Mizutani: It’s obvious the Timberwolves won’t need their best to win this series

It almost felt like the Warriors were begging to be knocked out on Thursday night at Target Center They exited the locker room at halftime trailing by points and seemed more than willing to lay down if they were forced to eat another haymaker Instead the Timberwolves gave them life putting forth a stretch of play unbecoming a true contender Is that being too hard on the Timberwolves considering they ended up winning the battle by points Not if the ultimate goal is truly winning an NBA title The fact that the Timberwolves earned a - win over the Warriors to tie the series - is more or less irrelevant when looking at the bigger picture Frankly if Steph Curry is unable to return from a strained hamstring this should be the expected outcome moving forward As far the Timberwolves are concerned the rest of the Western Conference Semifinals should be viewed through the lens of Is this getting us ready for the rest of the playoffs There were far too various times throughout the contest when the answer to that question was a resounding No You might be able to get away with mental lapses against the Warriors when they are playing without their best participant You won t be able to get away with mental lapses against the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals That doesn t mean there weren t stretches of brilliance from the Timberwolves over the unit of the minutes of play They deserve credit for responding the right way after such an embarrassing effort roughly hours earlier Not only did the Timberwolves start the tournament on a - run which took the edge off in the early stages they followed it up with a separate - run to take complete control They also closed the meeting with an impressive finishing kick that emptied both benches well in advance of the final buzzer A few other bright spots for the Timberwolves included Julius Randle and Jaden McDaniels who finished with points and points respectively and Nickeil Alexander-Walker who was outstanding while chipping in with points off the bench It also can t be overstated how fundamental it was that Anthony Edwards was able to shake off a sprained ankle After going down in a heap and being unable to put any weight on his leg as he made his way back to the locker room Edwards emerged from tunnel after halftime to a massive ovation That alone should ve given the Timberwolves enough strength to deliver the knockout blow rather than momentarily let the Warriors back into the fight with certain unforced errors on both ends of the floor The offensive execution stagnated The defensive intensity waned Luckily for the Timberwolves the Warriors are vastly undermanned so they ended up getting away with it in the end As the final seconds ticked off the clock everybody in attendance basked in the glory of what ended being a blowout win Particular chants of WOLVES IN erupted from different pockets of the home crowd If anything is clear at this point in the series it s that the Timberwolves might not even need their best for that to be prophetic Related Articles Timberwolves blast Warriors bench for Match win You know it s a playoff series when both coaches cry Foul Warriors Steph Curry details hamstring injury I ve never dealt with this before Golden State has an elite defense The Timberwolves must be willing to work to amount Frederick It would require a massive collapse for the Timberwolves to lose this series