Multiple storylines emerge in Wolves-Warriors playoff match-up

For the second time in the - NBA Playoffs the Minnesota Timberwolves are facing a foe led by a ring-studded sure-fire Hall-of-Famer who has been fortunate with the midseason addition of a superb sidekick that transformed the band It s easy to say in hindsight that the Golden State Warriors are a superior opponent for the Wolves to cope with than the Los Angeles Lakers squad who lacked depth and defense and choked on their own hype while being summarily dismissed in five games The Warriors who tip-off at Target Center to initiate the best-of-seven second-round series on Tuesday night are aging but venerable comfortably battle-tested and motivated to succeed before their twilight dips to dusk Stephen Curry is a more fearsome top dog than Lebron James at this point And while nobody would rationally slot the Warriors Jimmy Butler ahead of Luka Doncic in terms of pure value in a vacuum his sudden presence on the roster created less cultural displacement and insufficient rotation patches than did Doncic in L A On the contrary Golden State strengthened the fiber of its virtues without further exposing its vices Here is an analogy Wolves fans might appreciate Butler provides Golden State with a reliable bucket-getter beside Curry in much the same way Julius Randle has fulfilled that role for Anthony Edwards in Minnesota You can throw in Klay Thompson and Karl-Anthony Towns as the kindred second mates of yore to round out the comparison Butler is the better defender of program But the extent to which Randle can continue to close that gap will be a key to this series Curry is the greatest shooter who ever lived and yet the largest difference between Golden State and the Lakers is on defense After acquiring Butler in early February the Warriors had the fewest points scored per possession against them than any squad in the NBA Their net rating points scored minus points allowed per possessions of plus was third behind only Oklahoma City and Boston Their record over that span was - slightly better than the Wolves mark of - That defensive efficiency is remarkable given that only one athlete on the Warriors roster is taller than six-feet nine-inches -foot rookie Quinten Post who hoisted more three pointers than he grabbed rebounds and blocked only shots the entire season four more than Wolves point guard Mike Conley In the absence of classic rim protection the Warriors deploy a hounding scheme designed to take the ball from opponents and otherwise deny them shots The longstanding fulcrum for this is Draymond Green who finished third in the voting for Defensive Athlete of the Year this season and captured the Hustle Award an honor derived from an analytics-driven measure of things such as deflections charges drawn shots contested and box-outs for rebounds Green has been an elite defender for a decade and re-established that impression after an injury-marred and subpar season a year ago The arrival of Butler was a tonic in that process as with Curry on offense he cedes pecking-order supremacy while significantly lightening the breadth and load of responsibility Steph and Draymond bear on their exalted ends of the court Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green drives with the ball past Houston Rockets forward Tari Eason to points a basket during the second quarter of battle seven of first round for the NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center Credit Troy Taormina-Imagn Images With Butler aboard he debuted for Golden State on Feb the Warriors allowed the second-fewest shots per championship of any association except Orlando and permitted fewer made shots than anyone but Orlando and Boston They are small but scrappy leading the NBA in steals per match after Butler arrived and although Green per championship and Butler paved the way four other members of the nine-player rotation Curry and the wings Brandin Pods Podziemski Gary Payton II and Moses Moody averaged at least one theft per competition they played from Feb onward When they can t take it away the Warriors fight you for position Per the stats at nba com they allow opponents to shoot ninth-highest in the restricted area but nobody permits fewer shots down there at the rim and therefore only Orlando allows fewer makes than Golden State One consequence of this bend-don t-break philosophy is that the Warriors allow the second-most attempts in the paint just outside the restricted area but they are th best in lowest opponent field goal percentage from that still-desirable distance When your effective scheme is to play a quick aggressively scrambling defense you alternate between allowing high volume but low percentage and low volume but high percentage shooting in various places around the court The best example of this is that Golden State s opponents convert a whopping of the three-pointers they take from the right corner since acquiring Butler but mitigate the damage by allowing only four shots per battle from that zone third-fewest in the NBA Earlier in the week when the Timberwolves had two full days of practice without knowing if their second-round opponent would be Houston or Golden State Wolves Head Coach Chris Finch explained the organization worked at countering things that were strengths for both the Rockets and Warriors The item at the top of that list was the possession contest essentially working to extend your possessions by grabbing offensive rebounds and drawing fouls and shortening the possessions of your opponents