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Minnesota Timberwolves need to stop playing down to the level of their opponents

By Collin Kottke

LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 06: Tom Thibodeau of the Minnesota Timberwolves laughs on the sidelines during the first half against the LA Clippers at Staples Center on December 6, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 06: Tom Thibodeau of the Minnesota Timberwolves laughs on the sidelines during the first half against the LA Clippers at Staples Center on December 6, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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The Minnesota Timberwolves are a good team that seemingly keeps playing to the level of their opponent.

Sometimes you don’t remember that is possible to be frustrated about a very good Minnesota Timberwolves team. That is what Wolves fans are currently fighting, though. This team has a lot of talent, more than a lot of NBA teams, but the Wolves continually seem to play down to the level of their opponent.

It happened again on Sunday night at Target Center. The Dallas Mavericks are not a good team, but the Timberwolves again had to play hard until the final buzzer to defeat a very mediocre team. The Mavericks are 7-20 overall this season and only 2-10 away from Dallas, but the Timberwolves could only manage to beat Mark Cuban’s team by five on Sunday.

The Timberwolves have a minimum of three different players that should be able to absolutely fill up the scoring column on any night that they wish. Between Karl-Anthony Towns, Jimmy Butler and Andrew Wiggins, the Wolves have stud players that should be able to shove buckets down the throats of opponents, but that never seems to be the case. It always seems like the Timberwolves are fighting to the last minute against much lesser opponents.

It is easier said than done, of course, but it’d be nice to see every once in a while that a member of the Wolves just puts the pedal down and makes a game out of reach for the opponent by about halftime. For as good of a team the Timberwolves could be this season, it hasn’t happened.

The Wovles didn’t allow any Mavericks player to go totally crazy on Sunday night. Harrison Barnes was the high scorer for Dallas with 19 points along with Maximillian Kleber and J.J. Barea whom both had 16 points. That makes it even more frustrating, though. No great offensive performance from the Mavericks and it was still a struggle for the Timberwolves.

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The Wolves were in a tough situation with only three players appearing off the bench, but that’s also to the point of the core eight players never giving head coach Tom Thibodeau enough of a lead to put in the end of the bench. With as good as the Timberwolves are, Cole Aldrich should be appearing in every other game or so. Aldrich has only appeared in five of the Timberwolves 27 games.

It is easier said than done to dominate an opponent, but it’d be nice to see that from the Timberwolves on a semi-consistent basis. Cole Aldrich needs to be freed from the end of the bench and only his teammates can free him. The core players are Mario and Aldrich is Princess Peach.

To keep the video game analogies going, these regular season games are the early levels and the Timberwolves are wasting lives with stupid mistakes early on. The Timberwolves need to find a killer mentality before they struggle with the boss mode in the playoffs.

Next: Power hitting options for the Twins!

The Minnesota Timberwolves now look ahead to the second game of their five-game home stand. The Philadelphia 76ers roll into town on Tuesday with an 8:30 Central scheduled tip.

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