Coming off a heartbreaking loss at home, the Minnesota Timberwolves head to Washington on Monday hoping to bounce back at the expense of the struggling Wizards.
Minnesota dropped a 127-125 decision to Memphis on Saturday, a byproduct of the Timberwolves giving up 21 offensive rebounds. The Grizzlies turned their work on the glass into a 25-9 advantage for second-chance points.
Minnesota ranks in the lower half of the NBA in offensive rebounding allowed for the season, checking in at No. 18 with 11.2 surrendered per game. The Timberwolves rank right in the middle of the league in second-chance points allowed per game, with the 25 given up to Memphis more than 11 above Minnesota’s 13.8 average yield.
Washington, meanwhile, allows both the most offensive rebounds and second-chance points in the NBA, a few of the many contributing factors to the Wizards’ league-worst record. Their woes continued on Sunday in the first leg of a back-to-back, dropping a 136-95 decision at home to Oklahoma City.
The loss was Washington’s sixth straight and eight in the last nine games. The Wizards dropped their last two by a combined 74 points, as their NBA-worst scoring defense (122.7 ppg) continues to struggle.
Washington coach Brian Keefe made only one statement following Sunday’s loss, focusing specifically on defensive energy.
“That’s on me,” Keefe said. “I didn’t do a good enough job to get our guys to play a full 48 (minutes).”
A rare bright spot for the Wizards in the blowout loss was that Corey Kispert rebounded to score a team-high 17 points after going scoreless in Friday’s 138-105 blowout loss to Chicago. Kispert went for a season-high 23 points in a Jan. 7 loss to Houston, then matched it the next night in Philadelphia before his 0-for-5 shooting slump against the Bulls.
As Keefe and the Wizards search for some answers to address their woes, Minnesota comes into Monday’s affair having recently made some tweaks of its own. Most notably, veteran guard Mike Conley is coming off the bench after starting his first 30 games of the campaign.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters on Saturday that Conley plays a valuable role in reserve duty.
“Bringing Mike off the bench, I can put him wherever I need him,” Finch said. “I can bring him in early. I can hold him out. I can run him longer. I can sub him for almost anybody. I try to keep his minutes down, and starting him, trying to get him to play with certain lineup combinations, all three of those things were not achievable at the time, but now I feel I can do all that.”
Finch said Conley’s reshaped role helps big man Julius Randle specifically. Randle, who is averaging 19.6 points per game, went for 23 points and 10 rebounds in a win Thursday over Orlando.
Conley had a game-high plus-23 rating with his nine points against the Magic.
Minnesota’s leading scorer, Anthony Edwards, is averaging 25.4 points per game after posting 15 against Memphis.
–Field Level Media
