It hasn’t been a great week so far for the Minnesota Timberwolves or the Charlotte Hornets.
So while there have been glitches, there are enough slivers of hope shining through for both teams in advance of Saturday night’s meeting in Charlotte.
The Hornets have lost their past two games, thanks to some rough defensive performances. A second-half rally was nixed in Thursday night’s 123-107 loss to visiting Orlando.
“The reality is the NBA is a collection of the best 450 players in the world, and guys are good,” Hornets rookie Sion James said. “It’s just the reality. But the other reality is that when we’re connected on defense, we can get stops, and then we can run offense.”
Hornets guard LaMelo Ball had what coach Charles Lee referred to as his worst game of the season in the latest loss, though that also included 13 assists and was far from a disastrous night with 17 points.
“Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in,” Lee said. “Are there things he can improve upon? Absolutely. But truly, through the first five games of the year, I have no complaints about that dude right now.”
Ball is averaging 24.4 points, 10.2 assists and 8.0 rebounds per game.
The Timberwolves haven’t played since Wednesday’s 116-115 home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, an outcome that came two days following a setback to Denver.
Two of Minnesota’s three losses have come to the Lakers. The Timberwolves, who are beginning a three-game road trip, have played three games decided by four or fewer points.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said the team needs to limit some of the disjointed stretches in games.
“We were just a little bit short on a lot of our closeouts,” Finch said of the defense. “We just have got to have more resistance in everything that we do right now.”
The Timberwolves will work on providing more pressure on the perimeter because opponents have seen too many open looks beyond the 3-point arc. Guard Mike Conley has provided full-court pressing defense.
“He’s the ultimate competitor,” Finch said. “He’s scrappy, gets up under people. We need more of that.”
Minnesota remains without three-time All-Star Anthony Edwards, who averaged 36 points across the season’s first two games before suffering a hamstring injury Sunday. Julius Randle has picked up some of the scoring for the Timberwolves.
“A great catalyst for our overall offense,” Finch said of Randle, who is averaging 26.6 per game.
The Timberwolves could use a bigger boost from Donte DiVincenzo, who’s averaging 12.6 points per game. He took seven shots in the latest matchup with the Lakers.
“Seven shots is not nearly enough,” Finch said, though the guard is averaging 8.8 field-goal attempts per game.
For the Hornets, they’d like to see guard Tre Mann return to form. He’ll have more chances after producing nine points in 16 minutes off the bench Thursday.
“My confidence will never waver, with him or anybody else,” Lee said. “He missed some time, and a new style of play takes a little bit of time, but I have full confidence in Tre.”
Meanwhile, Charlotte rookie center Ryan Kalkbrenner posted a season-high 17 points vs. Orlando.
“Anytime we don’t walk away with the win, I can’t say I did a good enough job,” Kalkbrenner said.