Defense wins championships … or at least the first two games of the NBA playoffs for the Minnesota Timberwolves

The eclipse of the Suns is halfway through its progression.

It takes four losses to eliminate a team from the NBA playoffs and the Minnesota Timberwolves have now administered two defeats in as many games against the Phoenix Suns, a fair-weather team steadily parched of nourishment during their four-day sojourn to the northern tundra.

Suns versus Wolves is a marquee matchup of contrasting styles. If the whispered coo of a swished jump shot is your preferred mood music, the Suns are your soundtrack, with a trio of majestic marksmen who can each hang in the air, blot out distractions, and flick their fingertips with just the right amount of finesse for absolute accuracy.

The Wolves opt for the discordance of industrial music, ears attuned to the clank and groan of their opponents, who have been denied their safe space on the court by Minnesota’s unyielding sweat equity, by a ball-pressure defense that deafens the delicacy of aesthetics and transforms would-be silky jumpers into spastic contortions.

Thus far the brutes have held sway. The majestic marksmen themselves are being blotted out. For longtime Wolves fans it is beginning to feel like sweet redemption. Their franchise has been rightfully disparaged for decades, all the cool teams kicking sand in their faces on their way to the beach, while their multiple efforts to “rebuild” in the post-Kevin Garnett era inevitably collapse like makeshift castles when the tide comes in.

But for this current rebuild, “vintage form” means something different. It harkens back to November and December of this season, when the Wolves led the NBA with a 23-5 record and inexorably suffocated opposing offenses in the third quarter, yielding 100 points per 100 possessions – a whopping 5.8 points fewer than the next-best defense.

During the intense week of preparation between the final game of the regular season, when the Suns overwhelmed the Wolves for the third straight time, and the first two games of this first-round playoff series, Minnesota Coach Chris Finch specifically mentioned that November-December period as a touchstone. He said it was a time when the Wolves were “proving ourselves” and playing with a touch of “desperation.” He said that’s what the Wolves wanted and needed “to get back to.”

Mission accomplished.

During the two third quarters in this series thus far, the Wolves have allowed just 91.1 points per 100 possessions, outscoring the Suns by a combined 59-41. Phoenix has shot 35.9% from the field (14-for-39) and 28.6% from long range (4-for-14).

But if the third period has been a reliable marker of this team’s rugged personality and resilience, it hasn’t been outlier for how these Wolves have risen to the moment when the stakes have been elevated for each possession over all four quarters. The way Game 1 and then Game 2 have been victorious magnifies the accomplishment of the other and demonstrates the phenomenal synergy the team is currently experiencing.

In the first game, Minnesota pounded Phoenix on the boards, outrebounding them 52 to 28. In the second game, the Suns adjusted and actually won the rebounding battle, 41 to 39. But the Wolves overwhelmed them in a different area that relies on grit and physicality – points off turnovers. Minnesota converted 14 Phoenix turnovers into 31 points. The Suns could only flip 14 Wolves miscues into 2 points.

If you are outrebounding your opponent 24, you are almost certainly going to win the game. If you generate 29 more points off turnovers than you give up, you are almost certainly going to win the game. If each of those things happen in two successive games, you are operating on all cylinders.

The brightest star among many in Game 1 was Nickeil Alexander-Walker. The brightest star among many in Game 2 was Jaden McDaniels. Not coincidentally, they are the Wolves’ two most tenaciously competent on-ball defenders on the perimeter – arguably the two players most responsible for containing the Suns’ trio of All Star marksmen, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.

But they operate in a culture that prizes defense and, while terrific at doing the work of getting stops and making life miserable for the opposing scorers, are among distinguished company. Center Rudy Gobert is the one on the brink of winning his fourth NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. And it is common knowledge around the league that when Anthony Edwards feels sufficiently challenged and sets his full focus on denying a decent shot for the man he is guarding, he is a top 10 defender.

After the Game 2 victory Tuesday night, Jace Frederick from the St. Paul Pioneer Press asked Finch what it means to have two on-ball perimeter defenders – NAW (Alexander-Walker) and McDaniels – when other teams would be thankful to have just one or the other of that caliber.

“Yeah, it is a luxury,” Finch replied. “An absolute luxury, and then you have Ant out there too. Three point-of-attack defenders, (where) most teams are lucky to have one. We have three and we can keep flipping matchups around according to different traits or characteristics that guys do or don’t do well on defense.”

Moments later at the same podium, McDaniels was asked how it felt to have other defenders like NAW and Ant as his teammates.

“Every time I go on the court and I see them two, I just be like, ‘Who you wanna guard?’ It don’t matter which person we guard, it is great to have.”

