A matter of seconds has the Timberwolves on the brink of elimination

The Minnesota Timberwolves poured in points against the best defense in the NBA over the latest holiday weekend at Target Center and it still left them on the brink of elimination in the Western Conference Finals If you re primarily an advocate of high-caliber high-intensity hoops the Wolves and the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder provided you with a delightfully uneven medley of tromped-throttle thrills and kamikaze spills spread over minutes on Saturday and Monday nights But if you are primarily a Wolves fan the - thrashing they administered on Saturday parlayed with the - nail-biter that waylaid them on Monday turned the word bittersweet inside-out so you could better see and finger the bruise from the steadily pummeled emotions The best-of-seven series now stands at - meaning the Wolves - NBA season can t withstand another defeat unless an improbable trio of victories pinwheels them past the perched guillotine into a clean slate in the championship round Their first foray into that potentially fatal obstacle program is Wednesday night in Oklahoma City The series could have been tied with a Wolves triumph in Challenge on Monday and that scenario danced like a mirage before them for bulk of the contest Three times in the first quarter a bucket gave them a brief lead but their total time in charge was a mere seconds The rest of it was a scrabble without purchase yet with their goal hovering an arm s length away so long as they kept churning With the stakes and the striving elevated to an extraordinary level pat explanations for what transpired become more tempting and less definitive For example Wolves Coach Chris Finch and the players correctly noted that the Wolves gave up offensive rebounds and turned the ball over times ugly frequencies that typically make defeat a certainty But was the actual cost from those categories prohibitive to success Almost by definition the direct benefit of offensive rebounds is generating second-chance points And yes the Thunder had second-chance points converting nine of opportunities But the Wolves also finished the contest with offensive rebounds and leveraged them for second-chance points converting eight of opportunities more three-pointers or free throws likely accounts for their better efficiency Then there are points scored off an opponent s turnovers The Wolves turned the ball over times and it cost them points But here again although the Thunder only turned it over times the Wolves turned those miscues into points Add up the second-chance points and the points scored off turnovers and the Wolves are plus nine to Another easy narrative is that the Thunder s top two scorers Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams exhibited up and the Wolves the majority prolific pair Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle didn t The numbers are persuasive Williams and Gilgeous-Alexander combined for points while the Ant-Randle combo mustered just points But for years now the steady theme relative to the maturation of Ant has been his ability to get off the ball and enable his teammates when opposing defenses are stacked up to stop him An ongoing complaint which extended well into this season has been his tendency to try and do it all himself when adversity strikes rather than trusting his open teammates to further the offense On Monday Ant consistently exhibited that trust taking what the defense gave him by moving the ball after probing seemed fruitless And at least partially as a consequence of this his teammates flourished Jaden McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker NAW both shot - and combined to make - three-pointers NAW led the organization in scoring his points and McDaniels was right behind him with Donte DiVincenzo was right behind that at points borne of - shooting including - from long distance As a group the Wolves shot - from the field and - from three-point territory excellent efficiency en course to points and better than the Thunder s still-impressive - from the field and - from deep It is fair to say that doesn t happen if Ant takes it upon himself to prove his stardom and force up more laborious shots To his credit and ongoing maturity he defended the way he played on offense after the match Last but certainly not least when a gang loses a popular narrative is to blame it on the refs This is especially tempting when the opponent is OKC and specifically Gilgeous-Alexander who is incredibly adroit at drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line He did attempt free throws making But a half-dozen of those occurred in the last seconds when the Wolves were forced to foul to hasten their possession of the ball and try to overcome a small deficit For the contest the Wolves were whistled for personal fouls leading to Thunder free throws Meanwhile OKC was cited for fouls and the Wolves went to the line times Bottom line there is no glaring gotcha that explains this heartbreaking loss But there are a series of factors which added together can help us surmise why the Thunder happened to be two points better on Monday And multiple of them are related to the topics just addressed The point is we don t have to make mountains out of molehills when the difference between win and defeat is molehill-sized First off multiple of you may have noticed from the shooting stats above that the Thunder took more shots than the Wolves and at a time when they enjoyed a brief double-digit lead earlier in the second half the disparity in field-goal attempts was