The Timberwolves Are Leveling Up…

The Timberwolves Are Leveling Up…

Welcome to another how and grows breakdown today we’re talking about how the Timberwolves destroyed their LA Clippers to take a huge Western Conference scalp and stay in the first seed there were so many directions we could have gone with this breakdown the Wolves were insane again defensively and

They got big knights from a number of individuals offensively but I want to talk about the ball movement because it hasn’t always been a strength of this team and they sold in that area in this game on the night the Wolves finished with 33 assists and that’s their fifth

Highest output of the season and you can see from Kyle’s tweet here they’re near on Unstoppable when they do move the ball and generate good looks and that’s what teams have to do against a Clippers defense that is really strong and led with defensive game changers so I just

Want to run through some of the best ball movement possessions on the night and how they came about because that really paints a picture of this team’s ceiling when they’re playing at their best offensively so we start with this little corner action to open up that empty

Corner pick and roll that we talk about so often here so Edwards curls up off this handoff and as soon as Conley jogs off into the corner he turns and jets off this pin down screen man is stuck behind him now so zubats has to step up

Here a little bit and that means go can slip in behind him and the beauty of those empty Corner actions is that there’s no help there it’s two on two basketball so when goed Gets behind his Defender he has a free Lane to the rim and we know Conley is an expert at

Finding him on that lob pass so we move into this horns action and I love that they have towns curling out of it into the corner over here off that exit screen because even if they don’t use him right away and the ball does swing around or Anderson’s man comes to double

Read in the post here Town’s gravity wrecks the defense Westbrook stunts at him here which opens up the pass to Alexander Walker and then Leonard sells out the middle of the lane to cover a potential swing pass then no bursts into that same open Lane and gets all the way

To the rim for a nice finish there isn’t really anything overly complex there but sticking to the simplistic really opens up a lot for a team with Minnesota potential Firepower and the same goes for making the right play and not forcing things the wolves have been a

High turnover Team all season and a lot of that is to do with their propensity to force things here’s what happens when they keep it simple and just take what the defense gives them you see Edwards tries to puncture the defense here but as soon as Kawai digs in here he just

Makes that simple pass out to towns so now the defense is in rotation that forces man up here to help so Alexander Walker slips in behind him and towns finds him on that 45 cut to the rim that’s just smart simple and effective basketball and that’s the way you want

To see this team play but we also love to see the wolves run Smart Set plays and add that extra structure to their team offense and that’s what we saw as well as the simple stuff in this game so when Conley cuts through the middle here

He faints to go and set a flex screen for Edwards to cut Baseline but he’s actually going to ghost it and curl up here off this go bear down screen Paul George is expecting the action to involve The Cutting Edwards so he’s lingering around here out of position

And even with his great closeout speed he’s allowed Conley to get his feet set in an action that he’s used to making shots out of so that’s not necessarily ball movement per se but it’s it’s a really smart player movement and both of those things go hand inand with great

Offense and just like we praised Edwards for reading the defense and making the simple play earlier we have to do the same for cat here he’s in isolation but as soon as the double comes from Harden here he spins out of it and makes the right read kawhai tries to shoot this

Gap on Conley and that opens up the pass to Edwards George has to come up to Edwards and he makes that extra pass to the corner and McDaniels is there as the open beneficiary of that tilted defense again that’s nothing special but when you have someone like towns who commands

Double teams like that then you don’t really need special you just need to be alert and efficient in taking advantage of the open man so Reed Jets up here for a quick little onew and then bursts out into space now he’s got all of this room to flow

Into Anderson makes that pass without hesitation the Clippers don’t have the size out there to defend the rim and Nas squeezes through that gap for a lovely finish at the rim and good Lord how sick is NZ Reed the thing that I love the most in this massacre was how the Wolves

Just destroyed La when they overcommitted on the ball we see it again here ant getss downhill on this drive you’ve got Russ and PG shifting over to provide bodies in the way so when PG backs off he’s still in the torture chamber trying to stay between

These two Shooters the ball comes to no this pump fake forces George to get his hands up to stop the extra pass but that hesitation allows Alexander Walker to burn by him and finish with a dunk to put a nice little bow on this game and

At this point I don’t don’t even think this needs to be said but if Minnesota plays like this offensively they’re going to take some serious beating in the Western Conference that’s how good they are defensively we haven’t seen them string games like this together for a long stretch so that’s far from a

Guarantee but I do think the signs are trending upward as we head into the allstar break and that’s a scary sight for the league thanks again for watching how and GR Please Subscribe for more

The Wolves just destroyed the Clippers.