After defeating the LA Clippers last night in Minnesota, the Timberwolves are 4-2 since the All-Star break. They’re
within that Denver Nuggets/Portland Trail Blazers/Dallas Mavericks grouping of
teams battling it out for No. 8 in the Western Conference. Although the Wolves
don’t know what it feels like to be a playoff squad, they’re enjoying the surge
in success they’ve had of late, writes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune:
Like that mythical guy pushing the boulder, the Timberwolves still have lots of
uphill work to do before they reach the playoffs this season, but Wednesday’s
107-91 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers showed again that they’re beating
the rock, step by step.
The Wolves won for the seventh time in 11 games, and they did so against a
Clippers team featuring Chris Paul and Blake Griffin back in the lineup
together.
The last time these teams played, the Clippers played without either superstar
and the Wolves prevailed by a mere three points in L.A. in January. This time,
the Wolves won in both measurable and immeasurable categories, starting with the
lopsided scoreboard, of course, but also including rebounding (50-36) and points
in the paint (62-40).
More importantly, they bent a veteran, playoff-bound opponent’s will to their
own, building a 15-point, first-quarter lead and never allowing the Clippers to
get closer than seven points in the third. They pushed on, all the way to a
20-point advantage in a tense, physical game in which they were tougher.
…
The Wolves now trail Denver by 2½ games for the West’s final playoffs spot after
the Wolves won the three-game season series from the Clippers and the Nuggets
lost at home to Washington.
Towns was asked if his team feels like a playoff team, despite the long odds
with Portland and Dallas also between them and the Nuggets with 19 games left.
“I think we’re feeling like a team that’s playing with confidence,” Towns said.
“I don’t know what a playoff team feels like, but my wild guess I think we right
now are playing with the confidence, with the demeanor of a playoff team. We’ve
got to continue to build. We can still be a playoff team.”
…
Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau can see the improvement, particularly defensively, in
the statistics: They’re now 13th in the league in points allowed, an improvement
Thibodeau calls a “quantum leap.” Their pick-and-roll defense is better. They’ve
also won their past seven games by an average of 16.2 points, a differential he
calls “significant” but “not where it needs to be” for the entire season.
“When you look at the past couple years and where we are now, it says we’ve made
a big jump,” Thibodeau said. “I think you have to get close to winning first,
and then the winning happens. Right now, we’re starting to understand that. To
me, it’s taking care of the little things. If we take care of all the little
things, the big things take care of themselves. We say it all the time: The
magic is in the work.”
