Timberwolves lament lack of energy in Game 1 loss to Mavericks

Minnesota was 'a little tired' in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals.

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) controls the ball against Dallas Mavericks forward Derrick Jones Jr. (55) in the fourth quarter during Game 1 of the Western Conference finals at Target Center in Minneapolis on May 22, 2024. / Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

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. 

The sold-out crowd of 19,433 was electric, eager to see the Timberwolves play in their first Western Conference finals since 2004. The Wolves held leads at the end of the first, second and third quarters, and the noise and energy never wavered from the Target Center faithful. 

But on the court, the general consensus from the Timberwolves was that they lacked the same energy in a 108-105 Game 1 loss to the Mavericks. They didn’t replicate the intensity they showed during Game 7 of their Western Conference semifinal series against the Denver Nuggets.

“I think we just came out flat (Wednesday),” 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 (Wednesday). I didn’t get downhill as much. Just stuff like that. We were just a little tired probably.”

The Timberwolves, at times, looked tired, too, particularly down the stretch in the fourth quarter. As a defensive-oriented team, those lapses of energy stand out. They result in Mavericks offensive rebounds, transition buckets and foul calls. Then add in Luka Doncic coming alive and making every big shot when his team needed it most, that becomes a difficult game to come out on top of.

“Playing with a little more energy will cover up some mistakes in our aggressiveness,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “I think one thing that everyone in this room knows is that when we’re playing Timberwolves basketball, defending at a high level, we do tend to make mistakes, but we make up a lot of those mistakes in aggression and activity.”

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.

But that final 4:39 went to the Mavericks. They simply made more plays down the stretch. Doncic shook off his poor shooting start to power the fourth-quarter comeback. P.J. Washington made just two of his eight 3-point attempts, but his second was the shot that put the Mavericks up for good.

Despite leading throughout the first half, the Wolves struggled to contain Kyrie Irving. He's not someone any team can stop entirely, but a lot of Irving's damage was down to simply outworking the Wolves, beating them off the dribble or in transition for quality shots at the rim.

“As soon as Rudy (Gobert) 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. 

In his postgame comments, Edwards recalled a possession in which Irving just outran him down the court in transition for a layup. Those are the types of energy plays that will make games difficult to win, particularly against a Mavericks team that runs through top-tier guard play and is excellent in transition.

But the Timberwolves didn’t play their best basketball Wednesday night, and they know it. Expect that to change when the teams meet again for Game 2 Friday night back at Target Center.

“I think if we bring our best brand of basketball … I think we will see what type of game it is Friday,” Edwards said. “Everybody will bring their best brand of basketball from the Timberwolves and we’ll see how it go.”