Anthony Edwards said the Timberwolves needed to find their defensive identity. They’ve found it the last two games.
After putting together their best defensive performance of the season to snap their four-game skid with a win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, the Wolves followed up with another shutdown defensive effort in a 109-80 victory over the other team in Los Angeles — LeBron James and the Lakers — Monday night at Target Center in Minneapolis.
The Wolves (10-10) started the game strong defensively, something coach Chris Finch said was a focus coming in after some lackluster defensive starts during the skid. The Lakers (12-9) scored just 20 points in the opening frame, and it didn’t get much better for Los Angeles from there. The lakers never scored more than 24 points in a quarter, they turned it over 21 times and shot just 41% from the field and 19% from 3-point range. They had 19 assists on 32 made shots.
“It was the type of performance that we needed,” Finch said. “Obviously good defensive effort for us, for the most part. We’ve been really trying to focus on our defensive starts, so that’s been good. Thought offensively it was one of our more intelligent all-around offensive performances. I thought we did a good job of handling their switches.”
Offensively, the Wolves were efficient, assisting on 32 of their 41 made shots. They put the game away with beautiful basketball on both sides of the floor in the early minutes of the fourth quarter, which they opened on a 15-1 run. The last bucket of that run was Rudy Gobert throwing down a lob from Naz Reid that made it a 94-69 Wolves advantage.
“It starts with us getting out in transition,” said Donte DiVincenzo, who was an igniter of the transition offense and finished with 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting and nine assists. ” … (The Lakers) are on the second night of a back to back; they don’t want to run, so it was a point of emphasis for us. Get the rebound … just get it out, get it up and really wear them out.”
Gobert and Reid were among the engines of the Wolves on both sides of the ball. Gobert finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds and a steal. Reid had 15 points, a pair of steals and a block, a notable one on an attempt from James.
Julius Randle scored a team-high 18 points. Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 15.
It was a balanced effort on a night Anthony Edwards shot just 3 for 13 and finished with just eight points.
The Wolves held James in check as he scored just 10 points while turning it over six times. D’Angelo Russell had the hot hand for the Lakers, finishing with a game-high 20 points, and Anthony Davis finished with 12 points and 11 boards.
It was an all-around effort that was at least an indicator the Wolves were re-finding their identity.
“I feel like we’re headed in the right direction, but I do feel like it’s still a long way to go for us,” Finch said.