In the 35 minutes NAW, Ant and McDaniels have shared the floor in this series, the Wolves have outscored the Suns 92 to 52. In the 61 minutes they have not played as a trio, the Wolves have been outscored 136-133. Similarly, when it has been just NAW and McDaniels on the floor together for 47 minutes, the Wolves are up 130-85. In the 49 minutes they are split up, the Wolves are down 105-95.

By definition, synergistic teamwork bleeds through specific stats and coalesces the spirit as well as the skill-sets of the players involved. When the Wolves were a team-best plus 28 when NAW was on the floor in Game 1, his four rebounds didn’t significantly contribute to the Wolves dominance on the boards, but his four steals helped nudge the Minnesota’s points off turnovers to a four-point advantage. And in Game 2, McDaniels had just one of Minnesota’s 11 steals – not a huge factor in their plus 29 advantage in points off turnovers – but his 8 rebounds, especially 5 on the offensive glass, made the Suns’ slight advantage in rebounding much less consequential.

You see this all over the stat sheet. Ant had 33 points on 24 shots in Game 1 and just 15 points on 12 shots in Game 2. But he was reacting to Phoenix loading up to stop him. And rather than force himself into coverage designed to snuff him, he had eight assists versus only three turnovers in Game 2 compared to six dimes and six turnovers in Game 1.

KAT had 19 points, four assists and two turnovers in Game 1 compared to 12 points, one assist and four turnovers in Game 2. But where the Wolves were minus two when KAT played in Game 1, they were plus 16 in Game 2 with him on the court. A big reason? His defense.

“He’s moving his feet, he’s got his hands out, he is competing through screens – really getting through things well,” Finch said on Tuesday when I asked him to elaborate on his praise of KAT’s Game 2 defense. “He is making the right switches, then he is able to track back in and rebound at a great clip (even though) he is on the perimeter a lot. I’m really excited about the way he has been guarding.”

In Game 1, the Wolves were plus 22 with Naz Reid on the floor delivering highlights and being praised by Finch for the tenacity of his rebounding. In Game 2, the Wolves broke even in his minutes and Naz missed all but one shot. On the flipside, Mike Conley made just two of 12 shots and the Wolves were a minus 8 with him playing in Game 1. In Game 2, he scored 18 points – including 12 in the second quarter when the Wolves offense was otherwise sluggish – and Minnesota was plus 13 during his rotations.

Before Tuesday’s game, a Phoenix beat writer noted that Finch instead of engaging in conventional wisdom by shortening his bench, the coach is using nine players and had said a day earlier he might go to 10. Finch replied that there are 11 players on the roster that helped the team win this year, and while he wouldn’t “try to jam players in” and end-of-bench substitutions “will be mostly situational,” he was comfortable tapping the depth he has at his disposal.

After the Game 2 victory, the subject of depth again arose. McDaniels had just pumped in 25 points to go with eight rebounds and three assists. Under the circumstances, Finch called it the best he ever played. And this was after NAW had scored 18 off the bench in Game 1 and was so invaluable.

“I just talked about that in the locker room. You never know whose night it is going to be,” Finch said. “Teams are going to sell out to take away your main weapons offensively. We’ve got a lot of guys who can put the ball in the basket. We’re really making the right play right now. Super proud of KAT staying locked in through foul trouble. Ant kept making the right play.”

More than most coaches, Finch’s on-court philosophies are predicated on teamwork. He believe in ball movement and movement without the ball over set play-calls, and gives the green light to any player who is open on offense. On defense, he favors on-ball pressure and fly-around activity, and has transformed Gobert into a defender who roams and trusts his teammates as well as protects the rim like precious few other players.

For two games, his players have justified his faith. Individual point totals – and plus/minus numbers – rise and fall according to circumstance, as the examples of Naz and Conley attest. Wing stoppers like NAW and McDaniels are able to burn opposing defenses focusing elsewhere and defensive weak links like KAT – consistently asked to defend terrain beyond the ken of his physique – work diligently to mitigate the damage and even synergize the schemes.

Now the series moves to the desert, where the Suns have a home record of 25-16. But the Wolves are 26-15 on the road.

“We have got to continue to bring the same level of focus to the game plan; continue to get off to good starts and not chase the game against them; keep imposing our defensive personality,” Finch said, ticking off a checklist. “They are an extremely experienced team who have been in a lot of situations. But we have guys who like to guard, guys who take the challenge. And they have guys who can really score it, so every single time down you’ve got to win your fistfight and our guys are doing it right now.”