Anthony Edwards didn’t seem particularly surprised that his Minnesota Timberwolves struggled to score on Thursday.
“We are not an offensive team,” the star point guard told reporters after the Timberwolves’ 133-107 loss to the New York Knicks. “We’re a defensive team, so I don’t think there’s going to be too many changes. I think we just have to play better defense.”
Twenty-six games into the season, Minnesota’s offense is 21st in the standings. NBA. The team had won six of seven games before the ugly performance against New York, but that was a result of stingy defense. During that 6-1 stretchwhat followed Edwards calls team “soft” The Wolves scored just 105.7 points per 100 possessions. (Only the Washington Wizards have scored less efficiently than that this season.) That’s not a sustainable formula, so Minnesota has to hope Edwards is wrong about the offense.
Early on against New York, it didn’t look like the Wolves were having trouble scoring. Julius Randle started the game with two straight jumpers against his former team, then Jaden McDaniels hit a triple and a runner on his next two possessions. Randle scored 13 points in just over six minutes and Minnesota had a 33-32 lead entering the second quarter.
However, the Knicks went on a 37-8 run in the first nine minutes of the second quarter and Randle cooled off significantly. Edwards, who averages 25.9 points per game, finished with 17 points and made 7 of 16 shots. The Wolves were down by as many as 36 points.
When asked about Minnesota’s identity on offense, Edwards said: “Yeah, we don’t have anything on offense. We don’t have any identity. I mean, we know I’m going to shoot a lot of shots, we know Ju’s going to play “. shoot a lot of shots and that’s all we know. We don’t really know anything else, I mean, it’s not up to the coaches, it’s up to us, but we have to make it easier. each other. It’s also put us in great positions, man. “We just don’t do it.”
When asked what he wanted to see from the team offensively, Edwards said, “They’re not going to like what I say, so I’ll keep my answer to myself.” Then he laughed.
Edwards took some responsibility for Minnesota’s lack of ball movement in the second quarter. “I play a role in the no-pass offense,” he said. “A lot of us do. And I think that really happens when the advantage starts to get out of hand. But we have to trust it, you know what I mean?”
However, he lamented that the team is not spacing the floor well enough. With the departure of Karl-Anthony Towns, who scored 32 points on 10 of 12 shooting and grabbed 20 rebounds in his first game in Minneapolis as a visitorIt’s been easier for Wolves opponents to take on Edwards this season.
“If you look at the game, I have nothing to do when I’m downhill,” Edwards said. “Everyone wants me to go downhill. I know that’s my strong point, I get to the rim, I put the ball up, I dunk it, but I can’t do that if there’s no lane, it’s not open. All the teams we play “They did it.” great job sitting in the gaps, [and] When I get to the rim, I put four people on the rim. So I’m sorry, people. “There’s nothing I can do to go into the hole right now.”
Minnesota guard Mike Conley credited the garbage-time reserve unit (Rob Dillingham, Donté DiVincenzo, Terrence Shannon Jr., Josh Minott and Luka Garza) for doing “everything we preach in practice.” . The implication was that the incumbents could learn a thing or two from them.
“I think our spacing has to be at an elite level for anything to work well,” Conley told reporters. “But [we need] a lot more cutting, a lot more energy in that. Creating layups, creating 2-on-1 opportunities just with guys putting their bodies on the line and sacrificing that aspect of the game, moving the ball, just trying to keep the ball moving and not getting stuck to one or two guys.”
Conley said if the Wolves are more intentional about their spacing, the decisions Edwards and Randle will have to make will be clearer.
“A lot of times, we have two or three guys bunched up in the corner or at the top of the key,” Conley said. “On a fast break, we have three guys running on the right side and no one on the left side. We have to be able to space the floor correctly all the time to be a really good offensive team because that will lead to easy buckets.”
Chris Finch, Minnesota coach told reporters that Minnesota has “shown flashes” on offense, but “we have to keep it up, and when the going gets tough, we have to keep it up.” He said he was “trying to even a lot of sets” when the game went sideways, but nothing really worked. The Wolves went into isolation mode, “which has been a habit of ours,” he said, and “when we stayed in the flow, we missed some looks.” In the second quarter they let go of the rope.
“We’ve tried to put more movement into our stuff,” Finch said, “and we didn’t really see that much tonight.”
Finch said Minnesota needs to “go downhill with the mentality of creating for others, rather than [get] downhill with the mentality of trying to score over several people at the basket.” By virtue of their personnel, the Wolves are not going to have perfect spacing this season, but that is no excuse for selfishness or carelessness. Even If they aren’t an above average offensive team, they need to believe they can do better than this.
“We know what works,” Finch said. “When we move the ball early and get other guys involved, then shots will open up.”
