The Timberwolves can do something they have not done in half a decade on Tuesday: win their first three games of the season. Minnesota heads into its matchup with Toronto unbeaten, with a chance to keep an early run alive against another undefeated team that has also looked sharp through the opening stretch.
For Chris Finch, the game is more than a tidy milestone. In his first full season as Minnesota’s coach, he already pushed the team through the play-in and into a six-game series against the number two seeded Memphis Grizzlies, and the Wolves have since had their best stretch of basketball of their existence even while searching for a stable identity through multiple versions of the roster. This one offers a quick read on where they stand now: a 3-0 start would give them their first such opening in years and add weight to a start built on pace, pressure and rebounding.
The numbers behind both teams make the matchup easy to see and harder to separate. Minnesota and Toronto are both rebounding well, both are limiting opponents to just under 100 points per game, both are averaging north of 120 points a game, and both are generating the same amount of turnovers. The Wolves are forcing mistakes less with steals than with steady pressure that wears on possessions, while their early wins came against the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic. Toronto’s victories have come against the Chicago Bulls and the Washington Wizards, a lighter opening slate that matters when two unbeaten teams are being measured side by side.
That is where the game sharpens. Toronto reunited with Kawhi Leonard in the off-season after a drawn out process, and Minnesota knows what that can look like in a direct matchup: last season, Leonard scored over 40 points in each of the two games against the Wolves. He has yet to play over 28 minutes in a game this season, though, and Toronto has not exactly been a perimeter threat, making 11 of 70 three-point attempts for 15.7 percent. The Raptors have leaned on midrange scoring and finishes at the rim instead, which puts the burden on Minnesota’s interior defense and gang rebounding after missed shots.
That should keep Rudy Gobert busy against Jakob P, and it also leaves the game to be decided by whether Minnesota’s pressure and second-chance work can hold up when Toronto gets the ball into its preferred areas. If the Wolves control the glass and keep Leonard from dictating the night, the 3-0 start is there for the taking.
