Scoggins: Two great players cannot overcome a very good team

The Timberwolves needed the better part of the NBA’s regular season to figure out who they are, how they fit and what another blockbuster trade meant to the overall dynamics.

As maddening as it was to watch at times, cohesion doesn’t always come in lickety-split order.

It all makes sense now.

The result of that process is why Wolves fans should feel optimistic after watching their team dispatch the Los Angeles Lakers in five games to advance to the second round of the playoffs.

The Wolves have become basketball chameleons.

They can win in different ways, with different styles and versions of themselves.

Boiled to its essence, the Wolves knocked out the Lakers because two great players cannot overcome a very good team. No matter what national media might scream, this wasn’t an upset. It’s simple math. And basketball logic.

If the Lakers were a musical act, they would be called “Luka, LeBron and the Loiterers.” The Lakers had only one way to win and no Plan B.

The Wolves have a Plan B, C and D.

They can win when Anthony Edwards plays like a superstar and is the best player on the court. Game 4 might have been his best game ever in a Wolves uniform. Sometimes, a team must look to its best player to take over in pressure moments, to take big shots, to outduel an opponent’s star. Ant has shown a willingness and ability to accept that role in the postseason.

They can win with depth. In Game 5, Edwards shot 0-for-11 on three-pointers. The outcome was the same: a victory.

Four different players led them in scoring in the five-game series. Jaden McDaniels’ emergence as a viable scorer has added a new dimension to the offense. Chris Finch and his players often say that they have eight starters. That’s not just empty words to make backups feel better. The Wolves held a significant advantage over the Lakers because of their bench depth.

They can win with defense. The Wolves led the NBA in defensive rating last season. They finished sixth this season. Rudy Gobert’s rim protection is a security blanket. McDaniels uses his octopus arms to make the opposition’s best scorer uncomfortable. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Donte DiVincenzo and Edwards are tenacious on-ball defenders.

They can win going big or small(er). Finch has different lineup combinations available depending on matchups or whatever is working in the moment. Sometimes Gobert anchors in the paint in the fourth quarter, sometimes he is relegated to the bench. The Lakers had no answer for his size in Game 5.

They can win with force. See: Randle, Julius.

Randle looked like an odd fit to the puzzle in the first few months. Now the question has become: Where in the world would the Wolves be without him? His combination of size, strength and skill makes him a unique asset. He can bully defenders in every area of the court. It’s helpful in the playoffs to have a player equipped to serve as a bowling bowl knocking down pins.

They can win with three-point shooting … and without it. The Wolves won Game 5 despite missing 40 — 40! — three-point attempts. That was an extreme outlier, not a feat to replicate. The elimination game was a lot closer than it should have been.

The Wolves were one of the NBA’s best three-point shooting teams in the regular season. Edwards led the league in made three-pointers. The team finished top 5 in attempts, makes and shooting percentage. Seven players made at least 100 three-pointers this season.

The Wolves will need all their strengths to keep advancing against deeper, more balanced opponents. The outcome of the Lakers series wasn’t a fluke, though. It was a continuation of what the Wolves have shown since the beginning of March: a deep, versatile team that has found chemistry and confidence.

“Every team is different,” Finch said after Game 5. “And every team has to come together, and every team has to go through pain, and every team has to figure it out, and this team figured it out.”

What that ultimately leads to will be revealed in the coming days. But they know who they are and how they can win now.