especially not against such a superb offensive team. Towns and Butler, however, are the kind of players who can.

Just like in Game 2, Towns had an extremely disappointing performance. The 22-year-old was a minus-21 in the game and scored just five points. After making two shots in the first six minutes, Towns went scoreless for the remainder of the game. He took all nine of his shot attempts in the first half.

Butler and Teague weren’t much better. They had 11 and eight points respectively while combining for seven turnovers.

Thibodeau has built a top-heavy team in Minnesota. This means that if they are going to have any chance at victory their stars to be firing on all cylinders. Because of the Wolves’ roster construction and lack of trust in the reserves, there is no one to bail the starters out if they don’t have a great night.

The ugly

This loss is a stark illustration of the fact that Minnesota is not ready to contend with the top tier of teams in this league. They do not have the personnel, consistency, or flexible strategies to go far in the playoffs. The Wolves scored just 82 points in Game 2, even without the Rockets’ best defender, Luc Mbah a Moute.

In the past two games, the Timberwolves have had no off-ball movement. It’s a problem that has plagued Minnesota all year, making for many rushed, contested jumpers at the end of the shot clock.

the Timberwolves' Miss Contested Shots offense is no match for the Rockets' superior Make Open Shots offense — shrillmonger (@theshrillest) April 19, 2018

Even if the Wolves players were to try to cut, there wouldn’t really be anywhere they could go and get open since the Rockets are just sagging off the many non-shooters. Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson, and Dieng all struggle to make the defense pay for helping off of them.

It appears that a big problem here is that the Wolves aren’t used to team’s game planning against them. In the regular season, they can catch teams unprepared. In the postseason, however, their opponents have to time to adjust to the Wolves’ inflexible offense.

On the flip side, Minnesota doesn’t seem like they have come up with a great plan to exploit Houston’s weaknesses. So far, they have had almost no success attacking the Rockets’ switching defense. In addition, they did not make use of the fact that Gerald Green played 26 minutes on Wednesday. Green is a sub-par defender, and by going at him the Wolves would not only get some easy buckets but also make Green less playable.

The Wolves’ offense lost them the game, but it wasn’t because their shots weren’t falling. They shot 39 percent from the field, while Houston shot 36 percent. The difference was that the Rockets were put up 52 three’s, while Minnesota attempted just 18. Houston was shooting just two percent better on three’s than the Timberwolves.

The Wolves are not putting up enough shots because they lack the off-ball movement and play variation to get good looks.

Keys to victory in Game 3

1.Towns needs to show up

This team is built around Towns. He cannot just be dead weight in this series. This means he needs to take more than nine shots, even if he is missing. Towns could take a leaf out of Jamal Crawford’s book, who is notorious for shooting brick after brick in the hope of getting hot. This strategy has served Crawford pretty well in his 17-year career.

If Towns shoots and misses thirty shots in Game 3, that’s the kind of loss the Timberwolves can live with. Both the Wolves and Towns himself need to have some faith that he has the ability to score when given the ball.

2. Quality offensive strategy

Minnesota needs to create a plan to exploit Houston’s weaknesses. Though the Rockets are a solid defensive team, the Wolves still should be able to score 100 points against them without too much trouble. This means that Minnesota needs to get more shots off, especially three’s. It doesn’t matter if they are forced, after all, a bad shot is always better than a turnover. Bjelica will need to continue to play as much as possible to spread the floor. It might be a good idea to use Jones over Rose in order to add more consistent shooting. Most importantly, the starters, who are used to shooting a high volume of shots, need to play more than 30 minutes. Finally, the Wolves have to attack Houston’s switches and sub-par defenders like Green.

Jeff Teague with a really honest assessment of what the Timberwolves offense was in Game 2, and what it has to be moving forward. Worth the read: pic.twitter.com/BTban7Nv0u — jace frederick (@JaceFrederick) April 20, 2018

3. Luck

Obviously, the Timberwolves have not been playing their best basketball in this series. The scary part is that Houston hasn’t been either. Normally, the Rockets shoot 36 percent from three, but they have shot just 29 percent from long range during this series. Part of this can be attributed to the Wolves’ defense, but part of it is just luck. It’s likely that Houston will regress to the mean, and when they do, Minnesota won’t have an answer.

If the Wolves are to pull off a win at home, luck will need to be on their side.

Game 3 will begin at 6:30 p.m. CT in the Target Center.

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