In the cold light of Thursday, the Timberwolves' 108-105 Game 1 loss to Dallas in the Western Conference finals might have looked worse than it did the night before.
But they watched it anyway.
"It was a rough film session," Wolves coach Chris Finch said. "I told the guys, 'It has been a long time since I've been this disappointed in your effort. Your performance, your attitude and attention to detail just wasn't there.' The Western Conference finals started. Not sure if they got the memo. But they got it this afternoon."
Finch criticized his players' decisions and effort, their points in the paint allowed and three-pointers taken and missed — or open ones passed up. They made 18 of 49 three-pointers and could have taken 10 more open ones, Finch said, when the Mavs collapsed their defense waiting for stars Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns to drive hard to the basket.
The Mavericks, in turn, made six of their 25 three-point shots. They attacked the rim with guards and bigs alike, particularly when center Rudy Gobert wasn't in the game.
Dallas outscored the Wolves 62-38 in points in the paint, leaving them open to take those 49 threes. Jaden McDaniels went 6-for-9 on threes while he defended NBA regular-season scoring champ Luka Doncic all night. Towns went 2-for-9 on threes and 6-for-20 overall, Edwards 5-for-12 and 6-for-16 overall. Mike Conley was 1-for-6 on threes, 2-for-7 overall.
The Mavs played their bigs farther down the floor than Phoenix and Denver did in their playoff series.
"We didn't really know what to expect," Edwards said. "I came off and I was open a bunch of times and took the shots. I'll make them next time. I have to live with it."
The Wolves finished the first half and the game poorly. They led by eight points with 32 seconds left in the first half, then gave up five points to Kyrie Irving. They led 102-101 with 3:14 left in the game, then scored only one more basket.
Doncic scored 15 of his 33 points, made two of his threes and shot 5-for-8 in the fourth quarter.
"He just started making shots," McDaniels said. "I was playing the same defense. He was just making them with my hands in his face."
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When the Wolves took a four-point lead with 3:37 left, Doncic stole and shot his team into scoring the next eight points.
"No composure," Finch said. "We haven't really closed quarters, closed halves very well the last handful of games. We've got to be better in clutch moments."
Finch took some sly swipes at the officiating, noting how Dallas stacked five players in the restricted area, "many of them in there illegally." He praised McDaniels' defense by saying, "He battled all night long, got through 1,000 screens, many of those illegal, too."
The Wolves now are 3-3 at home in the playoffs, losing consecutive games to Denver after they had won their first six playoff games. They followed series-clinching wins in Game 6 and 7 against the Nuggets with Wednesday's series-opening loss.
Game 2 is Friday at Target Center.
"We've had kind of similar performances coming off stints of success," Finch said. "There's a lot of ways immaturity rears its head, and this might be one of them. But they've got our attention now. I'm sure we'll come out and play better. It's hard to imagine that we're going to play much worse."
