Monday NBA Roundup: Expectations Dog Developing Timberwolves, Even in Victory

It says a lot about the Minnesota Timberwolves when a win somehow doesn’t feel like it matters, and it says even more about our collective expectations of where they’re supposed to be as a franchise.

Despite its remarkable youth, a new head coach and last year’s 29-win season, it seems as though Minnesota is underachieving in an unforgivable way, squandering its skill and failing to deliver on the promise that arrived with Karl-Anthony Towns and quintupled (rough estimate) with Tom Thibodeau’s arrival.

The Wolves beat the Phoenix Suns 115-108 on Monday, staving off exactly the kind of comeback that tends to get completed against them and flashing the requisite promise of their considerable young talent.

Andrew Wiggins Eurostepped through traffic to complete a buzzer-beater early and rang up buckets in bunches late, making eight of his 11 field goals after halftime:

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Zach LaVine got loose in the open floor like he always does, and Towns pumped in 28 points and 15 boards while registering his typical highlights inside and out:

Towns spins and scores on the block pic.twitter.com/CyfI9DOslP

— A Wolf Among Wolves (@AWAWBlog) December 20, 2016

Combined, the Timberwolves’ unseasoned trio scored 77 of the club’s 115 points while generally controlling the action.

Rookie Kris Dunn even bounced around chaotically—sometimes to positive results:

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Normally, seeing so many youthful pieces doing so many impactful things in a win would be cause for unfettered excitement. But this Timberwolves team isn’t at a point where beating the Suns at home means anything. Because although Phoenix is similarly young, it doesn’t share any of the pangs of unfulfilled potential that haunt Minnesota.

The Suns are young and bad through and through. The Wolves are something different.

So this wasn’t a back-patting result for Tom Thibodeau’s team. It wasn’t a learning experience. It wasn’t even notable as a resurgent effort, a signal of resilience after blowing a 12-point lead in the final couple of minutes against the Houston Rockets on Saturday.

In fact, it’s precisely those collapses against quality opponents (and some bad ones, too) that define the Timberwolves and set the parameters for a successful performance.

Minnesota gets outscored by 20.4 points per 100 possessions in third quarters this season, a rate that ranks 29th in the NBA. In fourth quarters, the average deficit is 6.2 points per 100 possessions—better, but still just 25th in the league.

Thibs: “We’re still having lulls, but we have to be a 48-minute team, and the 4th quarter is different, we have to treat it differently.”

— Tom Schreier (@tschreier3) December 20, 2016

Until they adjust those numbers toward the positive and do it against serious opponents, it’s going to feel like the Timberwolves aren’t accomplishing anything. We don’t …

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