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Shameless plug: The Warriors worked out Anthony Edwards before the 2020 NBA draft, and it did not go well. You can read about that in my book about Edwards, called "Ant," by ordering through this link.

The Associated Press

According to NBA tracking data, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry has run an average of 1.58 miles per game on offense during the playoffs. That is more than all but seven players in the playoffs, and more than anybody was running on offense from the Los Angeles Lakers in the Timberwolves’ first-round playoff series.

The Wolves will have to get out their track shoes to guard Curry, especially off the ball, in their second-round playoff matchup against the Warriors that starts tonight at Target Center.

Here are some thoughts about that and other musings I have on the series.

RUNNIN' AROUND

The Wolves will be deploying a committee approach to guarding Curry, as coach Chris Finch said Monday. Last series, there were some tough matchups for guards Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, given the Lakers' strength and size on the perimeter (even if they lacked rim protection). This series, Conley and Alexander-Walker will be part of that committee chasing Curry around voluminous off-ball screens. 

Along with Jaden McDaniels, those three are experts at navigating screens without fouling and without “dying” on the screens, as it’s sometimes termed. That means a player gets taken out by a screen and the team has to switch. Anthony Edwards, when he turns up the intensity on defense, can play this way, too, though his screen navigation is inconsistent. 

“It's not going to be one person's job alone to do that,” Finch said. “We're lucky to have multiple high-level perimeter defenders. Just the effort and the activity is only part one. You got to have the discipline and the diligence to execute all the things that they do to try to free him up. But it's not going to be just left to Jaden alone.”

SMALL BALL, OR GO BIG WITH RUDY?

Like the Lakers, the Warriors are another team that plays small, with the team relying on Draymond Green to shoulder the load of its post defense and rebounding while interspersing Kevon Looney or Quinten Post down low. As Finch said, playing small can be the Warriors’ “superpower.” So like last series, it leaves the Wolves with the question of how they will utilize Gobert. 

The Wolves went small when they needed to against the Lakers, specifically to close Games 3 and 4 when a frontcourt of Naz Reid and Julius Randle spaced the floor and allowed the Wolves to pull away from the Lakers late. Then Gobert used his size to dominate Game 5 with 27 points and 24 rebounds. 

“He's always an X-factor for us,” Finch said of Gobert. “When he's playing at his best, he takes us to another level. No doubt about that. This is a small-ball team. That's their superpower. It's what they go to when they need to become the best version of themselves, and you got to find ways to punish that. Certainly Rudy's activity on both ends of the floor, in around the rim and getting offensive rebounds and all that stuff is going to be huge.”

What version of Gobert the Wolves get will go a long way toward determining how they deploy their lineups, especially late in games. Of course, there is the extra dimension of Green vs. Gobert, after Green put Gobert in a chokehold at Golden State last season. As if Gobert needed any extra motivation coming into the series. But as Finch said: “You got to play basketball. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of physicality, some of it, certainly, on the edge of legality. Certainly there's going to be a lot of things said on the floor or outside the game itself. We got folks who play basketball. That's what we got to do.”

Even if Gobert isn’t effective, it isn’t the end of the world for the Wolves, whose strength is their ability to shape shift their lineups and styles of play given their depth. 

TIRED LEGS VS. FRESH ONES

The Wolves enter this series the better-rested team with home-court advantage. They’ve had multiple practices and rest days to prepare, while the Warriors are coming off a grueling seven-game series against the Houston Rockets with just one day off. How much of an advantage can that be in a series?

“We've seen the schedule, and we know it's gonna be every other day before a game,” Alexander-Walker said. “So that mindset, and with the time that we've had off, now, you want to bank, bank, stock up on all the recovery. Stock up on all the rest, whatever it is you need to do workouts, etc., to be fresh, to get it going. When it starts, I think by that time it's too late. We have the advantage.”

The Wolves made the Lakers look tired late in games and later as the series continued. Given the age of the Warriors’ top players (Butler is 35, Curry is 37, Green is 35), perhaps this series will also be a battle of attrition. That would favor the Wolves, at least on the surface.

