The Wolves tested the three-pivot experiment

At a press conferencea journalist says to him: “ You weren’t kidding when you said you could get all three of them to play together. » « How so ? », retorts one Chris Finch initially intrigued, before understanding that we are talking about Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid.

“ Did the three of them play together? », pretends to ask the Wolves coach, causing laughter in the press room. Yes, the three pivots were aligned together last night against Jazz. It was a short sequence of about a minute at the end of the first period.

The Wolves’ “very tall ball”

“KAT” and Naz Reid were already in play when Chris Finch decided to replace Kyle Anderson with Rudy Gobert, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker with Mike Conley, with Anthony Edwards rounding out the five. The Frenchman was responsible for defending John Collins, Karl-Anthony Towns from Kelly Olynyk and finally Naz Reid from Lauri Markkanen.

“ I knew something was up, but I didn’t know what. I’m happy we managed to do it, it shows the versatility of this team “, appreciates Karl-Anthony Towns who, in this sequence, offered himself a dunk on the counter-attack after intercepting a ball in front of Kelly Olynyk. The interior, whose team signed a 4-0 on the sequence, considers that this kind of five could be “ useful » to Wolves in the future.

His coach also makes no secret of the fact that the experience should be repeated. This choice is, according to the technician, very much linked to “ Naz’s ability to defend on the periphery which has been taken to another level. We trust these guys, if we feel that there are advantageous duels that allow us to do it, we will do it. »

Naz Reid’s progress on defense

Defend on players smaller than him? Naz Reid is starting to know how to do it. “ It comes with confidence and repeat, repeat, defend on Jaden (McDaniels) or ‘Ant’ in training, and being confident in my role », assures the replacement who, like his two acolytes, had not really paid attention to this five lined up.

Such an association is also possible by the ability of the Towns – Reid pair to punish from afar. This night, on the few possessions where they were aligned, the two men played on the outskirts. Where Naz Reid shone with his 16 points (5/9 on shots including 3/5 from distance), to the point of hearing “MVP!” » from the local public while passing on the line. “ It was crazy. When they have sang, I was like, ‘Oh, I have to make these free throws.’ »

Overall, the Wolves’ racket dominated that of the Jazz and Minnesota signed its fourth game out of five without conceding more than 100 points. Right now, this is the best defense in the league and that’s a good sign for Chris Finch.

“ I don’t think we found an identity last year, it never happened. We’ve done a lot of good things, we’ve reinvented ourselves many times along the way. But when this season resumed, we knew, with our starting five, that the key had to be defense and playing big. If we want to play big, we have to do what big teams do. And they have to be physical and they have to defend », finishes the technician.