Shocking stats show Timberwolves’ clutch season-saving turnaround

After a disheartening loss in Game 1 against the Golden State Warriors, the Minnesota Timberwolves have responded like an experienced playoff team would. Chris Finch and company didn’t play around with their food in Game 2, blowing out the Stephen Curry-less Warriors before coming back to San Francisco and stealing Game 3 102-97.

Game 3 was a very close rock fight throughout Saturday evening, with both teams going back and forth and struggling to find consistent offense throughout the game. However, the Timberwolves came up with some of their best stuff late in the game to pull out the win.

Late-game execution, especially on the offensive end, was one of the biggest questions about this Minnesota team coming into the playoffs. They struggled mightily in close games during the regular season, but have completely turned that around in the postseason. Minnesota is executing better on both ends and it is showing up in the numbers.

After sporting a 20-26 record in crunch time contests during the season, Minnesota has won all four of its clutch games in the playoffs, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. The Wolves’ net rating in those crunch time minutes across four games is an astonishing plus-82.4, a far cry from the negative-8.4 mark in the regular season that ranked 23rd in the NBA.

Anthony Edwards has been stellar down the stretch of games and Julius Randle and Jaden McDaniels have stepped up in a big way. Rudy Gobert has even had his moments on offense, like in Game 5 against the Los Angeles Lakers, to go with his usual defensive prowess. On top of that, role players such as Mike Conley have continued to knock down big shots when the Wolves need them to.

On the other side, the Warriors really struggled to score in crunch time in Game 3 without Curry on the floor. While Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kuminga both played great, neither were able to create enough offense on their own when the game slowed down to help the Warriors close it out.

The Timberwolves will now be beaming with confidence after Game 3. With the way that they have been closing out games, they will feel that they have a chance to win any game that is tight down the stretch.