via steals defensive rebounds and drawing charges The key barometers in the possession challenge are number of shots taken and points scored off turnovers although offensive rebounding percentage and free throw attempts are also factors The Warriors are very good at this Since acquiring Butler they result the bulk points off turnovers rank second in drawing fouls are fourth in offensive rebounding percentage and for good measure rank first in assist percentage by a wide margin with more than of their buckets assisted Put all these various stats together and in the proverbial nutshell this is what they say Golden State will beat you if you let them They will steal your lazy passes gang-guard your lazy dribbling without ball movement draw fouls on you if you re not rigorously moving your feet and otherwise rotating into position and beat you to rebounds if you re not hustling toward them They have a premier agitating distractor in Green the NBA s most of explosive closer in Curry an ace regulator in Butler A series ago I picked the Lakers to beat the Wolves because of Minnesota s chronic problems with poise and composure If those Wolves had met the Warriors in the first round I would have chosen Golden State for the same reason But these Timberwolves are reaching toward their peak at the right time in the right tactics When superstars are involved pundits like to opine about who will be the best athlete on the floor but even in the postseason basketball is a crew sport and who the fifth- sixth- seventh- and eighth-best players are in the series matters The Wolves depth is such that they have more candidates for that tier of performance than does Golden State What that means is Finch has more options more flexibility and versatility in terms of how he matches up and in what direction he wants to try and steer the encounter The so-called eight starters on the Wolves contain three skilled bigs in Naz Reid Randle and Jaden McDaniels the lone legitimate rim protector in the series in Rudy Gobert no fewer than four players who can excel at on-ball pressure out on the perimeter in McDaniels Nickeil Alexander-Walker NAW Ant Donte DiVincenzo DDV with Jaylen Clark ready on the bench and a full half-dozen above-average three-point shooters in Ant DDV Mike Conley Naz NAW and Randle Taking four out of five against the Lakers shored up a couple of invaluable traits that the Wolves have embraced First and foremost they do seem more poised and composed not being the least-bit fazed by the mystique of Luka and Lebron be it the past harms they have visited on this squad or the towering legacies they have fostered If sustained that will matter versus a Warriors roster that still has dynasty in their DNA and can easily rattle you in word Draymond and deed Curry while the vast majority of casual fans among the viewing audience root them on The second invaluable trait embraced by the Wolves against the Lakers was a legitimately unselfish unity of purpose This is vital when you consider that eight starters is another way of saying eight closers players whose performance merits being on the court in the clutch moments when the championship is in the balance Against the Lakers Finch benched his two esteemed veterans Gobert and Conley in favor of Naz and DDV not because they were better but because they best matched the demands of the moment Finch demands to continue making rotation decisions based on that simple proposition and he can t if the players are going to add the drama of rue and resentment Curry Green and Butler are a phenomenal trio and the role players while not the equal of Minnesota s are formidable Curry by himself is somehow underrated despite the fact he s a walking legend His shooting leaves you so drop-jawed that you forget to shuffle in his unbelievable handle with the ball his extraordinary finesse around the rim how his movement off the ball creates for his teammates his ridiculously prolific rebounding and his tough-as-nails defense and hustle Don t let Green being an irritant distract you from his court IQ and his glorious will to win And don t let the sour taste of the Tom Thibodeau-era Jimmy Butler here in town cause you to ignore that he does indeed rise to the occasion during critical moments And don t let me forget to slip in here that Kevon Looney is one of the greater part unsung grinders in NBA history To beat this band will require a stellar display of poise unity grit and willpower from the Wolves While the teams operate very differently it is enthralling how close they are in performance since Butler joined the Warriors For example in terms of pace-of-play Golden State was th at possessions per battle and the Wolves were th at The true shooting percentage has the Wolves th at and the Warriors th at If the Wolves lose their poise and their focus and are thus vulnerable to beating themselves and or if the Warriors have another profound level of championship pedigree to invoke when it matters majority then the Warriors will triumph But if Finch is able to manipulate the myriad skills of his eight-player rotation with enough freedom and good judgment so as to punch and counterpunch with an extra dollop of size or quickness outside shooting or pounding the paint veteran leadership or fresher legs or solely the logic of what quintet is synergistic in the moment the Wolves will put the pelt of the second mystique this postseason on their trophy wall Wolves in seven The post Multiple storylines emerge in Wolves-Warriors playoff match-up appeared first on MinnPost