‘More mature’ Wolves still haven’t lost two in a row this season
DALLAS – With their 119-101 victory over the Mavericks on Thursday, the Timberwolves kept up one of the most impressive statistics about their strong start to the season — they have yet to lose consecutive games.
The Wolves followed their fifth loss of the season at New Orleans on Monday with with a victory to improve to 18-5, which still leads the Western Conference and began Friday tied with Boston for best record in the league.
The worst stretch the Wolves had was at the beginning of the season, when they lost two of their first three; other than that, they followed losses with a seven-game win streak, a three-game win streak and a six-game win streak.
To coach Chris Finch, this accomplishment is a stark difference from last season.
"We talked a lot of different ways to be more mature as a team and that was one of them," said Finch, whose team plays host to Indiana on Saturday night at Target Center. "We would have these headaches and these hangover games last year and this is a team that's way more mature. It's just another example of it."
Finch said this year's team has been "super focused" and has shown an ability to stay in the moment. They haven't let the bad from one night get into the next night. Well, maybe they did just a little bit on Thursday, when they fell behind 17-2 to Dallas. But the Wolves snapped back into form, and by the third quarter they were suffocating the Dallas offense and relinquished just 41 second-half points.
"There's just the seriousness about our work," said Naz Reid, who led the Wolves with 27 points on Thursday. "Everybody takes his work very seriously. We know the severity of having a bad game and having it compound. That's something that we don't want, especially in the position we're in right now. The maturity is something that we've great on. I think we can go to another level."
Reid reiterated his belief that the team is unified in a goal of winning and isn't as concerned with contract statuses as it may have been a season ago. That leads to clearer minds and a renewed focus on winning over individual statistics. Even those that may have deals up after the season know that winning can help their value in the league.
"We have a few people in that situation, but they understand they're at that level where if we win, they get what they want," Reid said. "I think the one goal is to win. Everybody has that same mindset."
Karl-Anthony Towns, who had 21 points and 17 rebounds Thursday, said he didn't want to jinx the Wolves' good fortunes in rebounding from losses. But he said that making the playoffs the past two seasons helped raise the expectations internally for the Wolves to go deeper into the postseason.
"It's a combination of the character in this locker room, everyone buying into what we feel like we could be and truly believing in it," Towns said. "Two, I think it's experience and wisdom. The last two seasons we made the playoffs. … Just a different mindset when you expect to be in the playoffs and you expect to come in and give yourselves a chance. I see our team, the way we act, the way we approach these games, it's about not only winning the games, but finding that one percent every day to get better."
There's no arguing with the results, and the ability to bounce back quickly can serve the Wolves well as they navigate this difficult patch of schedule — the loss at New Orleans started a stretch of 16 games in a row through Jan. 10 of facing teams currently above .500. The Wolves pledged to be a more mature team, and they are showing it.
"Composure when we're down. We stay within the game plan, stay within the system," Finch said. "Just being a little less emotional out there. We led the league in technicals last year. This year, we're way more composed. We're more about our basketball and just the way we communicate with each other is I think very purposeful and a lot more mature in that way."
