SAN ANTONIO — Before Wednesday night’s Game 2, Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Anthony Edwards relayed a warning he had given to his teammates.
“The natural tendency for teams that steal the first game, the away team, they get blown out in Game 2,” Edwards said of his message. “We can’t come out cool.”
In an eventual 133-95 blowout loss to the recharged San Antonio Spurs, the Timberwolves scored only 17 first-quarter points, 18 second-quarter points, turned the ball over 22 times, fell behind 24 at the half and spiraled into a 47-point hole, sending the Western Conference semifinals series back to Minneapolis tied at 1.
“We came out cool,” Edwards said. “Look what happened. My momma used to tell me that a hard head make a soft ass. That’s what happened tonight.”
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch was even harsher in his assessment, telling his team after the 38-point blowout that “we just got punked.”
“Punked is crazy,” Edwards said. “But, I mean, just look at the film and see what we can gain from it.”
The film will reveal a desperate and physical Spurs team, pressuring the Timberwolves full court, attacking their dribble and deploying selective double-teams on Edwards when he crossed half court, getting the ball out of his hands and disrupting his rhythm.
“They was playing crazy, right?” Edwards said of the Spurs’ extra attention. “Watch film, find the holes in it. We didn’t make enough shots to get them out of it.”
Finch said he didn’t like how Edwards and the team’s variety of other playmakers responded to the overload scheme and amped up pressure.
“Got to get off of it,” Finch said. “Got to use it as a catalyst for ball movement, what it should be. I thought we dribbled to tough spots. I thought we were late getting off it. I thought our spacing around it wasn’t really good.”
The Timberwolves made only nine of their 30 3-pointers, unable to punish the Spurs when they did generate a decent look. They missed 26 of their 44 shots in the paint, struggling to finish against Victor Wembanyama. They turned it over 22 times, too often getting too loose with the ball against a swarm of active defenders.
“We got to go somewhere [with the basketball],” Finch said. “We are kind of dribbling and going nowhere.”
Asked about the “dribbling to nowhere” comment, Edwards said: “I don’t know. I got to watch the film. But he’s the head coach. I’m with whatever he says. So if that’s what he said, that’s what we were doing.”
This has been a common critique of the Timberwolves’ offense from Finch during their roughest patches this season. Some of their best scorers — Edwards, Julius Randle, younger reserves such as Bones Hyland and Terrence Shannon Jr. — can tend to revert into more of a stagnant isolation style.
“Getting the ball in bad spots,” Randle said after a quiet five-turnover night. “Getting trapped in bad areas. I got to get a better position where I’m receiving the ball.”
Starting wing Jaden McDaniels was one of the Timberwolves’ better performers in Game 2, but he was again limited to a lower minute total (20) because of early foul trouble. He was also on the bench in the first half of Game 1 because of three fouls in the first 15 minutes.
“You need Jaden on the floor at all times,” Edwards said. “Him being off the court is going to hurt us every time. We know it. He knows it. The whole gym knows it. Their team knows it. When he get in foul trouble, they get happy. He know he can’t foul. We’re not going to win if he’s not on the floor.”
In Game 1, Edwards logged 25 minutes only nine days after a badly hyperextended left knee and bone bruise, coming in off the bench to manage his workload. In Game 2, he finished at 24 minutes but was on track for significantly more before sitting out the fourth quarter of a blowout loss.
So it appears Edwards — who said his knee “feels good” — is ready to step back into a normal workload as the series shifts to Minnesota and the pressure on the Timberwolves increases.
“That’s not up to me,” Edwards said of a desired return to the starting lineup. “If it’s required. Whatever’s required.”
The Timberwolves stunned the 62-win Spurs in the opener. San Antonio punched back powerfully in Game 2.
“They won by 40,” Edwards said. “I would have a lot of belief. … I tip my hat to those guys. They came out, they played hard, they were the more desperate team, they wanted it. We’ll see where it goes from here.”
