Timberwolves remain an emotional team, but have channeled it well in the playoffs

For better or worse, the Timberwolves are a team that plays with a lot of emotion. It can fuel them to do great things, and it also can derail them from doing the same.

One of the talking points of their first-round NBA playoff series with the Lakers was how they would react to the swings of emotion in this series, whether it be moving on quickly when Luka Doncic or LeBron James do something great, to moving on from the officiating when the whistles don’t go their way, especially against those two players.

So far, the Wolves have channeled their emotions well enough on their way to a 3-1 series lead, with Game 5 coming Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

“We hung on. I can tell you, we still struggle with it as a whole. We have to be better at it,” said point guard Mike Conley, who is often the one to rein the team in during its tougher moments. “We kind of lose our minds there for two or three minutes.

“But for us to gather it all back together, find some continuity when things weren’t going well and things might be feeling like unfair at the time, we found ways to fight through it and worried about what was important, and that was winning the game.

The Wolves are prone to crashing out, and they have players who can sometimes take themselves out of games momentarily or for a night because of the emotional nature with which they play.

In Naz Reid’s case, he has battled some foul trouble in the series, and he isn’t afraid to let the officials hear his frustration. In the Wolves’ 116-113 victory at Target Center in Game 4, he picked up two early fouls, but teammate Jaden McDaniels said he knew Reid wouldn’t let it ruin his night.

“He was still locked into the game, still watching, still on the bench talking and stuff,” McDaniels said. “I knew when he came in, he’d be able to make an impact. We always know he’s gonna be ready, no matter what’s going on in the game.”

Reid came back and had eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter. McDaniels, who once broke his hand punching a wall near the bench two seasons ago, is another player who can run hot, even if he doesn’t always show it. He kept things at a perfect temperature all series.

“We handled it well,” he said of Game 4’s ups and downs. “We might say something to the ref, but we don’t like get technicals or like let it take us off our game. After a couple words said, we go back and continue to play, and after the fouls called or whatever has happened to make our emotions flare up, we just forget about it.”

That hasn’t always been the case. In Game 2, the Wolves let their complaints with the officiating affect things like transition defense, and sometimes they can let that anger linger for a few possessions. After re-learning that lesson in Game 2, the Wolves have done a better job the last two games of moving on from a play or a call even when things aren’t going their way — as hard as that may be at times.

The physicality of these playoffs comes and goes. It’s kind of random at times. It’s hard to make sense of,” coach Chris Finch said. “Our guys, I think, did a good job of staying pretty even keeled.”

They had the help of the home crowd in the last two games. They’ll be back on the road for Game 5 on Wednesday, and one more game in which they keep it together mentally could lead to a series win.

“We understand our strengths and our weaknesses,” DiVincenzo said. “And we understand to keep everybody away from their weaknesses and play to their strengths. And when you have a locker room like that that can talk to anybody and say whatever is one their mind and you say it, you address it and move forward, that’s the type of team that you get.”