In the first half, the Timberwolves led by 26 points, and at the end of the half, the gap narrowed to seven points.
In the second half, the Timberwolves extended the gap to 25 points again, and buried a good game, which was eventually reversed by the Grizzlies.
Such a good opportunity can't be seized, and I worry that the mentality of a young team like the Timberwolves will collapse and affect the subsequent games of the series.
But objectively speaking, the Timberwolves have made some progress in G3, and it's the best they've done to defend the Grizzlies. Although it was still exploded rebounding, other aspects were ok:
Downs will defend better than the first two games, with some performance of recycling the basket, delaying Morante's successful round;
The Timberwolves assisted in multiple positions, rotated and came up with something, the pinch was aggressive, Beverley's single defense, swipe assist defense was impressive, they made a lot of mistakes, converted into a large number of counter-attack scores.
The Timberwolves also had some personnel changes, and while they didn't come up with any creative lineup combinations, they didn't take McLaughlin out. It can be seen that Finch's most trusted bench 3D is Mike Daniels, who wants to improve the offense, and the status of the plus shooter will use Beasley, Prince and Reid is still not improved. Mike Daniels responded with two three-pointers, but made some other mistakes, and Beasley missed a good chance.
The Timberwolves built their lead by a strategy — Beverley played Morant. The strategy was executed from start to finish, and even during the crucial ball stage, the Timberwolves let Beverley dominate the offense and onslaught Morant. The move also allowed Morant to receive a second foul early, so much so that Morant only played halfway in the first quarter. The Timberwolves' ability to establish a big lead twice is related to this strategy:
The first big lead was achieved by Beverley playing Morant to establish a good start. After Morant made two plays, the Grizzlies' main offensive level was reduced, the Timberwolves defense was frequently successful, and the counterattacks continued to establish a huge advantage;
The second big lead relied on Beverly playing Morant to change the formation, Mike Daniels seized the three-point opportunity, Jalen Jr. dropped the quality of the basket, the Timberwolves position attack was loosened, and the defense of Morant's blocking success continued to play a beautiful counterattack.
This game, another key point, is also in favor of the Timberwolves — Jarren Jr. is in a foul crisis before Towns. Throughout the game, Jaren Jr. played only 21 minutes, and when he was on the floor, the Timberwolves' defensive efficiency was 72.1, and when he wasn't on the floor, the number was 114.3.
The Timberwolves really should have won this game and ultimately buried the victory, for a variety of reasons.
Downs is an inexplicable presence this time. While to praise Downs' progress on the defensive end, Downs' defensive performance improved, and there are two more conditions. One is that Morant has some foul trouble, which causes the two to stagger the time they play to a certain extent. The second is that Morant has played a lot of non-Downs opponents in this case. Two conditions gave Downs less chance of getting involved in the upline defense.
Downs' bigger problem this time is offense. He had only 12 percent of the rounds and 3,4 turnovers of 4. The Timberwolves didn't know what to do with Downs, and they didn't design tactics for Towns to fall low, such as bottom-line crossover cover, or false cover to be removed early, so that Towns could receive the ball close to the basket and reduce the risk of being swiped to help prevent mistakes. The Timberwolves have Russell, not without this ability to do the ball. Towns's starting style is basically at the top of the arc, the Grizzlies change defense to take the small one to defend him, and Towns almost does not send punishment. The round that forced the low position was clipped, and only a few rounds of the ball created shooting opportunities. The value of Downs's offensive end is probably only 20% released.
Even so, the Timberwolves need Downs to be there because their defense against the Grizzlies is too hard. Originally, 3J fouls were faster, and the Timberwolves could use this time to widen the points gap, but Towns followed suit, eager to use unnecessary fouls to reassure the Grizzlies. Similar mistakes Towns have been making since the playoffs, and to put it mildly, Downs' performance so far is not a qualified leader for playoff teams.
