The Timberwolves beat Utah 115-100 on Sunday, November 8, and their starting five still owes them better possessions. According to Basketball Reference’s box score, the starters committed 20 of Minnesota’s 22 turnovers. Every starter had at least three.
That’s where I’d start Chris Finch’s work before Dallas visits Thursday. As of Tuesday, November 10, the Wolves have a fourth straight win and an 8-3 record, per ESPN’s game record and AP recap. They also have a home win that makes a poor offensive habit easy to excuse. I want the scoring confidence to stay. I want the giveaways to become the first thing this group has to answer for.
LaMelo Ball and Ayo Dosunmu have to protect what they create
Ball and Dosunmu each had five turnovers, per Basketball Reference. Jaden McDaniels had four, while Rudy Gobert and Jonathan Kuminga had three apiece. This was a problem spread across the whole starting group, which is why blaming the point guard alone would miss it.
The scoring makes the guards’ mistakes especially tempting to forgive. Dosunmu finished with 26 points, made four of five threes and went eight for eight at the line. Ball scored 24 on 10-for-20 shooting, including four of 10 from deep. Those are productive nights. They should also leave Finch asking how much more this offense could get from simply finishing its possessions with shots.
I wouldn’t respond by stripping either guard of responsibility. My argument for letting Ball and Dosunmu share creation still stands. Giving one player every difficult decision would be a strange answer to a game in which all five starters gave the ball away repeatedly.
I’d make the next pass easier instead. Keep an outlet close enough to reach without throwing across the defense. Let a teammate restart the action when the first opening closes. If the pass into the paint is crowded, move the ball around the perimeter and try a different entry. Those are the choices I want to see Thursday, rather than a demand that Ball manufacture another spectacular scoring line.
The same standard should reach the frontcourt. McDaniels made five of nine shots and Gobert made all four of his attempts, per Basketball Reference. Their combined seven turnovers still belong in the discussion. Getting an efficient scorer the ball is only part of a good possession; making a safe decision after the catch matters, too.
Finch should hold the whole starting group to that standard, with the guards setting the example. A frontcourt player who receives a good pass has to protect the possession just as carefully as the player who delivered it.
The bench gives Finch a useful standard
The contrast is clear in the same Basketball Reference box score. Trey Lyles, Jaylen Clark, Terrence Shannon Jr. and Bones Hyland finished without a turnover. Joan Beringer and Rocco Zikarsky had one each. Minnesota’s reserves accounted for only two of the team’s 22 giveaways.
Hyland supplied 14 points in 13:05, with two assists and no turnovers. Lyles had nine points, six rebounds and two assists without giving it away. Those are the reserve lines I’d use in the next meeting: useful scoring and passing can coexist with keeping the ball.
Finch should be willing to keep a reserve involved when that player is making sound decisions, even if a starter has the bigger scoring total. The full Wolves roster and depth chart gives him choices beyond asking the same group to play through every mistake.
The starters can learn from that restraint without becoming passive. Ball should still shoot when he has space. Dosunmu should still attack an opening. I’d rather have them accept the available play than keep searching for a better one after the defense has already taken it away.
Make the rest of the homestand less expensive
Sunday offered plenty of compensation. Minnesota made 12 threes to Utah’s seven and 27 free throws to Utah’s 19, per ESPN. The Wolves also won the rebounding count 45-37. They had enough elsewhere to win comfortably despite the giveaways.
I’d be careful about treating those advantages as something the offense can spend every night. A made free throw shouldn’t have to repair an empty possession. A defensive rebound is more valuable when the next trip actually reaches a shot. Minnesota earned those advantages; protecting the ball would let it keep more of them.
The second half deserves particular attention. Basketball Reference’s quarter boxes show six Wolves turnovers in the third and nine in the fourth. Winning didn’t make their ball security improve as the night went along. I want Finch to treat the late mistakes as work that remains, even after a double-digit victory.
This is the opening of the eight-game home stretch on Minnesota’s schedule, with Dallas next on Thursday according to the AP recap. It’s a good setting to demand a higher standard from the players who begin games. Keep the guards aggressive, keep rewarding reserves who make good decisions, and make the starters finish more possessions with a shot. Twenty turnovers from that group should be the problem they solve before the next win.