Following Thursday’s 117-93 win over Golden State, a game in which the Timberwolves jumped out to a 13-0 lead to start, head coach Chris Finch summed up the victory perfectly when speaking postgame.
After back-to-back duds from beyond the arc in Game 5 of the first round series against the Lakers and the opening game of this one — shooting a combined 12-76 (15.8%) from three — Minnesota looked, as Finch put it, much more like themselves.
They finished Game 2 shooting 16-37 (43.2%) from deep as five different kicked down multiple shots from deep. Mike Conley and Anthony Edwards (20 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and three steals) each went 2-4 from beyond the arc.
However, the biggest improvement came from the bench, as Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Donte DiVincenzo, and Naz Reid combined to shoot 10-22 from three. Alexander-Walker finished with 20 points, Reid added 11, while DiVincenzo chipped in nine points, five assists, and three rebounds (all offensive).
For Golden State, head coach Steve Kerr admitted postgame that the plan was to play the majority of his bench in the first half with the hope of finding lineup combinations and rotations that would work. That’s not an ideal situation for a team in the second round of the playoffs, but such is life when All-NBA guard Steph Curry is expected to miss the next week following a left hamstring strain suffered in the second quarter of Game 1.
Despite the loss, Kerr feels good with what he saw from Jonathon Kuminga and Tracy Jackson-Davis, two players out of the rotation for the last month but looked reinvigorated as they combined for 33 points off the bench.
After both teams figured things out in Game 2, the chess match within a postseason series officially begins Saturday night in Game 3. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. on ABC.
