You could feel the energy inside Target Center in Minneapolis leading up to Game 1 of the Western Conference finals between the Timberwolves and Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night.
“I think we just came out flat ,” Anthony Edwards said. “We found our energy and we went back to being flat, so I think it was just on us, everything was on us . I didn’t get downhill as much. Just stuff like that. We were just a little tired probably.” Like Edwards and Towns alluded to, there were times where the Timberwolves played their brand of basketball and brought that energy. That was best exemplified when they answered a 13-0 Mavericks — one that gave the Mavs an eight-point lead with 7 minutes, 38 seconds left in the fourth quarter — with a 10-1 run that put them back on top with 4 minutes, 39 seconds left on the clock.
“As soon as Rudy left the court, they just drove, drove, drove. We were not very good at the ball; we were not very good at the rim. We were soft there,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said.