closer to This is in part because of the offensive rebounds and the turnovers Sure they shot less accurately had two fewer made treys and six fewer free throws converted but five more field-goal makes overall In tandem with this it must be explained that the Thunder offense was able to execute its gameplan against the Wolves defense better than the Wolves offense fared against the Thunder defense Ant was right to get off the ball but even stymied somewhat Gilgeous-Alexander got more of what he longed and what OKC needed The reigning NBA MVP made only of shots a huge number but with the free-throws added it amounted to points and largest part significantly was accompanied by assists versus five turnovers By contrast even getting off the ball Ant could only generate six assists versus five turnovers and at - was slightly more inaccurate from the field When you add the second tier of Randle and Jalen Williams the disparity widens considerably Randle alone is hardly responsible for this loss but making only one shot in seven attempts going scoreless in the second half and committing five turnovers compared to just three assists was an obstacle And it is thrown into stark relief when you consider Williams racked up points Randle had five with five assists and two turnovers The point differential is bad enough as written earlier - But the argument that the Wolves top scorers but mostly Ant compensated by facilitating for others works in a vacuum but not in comparison to OKC Ant was adept in furthering the offensive flow but Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams got their own and also posted assists compared to just seven turnovers They didn t need the others to step up in a big way because they personally accounted for of the assists as well as of the points While Randle s anemic showing is a factor here so is the performance of the Wolves defense Sure OKC s point total was elevated by offensive rebounds and turnovers but we ve already demonstrated that the Wolves outscored them in those areas The Thunder s offensive trump card was better efficiency and firepower in the classic half-court sets Take away the turnovers offensive boards and free throws and the Wolves inability to stop the Thunder from getting buckets relative the reverse matchup at the other end of the court becomes more blatant OK enough dissection We ve now done the autopsy of a heartbreaker and fans will cope with their broken hearts according to personality type Let s instead focus for a minute on the glory of the hoops being played at Target Center in late May on Saturday and Monday night In Battle the Wolves dismantled OKC from the jump After three-and-a-half minutes of feeling each other out they blitzed forth with a - run six minutes of opportunistic hustle rugged physicality smart decisions and deadeye shooting that featured memorable moments such as a pair of half-court steals by Rudy Gobert a reverberating collision between Ant and the slab of tungsten named Lu Dort from which Ant emerged with the ball and an open path to a layup Ant led the way with points and five rebounds in a first quarter that ended - And when Ant subbed out his replacement was TJ Shannon the every-ready -year-old rookie who proceeded to mold his own piece of local hoops folklore by sustaining Ant s aggression and prolific scoring a character actor issuing a spellbinding soliloquy that becomes a highlight of the play By halftime it is - When OKC tries to replicate its monumental comeback from points down to Memphis in the opening of the postseason by going on an - run to start the third period the Wolves quash it right quick McDaniels cans a three-pointer off a feed from Ant Then Ant drives for a reverse layup that goes in follows it up with a missed layup in the next possession only to see Gobert pound it home for a putback dunk Ant s pullup trey a possession pumps the lead to points Oklahoma City empties its bench before the third quarter is over and the Wolves coast to a - masterpiece Then comes Monday a downer for the Wolves playoff chances but an intriguing thriller throughout the largest part competitive event of the series thus far A pair of great OKC or very good Minnesota defenses can t stop the opponent from scoring despite the fact that both of them are flying around to shooters so assiduously that forcing missed shots overrides the priority of rebounding position The Thunder was determined to atone for their Challenge embarrassment The Wolves were determined to even the series and make it a best two-out-of-three path to four wins and a trip to the NBA Finals and championship hoops The path is much tougher this day as the Wolves prepare for Challenge Consensus would say that the top seeded Thunder who won regular season games and are on their home court in a loud arena where they are the only major pro sports franchise in the city will close it out Maybe But this Wolves franchise its roster coaching staff front office and new majority ownership has again invaded what personnel guru President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly calls the final four gathering lessons and bruises that will prick their pride and deepen this fresh civilization of success It s OK to be hungry for a championship But the or bust part of that all-or-nothing philosophy casts aside the sheer pleasure of competition at the highest levels Win or lose I d rather embrace it whether it ends Wednesday after one more meeting or on June games hence with a trophy on the line The post A matter of seconds has the Timberwolves on the brink of elimination appeared first on MinnPost