Timberwolves coach Chris Finch cited execution errors as the nails in Minnesota’s coffin in Game 3 on Friday in Minneapolis.
Bad routes were taken around screens. Poor reads were made in pick and roll defense. Gameplan errors were produced.
But it’s tough to plan for a guy this good.
Victor Wembanyama buried one difficult jumper after another, capping a 39-point, 15-rebound performance that led the San Antonio Spurs to a 115-108 victory in Game 3 to take a 2-1 advantage in the Western Conference semifinals. The big man scored 16 points in the fourth quarter alone.
Game 4 is Sunday at Target Center.
You’ll have to excuse Rudy Gobert for going under a flair screen when covering a guy multiple inches taller than he is. Of course the 7-foot-5 shot blocker extraordinare is going to drill the 25-foot, catch-and-shoot triple.
The possession prior, the Frenchman attacked from the top of the floor, spinning his way into a turnaround fadeaway jumper that he also cashed.
At another point in the final five minutes, Wembanyama was marching down the lane late in the shot clock. Julius Randle stepped up to provide Gobert with some assistance, which proved to be another mistake. Webanyama rose up and fired a pass to Randle’s abandoned man, Dylan Harper, who finished the open layup.
On the other end, Minnesota is scoring a repulsive 95 points per 100 possessions when the freshly-crowned Defensive Player of the Year is patrolling the paint.
The Wolves are trying everything to diminish Wembanyama’s impact. They’re grabbing, pulling, holding and pushing. Anything to try to both frustrate the Frenchman and prevent him from getting airborne. None of it is working. Not well enough, anyway.
“I thought he imposed himself on the game, and I thought he established himself, dominating the paint and the rim on both ends, and when he does that, it kind of feels like that everything opens up for himself and his teammates,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “He still gets some shots on the perimeter, you get some close outs, he gets the gravity in terms of, you know, teams are trying to be physical type of course. And so there’s a lot of bang-bang plays there, and he should get rewarded for some of them.
“I thought he did a good job of playing through that contact and not expecting calls or trying to get them and just met the physicality with proper execution.”
Wembanyama just delivered easily his best game of the series, shooting 13 for 18 on offense while blocking five shots on the other end.
Anthony Edwards was also sensational for much of the night. He finished with 32 points, 14 rebounds and six assists in 40 minutes in what was perhaps his best performance of these playoffs.
But it wasn’t enough to lift Minnesota to victory on a night the Wolves shot 38% from the field. Twenty-eight percent of the Wolves’ points had to come via the second-chance variety. Seemingly everyone outside of Edwards had serious issues trying to crack the code that is an “alien” who’s in the top 1% in the world in both size and athleticism
Minnesota missed its first 12 shots of the game, digging itself an early 15-point hole before Wembanyama went to the bench and the Wolves were able to claw back into the contest. But San Antonio barely sat the big man in the second half Friday, even when he picked up his fifth foul with six minutes to play, and the Frenchman willed the Spurs to victory.
“He’s a world-class defender,” Wolves guard Ayo Dosunmu said. “Yeah, he’s a gift at that end of the court.”
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