The Minnesota Timberwolves punched their ticket to the 2022 NBA Playoffs on Tuesday night with an impressive comeback win over the Clippers and earned a trip to Memphis for the first round, as they will face the Grizzlies in a matchup of two young squads on the rise.
Both teams come into the playoffs hungry to prove themselves for the first time as a unit. Minnesota is making their first appearance in the postseason since 2018, while Memphis is looking to build on a 5-game loss to the Jazz in last year’s first round after coming through the play-in themselves.
Can Minnesota’s bench keep up with the Grizzlies reserves?
All year, the Grizzlies have leaned on their depth to wear teams down, as seemingly any combination of players is capable of winning games — as evidenced by their absurd record without star Ja Morant in the lineup. In the playoffs, depth typically becomes less important, but Memphis’ ability to change looks and ride various hot hands from their bench unit will present a unique challenge for this Timberwolves team.
The Ti,berwolves showed in the play-in that they likely won’t dig deep down the bench and figure to lean heavily on their starting unit and a short rotation, but there is no let up in quality from Memphis even when they go to their reserves and when the Wolves do need to give their stars a break, being able to stay attached will be crucial. The Grizzlies will likely pare down their rotation, but even that should include De’Anthony Melton, Kyle Anderson, Tyus Jones, and Brandon Clarke all getting time and helping keep the likes of Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. fresh.
Taurean Prince remains day-to-day, which could thrust Jaylen Nowell into some of those reserve wing minutes, while Naz Reid showed he can be impactful in a positive way against the Clippers with Towns in constant foul trouble. While Minnesota won’t want this series to turn into a bench battle, either by choice or foul issues, getting some quality contributions from their reserves will be important against a Memphis team that is very confident in their rotation.
Who wins the battle between Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaren Jackson Jr.?
This series will feature a number of fascinating individual matchups, with plenty of focus on Morant’s battles with Patrick Beverley, but the battle of Towns and Jackson is at the top of my mind. Towns, despite what he said in postgame, was frustrated by the blitzing, physical attack of the Clippers, and Memphis will surely have taken note of that. Memphis employs Steven Adams specifically to rough up opposing centers, and Towns will see (and feel) plenty of him early on, but I expect a lot of Towns vs. Jackson in late game situations.
There are plenty of people around the league who think Jackson deserves to be the Defensive Player of the Year this year, as he’s taken his immense skillset and physical tools and finally put it all together as the anchor of a very solid Memphis defense. His length and quickness will allow him to press higher up on Towns out on the perimeter, where he often drags opposing bigs out to deep waters with his tremendous shooting ability and then can get by them on drives when they step out to far. Jackson’s speed should allow him to stay with Towns on the perimeter better than most, and how Towns handles that pressure will be crucial to Minnesota’s hopes of pulling an upset.
Towns has as unique an offensive skillset as any center we’ve seen, knocking down threes at a 41 percent clip and adding a bit of a nasty streak to his game this year, which has been a welcome sight for a player once questioned as soft. He will be presented a number of different looks and will need to maintain his composure and patience in this series, because Minnesota will need much more from him than he gave in the play-in if they’re going to advance through this series.
How often can Anthony Edwards and D’Angelo Russell repeat their play-in performance?
The fact that the Wolves are in the 7-seed is a testament to how absurd Edwards and Russell were against the Clippers, combining for 59 points to carry Minnesota to a win in spite of just 11 points from Towns in 24 minutes. While Towns will surely be better in this series than he was on Tuesday night, to take down the Grizzlies, Minnesota needs their top perimeter stars at their best for the majority of the seven-game set to have a chance at taking down the machine that is this Memphis squad.
Talent isn’t the question for Edwards and Russell. Instead, the question is how consistent can they be against a Grizzlies squad that has become the model of it? Their creation ability is something no one else on the Wolves can replicate. When Edwards is engaged and in attack mode, he’s as tough a cover as any wing in the league, but replicating that effort every night has been the biggest point of frustration in his young career. In the playoffs, it’s a bit easier to show up every night with that juice, though, and if he can do that it could tilt this series in a big way.
Russell likewise has to bring his best, as he has a calming and steadying influence on this Wolves team when he’s in rhythm, bringing a smoothness that contrasts Edwards’ brute force wonderfully. This is a matchup between two teams that have incredibly high ceilings, but the separator in the regular season has been the Grizzlies consistency and high floor. Minnesota can reach those highs but have a much wider variance in performance from game to game that can be maddening at times, and will need to find a rhythm and keep it for seven games to pull off the upset.
