There was a palpable energy inside Target Center Friday night as the Minnesota Timberwolves made their long-awaited return to their home court.
After two straight wins on the road to begin the season, Timberwolves fans were excited to see their new-look roster in person for the first time. The Wolves did not disappoint as they thrashed the Toronto Raptors by 23 points.
The Wolves have won all three of their games by 20 or more points and have looked the part of a team that can challenge Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, and the rest of the Western Conference.
With each game, there are positives and negatives to look at, but so far in the young season, the good has been incredibly loud, and the bad has been close to silent.
Positive: Bench lineup thrives with LaMelo in foul trouble
LaMelo Ball picked up his second foul just two minutes into the game. After sitting the remainder of the first quarter, Ball committed his third foul of the game less than a minute into the second quarter.
The foul trouble limited Ball to just four minutes in the first half, leaving Chris Finch with a problem. How would he cover the final 11 minutes of the first half when the Wolves have played almost every minute so far this season with either Ball or Anthony Edwards on the court?
Some of the lineups the Wolves used in the first half were a bit unconventional. Still, they found success with bench-heavy lineups, with Ayo Dosunmu and Terrence Shannon Jr. proving themselves as valuable Timberwolves bench pieces.
Without Ball on the court, the Wolves needed playmaking to fill in the void left by the team's point guard. Ayo Dosunmu stepped up to play many of the first-half point guard minutes. While his nine points and three assists don't particularly stand out, Dosunmu's playmaking kept the Wolves' offense running.
At every step of the way, Dosunmu has proved the Timberwolves right for making a trade for him at last year's trade deadline, and tonight against the Raptors was another indicator of his status as a core part of the Wolves.
The biggest beneficiary was Terrence Shannon Jr., who is the Wolves' biggest X-factor off the bench. Shannon Jr. finished with 15 points on 5-for-6 shooting, including three makes from beyond the arc, while playing outstanding defense all night.
While the Wolves' starting lineup looked great in the preseason and continued that into the regular season, the bench had a lot more questions to answer. In the Wolves' first home game of the year, they rose to the occasion.
Negative: Rebounding troubles with Gobert on the bench
While the bench minutes were an unmitigated success for the Timberwolves Friday night against the Raptors, there was one aspect that stood out as an issue. As they did all preseason, the Wolves gave up a large number of offensive rebounds with Rudy Gobert on the bench.
In the first half alone, the Raptors grabbed nine offensive rebounds. Seven of those came with Gobert on the bench. Many of the rebounds came back-to-back on the same Toronto possession, with the Wolves being both undersized and out of position.
The Timberwolves currently don't have many potential fixes on the roster. Jonathan Kuminga, Jaden McDaniels, and Trey Lyles have all rebounded the ball fairly well for their size, but none of them stand out as elite defensive rebounders, at least compared to more traditional bigs.
The Wolves' best rebounder on their bench is Joan Beringer, whose by far greater strength is on the offensive glass. Beringer will certainly grow into being a fantastic all-around defensive force; he still struggles with some of the nuances of defensive rebounding as a 19-year-old sophomore in the NBA.
The most positive sign is that the Wolves' rebounding issues were largely contained to the first, and they gave up very few offensive rebounds in the first two games of their season.
All teams, even the championship-ready ones, have either a team flaw or something that takes extra attention to prevent it from becoming a season-ruining problem. For the Timberwolves, at least to begin the season, that projects to be defensive rebounding.
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