How the Timberwolves face adversity will say a lot about this team
The Minnesota Timberwolves are fighting the COVID-19 bug, and Naz Reid is the latest player in health and safety protocols. That’s now seven players out, including four starters. How they face adversity over the next few weeks will tell us who this team really is.
Luckily, Patrick Beverley and Josh Okogie are back with the team and will resume play once they get their conditioning up. Anthony Edwards and Taurean Prince should return soon, which will help the Timberwolves offensive load.
However, D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns are the team’s most important players, and they’ll be without them for at least five more games.
Minnesota is yet to win a game with DLo not in the lineup, and Towns is having one of the best seasons of his career. He’s impacting the game both offensively and defensively and has been the team’s most efficient scorer.
There’s never a good time for anyone to get hit with COVID-19, but of all times, December was the last month the Timberwolves would have liked to see. Minnesota had one of the toughest schedules this month.
For as many players that have been in and out of the lineup, Minnesota has gone 4-7. You’d like that record to be a little better, but given the circumstances, you really can’t be too upset. On the season, the Timberwolves are 15-17 and ninth in the Western Conference.
There’s still a little more than half the season remaining, but the next two to three weeks will determine who this Timberwolves team is. In years past, this would derail their season.
However, Minnesota isn’t like those other teams we’ve seen in recent memory. They have a lot of fight, grit and tenacity in them. They’ve done a really good job not giving up in games or collapsing with a sizeable lead.
Minnesota has typically been a terrible defensive team but good offensively. That hasn’t been the case this year.
The points per game and offensive rating contradict each other, but if you’ve watched any Timberwolves games, you know the offense has been sluggish to start the year. If they can figure that out, they’ll have a top-15 offense and defense.
Minnesota will slowly get some players back over the next handful of games, but how they face adversity will say a lot about this team.
