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 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 contest 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 even the series at -all 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 plenty of times throughout Thursday s challenge 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 athlete You won t be able to get away with mental lapses against say the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Denver Nuggets in the next round That doesn t mean there weren t stretches of brilliance from the Timberwolves They deserve credit for responding the right way after opening the series with such an embarrassing effort They started the meeting on a - run for example which took the edge off in the early stages then they followed it up with a separate - run to take complete control They also closed the contest with an impressive finishing kick that emptied both benches well in advance of the final buzzer Specific 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 with points off the bench It also can t be overstated how pivotal 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 and went on to finish with points That should ve given the Timberwolves enough potency to deliver the knockout blow rather than let the Warriors back into the fight with selected unforced errors on both ends of the floor 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 Chosen chants of WOLVES IN erupted from pockets of the home crowd If anything is clear so far 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 Battle achievement 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 result Frederick It would require a massive collapse for the Timberwolves to lose this series