Another reason the Timberwolves were reversed was the lack of position offense, with the exception of Beverley playing Morant, who did not come up with a start that looked sustainable. Beverly playing Morant is certainly effective, and it is also quite outrageous to be able to last a game. Beverley's ability is here, it is impossible to always succeed, and some of the Timberwolves' offensive choices are inexplicable, such as beverly feeding Mike Daniels twice, the latter has chosen to work hard, the difficulty is not low, completely ignoring the downside Downs.
The playoffs can't rely on Beverley Carry to the end, and the Timberwolves have achieved their goal with this move, and with too much use, the Grizzlies will be defensive. What the Timberwolves are looking for is a way to activate Towns, Russell, and Edwards, and in this game, Downs' main attack is desperate, and the Timberwolves seem to not use him at all. Edwards was overwhelmed, Russell had some tricks, but he struggled to switch defenses. The Timberwolves once took out the double cover of Towns, Vanderbilt and Russell, which could bring Jarren Jr. to the upper line defense without making it too easy for him to change defenses, which is also an effective way to change defenses as proven in the past. But didn't stick with it.
In addition, Morant's counterpart went to shield Edwards and Russell, and the roll call tactic was also a way. The Timberwolves only tried very little after the score was caught up, more to let Beverley and Beasley go directly to Morant. There were some rounds where Morant had already played against Russell, russell called for a harder matchup, and Russell had a very good game against Morant in the regular season.
Finch didn't call a timeout when the Grizzlies kept scoring and keeping close to the point difference. The timeout is not only to curb the Grizzlies' offensive rhythm, but more importantly, the Timberwolves' own offense is out of order, and the players cannot be left to solve the problem in confusion.
Some random situations also appeared when leading the big score, such as at the end of the third quarter, the Timberwolves had three fast attacks, empty cuts, the quality of the ball was not high, and the score could not be formed, and they were counter-attacked by the Grizzlies. And when the score was tied and finally tried to do a good job of offense, the three-point opportunities created several times were not seized. In the fourth quarter, the Timberwolves shot 11-of-1 from three-point range and had a few good chances. But the Timberwolves can't blame luck for not being on their side, more because they failed to handle the game well when they were ahead, and let the opportunity slip away.
After this fight, I will have this feeling:
If you watch the Hunsk-Wolf showdown in 48 minutes, the suspense of the series is not over.
The Grizzlies have three modes, Fat Buo (with Adams), Big Buo (without Adams), and Little Buo (Morant, Bain, Dillon, Clark, Jaran Jr., etc. top rotation). Fat Buo is no longer there, and it is not easy to play with big Buou, but it can also be played, because it is very obvious that the Grizzlies rely on Morant to protect the offense, rely on Jalen Jr. to defend (although there is no latter, the Grizzlies defense is also good, but it will not make the Timberwolves helpless), and there are players like Zaire who are not very good at attacking and defending. As long as Morant and Jalen Jr. are not present, the Timberwolves still have a chance, and the latter's foul problem is stable, and the Timberwolves have found a way to create the former's foul, which may not always be useful, but you at least know who is effective.
The Timberwolves are completely unable to play the Buou stage, the regular season good starting fivesome, in both offensive and defensive ends of the Grizzlies this five-man set can not be. The strongest and only lineup is on the opponent's side, so the Timberwolves have to play 48 minutes of basketball and seize the time when Jaren Jr. and Morant are not there, which requires the Timberwolves to make fewer mistakes.
The Timberwolves did not use the "Gotenks" plan to fight big Buou, nor did they have a way to fight Xiao Buou, but they did have a way to recharge the "Super 3 Goku". Beverly is Vegeta, and his fight with Morant is to recharge the Timberwolves' big men and find a way to knock buo. But Vegeta persisted for most of the day, and finally found that Goku had a snot-sized yuanqi bomb, so Vegeta cried.
There's still suspense in the series, but the Timberwolves can't make mistakes anymore.