'We had our feet stuck in mud': Wolves know transition issues are fixable

Entering Sunday's game against the Golden State Warriors, the Minnesota Timberwolves were winners of four straight, but the latter three of those victories came against weary opponents playing on the second half of back to backs.

That wasn't the case Sunday night. The Warriors were fresh, and it showed as they ran the floor in transition, continually beating Minnesota up and down the court. It's how they were able to dig themselves out of a 12-point hole in the third quarter, which was one of two periods where Timberwolves coach Chris Finch felt his team let the game slip away.

"Normally, there's one point in the game I like to point to where you lose the game, but this game had two," Finch told reporters postgame. "First was the start of the third quarter. They had 10 transition baskets, I think, to start in the first five or six minutes and a lot of them came after we had scored, which is inexcusable."

It wasn't like when the Wolves played the Warriors on Friday, a night after they had hosted the Houston Rockets. Or when they dominated the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, a day after they were in Portland for an NBA Cup group-play game. Or when they crushed the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 2, a night after they pulled out a one-point win in Utah.

In all of those games, the Wolves were able to wear down the opposition down the stretch in lopsided victories. But on Sunday against the fresh Warriors, they were continually beat in transition. Golden State pushed the pace for transition layups. Quick outlets led to open 3-pointers, with shooters like Steph Curry and Buddy Hield ready to knock them down.

One of the most glaring miscues came midway through the third quarter when Gary Payton II was inbounding the ball from the sideline. He found a wide-open Hield down the court at the 3-point arc, and Hield drilled the open look to cut the Warriors' deficit to 69-66. After a Wolves timeout and a fruitless offensive possession, Hield made another 3 to tie it.

The Warriors made their first 10 shots of the third quarter, and the Wolves gave up 19 fast-break points overall.

"It's just getting back. And they're all after made baskets," Nickeil Alexander-Walker told reporters of the transition woes. "It wasn't like there's a track meet — we had our feet stuck in mud. Like honestly, it's just things that we could control."

Asked Nickeil Alexander-Walker what led to the Wolves often feeling like they were a step behind the Warriors, who were clearly trying to get out and run. pic.twitter.com/mWyinlpko3
— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) December 9, 2024

The Wolves led by nine points at the halftime break, and the lead grew to 12 when Anthony Edwards hit a 3-pointer for the first points of the third quarter. After the poor transition defense allowed the Warriors to tie it on Hield's 3, it went back and forth until Curry hit a buzzer-beater 3 at the end of the quarter to put Golden State up 93-90 entering the final frame.

STEPH BUZZER BEATER FROM 40 pic.twitter.com/aLlgMukBE8
— CurryMuse (@Curry_Muse) December 9, 2024

The Warriors kept the momentum going at the start of the fourth quarter, too, building an 11-point advantage. The Wolves rallied all the way back to retake the lead with under five minutes to go, but then came the second point where Finch felt Minnesota lost the game due to poor late-game offense. The Warriors ultimately prevailed in a 114-106 Wolves loss.