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Of all the startling things that occurred Thursday night in conjunction with the Wolves blowing a 25-point lead late in the third quarter and losing 104-95 to Memphis, one that continued to stick with me through the weekend was the Wolves' composure postgame.
While there was certainly disappointment, much of what was said was decidedly ... upbeat. It's a game of runs, Patrick Beverley said, and Memphis just happened to make the last one. Shots were missed, little things escalated, but it would be OK was the overall message from head coach Chris Finch. They will learn from this, everyone insisted.
Did they not feel all of the life draining out of Target Center? Were they not tracking every empty possession? Could they not see social media roasting them?
No, they weren't and couldn't. They were actually playing the game.
And then Saturday, while many of us projected that their confidence would remain shattered in a million pieces and Memphis wound run the Wolves out of Target Center on the way to a swift five-game series win, the Wolves instead did exactly what they set out to do and earned a 119-118 win to tie the series at 2-2.
It was in the aftermath of that game that I had an epiphany about the difference between how we watch games and how players play in them, which Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday's Daily Delivery podcast.
Fans and media observers construct narratives. We recognize trends because we are detached from the action and often have statistical evidence nearby. We can't fathom how someone's confidence could survive the sort of game we saw Thursday.
But athletes? Well, let's just say that maybe someone who has been chosen No. 1 overall in the NBA Draft like Karl-Anthony Towns or Anthony Edwards might have more confidence than the average citizen.
They always believe the next shot is going to go in. And they always believe they can win the next game, no matter what just happened. That's how you need to be wired in order to compete at the highest level: to truly live by the golden cliche, "taking them one game at a time."
That's not to say players don't let emotions get the best of them. The Wolves look to have been guilty of that at times this season. But what we think of as resilience is, for a lot of athletes, just their nature.
And Game 5 Tuesday in Memphis is really just another blank slate, just like Game 4 was.