“Everybody became a grown man, in a sense.”

— Anthony Edwards, on the Wolves' response to a team meeting with coach Chris Finch before a game against Phoenix in March. 

18.8 — Wolves' average in both second-chance points (No. 1 ranking) and points off turnovers (No. 3) this postseason.  

4 — Number of starting lineups the Warriors deployed in their series against the Rockets.

3 — Times the No. 6 and No. 7 seeds have faced each other in the second round of a playoff series in NBA history. The most recent time also featured the Warriors, against the Lakers in 2023. 

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The Minnesota Star Tribune

Let’s say a Timberwolves game tips off at 7 p.m. From 5:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., there is an open locker room period to the media. 

Technically, anything is fair game during this time. Media can make requests to interview players. We’re allowed to go up and speak to them if they’re in the locker room, and anything they say can be considered on the record. (What I just wrote sounds so formal and strict, like someone reading you your Miranda rights). 

But for most beat writers around the NBA, the recorders don’t come out during the time. Instead, this tends to be a fairly informal half hour between players who are in the locker room and those who cover the team regularly. This is especially true when I’m on the road, when I might be the only person in the locker room covering the Wolves.

This half hour, and how we handle it, offers a little glimpse into how we do our jobs. I’ll use my relationship with Nickeil Alexander-Walker as a good example of this. When Alexander-Walker got traded to the Wolves two seasons ago, the Wolves were in Memphis for his first game. 

I had heard from some people that he was a nice guy to talk to, and so I waited for him to come into the locker room and I introduced myself. After a quick chat, he sat down at his locker — and he got out a book. I don’t remember what book it was exactly, but I was struck by the fact that he was reading a book about an hour befor tipoff. 

Players go through a lot of pregame routines, and some of them are often busy during this time. Not everyone comes into the locker room while the media is in there because they’re working out or getting treatment. But Alexander-Walker, at least when he first arrived, always had a book at his locker. That continued into his second season with the Wolves, and I’d just ask him from time to time about what he was reading, and we’d talk about it. Even though I didn’t specify it, in my mind all our conversations were off the record. This was just two people talking. 

Eventually, I asked him whether he’d be cool if we actually had a conversation on the record about his reading habits, and how that helped him get over a tough time in his career. So one day last season, he and I sat down for about a half hour at the Wolves facility and that resulted in this story. This season, Alexander-Walker isn’t reading as much at his locker, but he and I still have frequent chats when he’s in the locker room before games. To be blunt, he has been one of my favorite athletes to cover in my 15-year sportswriting career because of how professional and personable he has been, and he has never been afraid to answer difficult questions. But it all starts with those casual, off-the-record conversations at his locker. 

That sort of relationship helps everyone involved. It helps the media build connections with the players they cover, and it helps the players know that not all media members are out to quote-unquote “get them” with gotcha questions or are going to look to turn them into some sort of negative meme. 

So when we have to ask tough questions after games or tough moments in the season, they know that’s not what we’re all about. That we tell the good with the bad, and we’re there to tell good stories about what goes on behind the scenes or about them as people. 

I tell this little anecdote about Alexander-Walker in part because those relationships, I think, also lead to pieces like the one I wrote for Sunday’s paper on the team’s evolving ability to communicate with one another.  

I fear this kind of humanizing journalism of athletes is getting lost in the year 2025. That as teams and leagues restrict access and media outlets cut back on travel budgets, this stuff is going to get lost. Fans will lose out on this kind of coverage and athletes will grow ever more weary of media. Some players are already concerned about the effects gambling has had on the game, and how that makes fans view them if they don’t help out someone’s parlay. The human element of sports is getting lost in the mix. Your subscription and support of the Star Tribune helps ensure it doesn’t, or at least we can fend off those outside forces from chipping away at it a while longer. 

Chris Hine, reporter

Chris Miller, editor

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