Nobody on the Minnesota Timberwolves played particularly well in Game 1 of their opening round matchup against the Houston Rockets on Sunday night, a 104-101 loss that put them down 1-0 in the series. Despite that, they have to be at least a little bit encouraged by the narrow margin of defeat.
James Harden was phenomenal as usual, putting up 44 points to go along with eight assists, four rebounds, and a pair of steals, while Clint Capela added 24 points and 12 rebounds.
The Wolves’ three biggest stars, meanwhile, largely struggled, with Andrew Wiggins and Jimmy Butler finishing with 18 points and 13 points, respectively. But the biggest no-show by far was Karl-Anthony Towns, who was limited to eight points on just nine total field goal attempts.
Prior to Game 2 on Wednesday night, Wolves point guard Jeff Teague practically begged everyone in Minnesota to get Towns more involved in the offense moving forward.
Jeff Teague just said the Wolves are playing into the Rockets hands when they use KAT to space the floor rather than having him post
— Jace frederick (@JaceFrederick) April 17, 2018
More Teague: "Next game, we got to give them some different looks where KAT actually posts up a couple times and still be able to get our spacing with guys driving and trying to kick the ball, but we definitely have to get him a couple more touches."
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) April 17, 2018
The Rockets pride themselves on their defensive agility, especially around the perimeter where they switch every defensive assignment on their pick-and-roll coverage. But as Teague rightly points out, his team mostly failed to take advantage of the resulting mismatches, most notably when Towns would be matched up against a guard.
However, head coach Tom Thibodeau — who is notoriously intractable when it comes to his game plan — doesn’t seem too keen on making that particular adjustment in Game 2.
Tom Thibodeau liked the way the Timberwolves handled the Rockets switching in Game 1: "Now you've got a speed advantage. A guy like [Jeff] Teague is very good attacking bigs off the dribble." https://t.co/3Y7zoZvoa8 pic.twitter.com/3khCRhLFys
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 17, 2018
Any way you slice it, Towns has to be more involved in the offense moving forward, which Thibs himself admitted after Game 1. The question remains, however, as to whether it’s the coach’s responsibility to make that happen, whether the onus is on the other four players on the floor to get him the ball, or whether Towns has to be more aggressive in demanding things run through him. Presumably, it’s some combination of the three.
