Timberwolves 141, Wizards 115
Q. How do you put tonight's performance within the context of the improved play over the prior five games? Do you view it as an anomaly or a more experienced team?
BRIAN KEEFE: We've been playing well here probably for the last 12 games. Played a good stretch of basketball here. We didn't play the way we've been playing here in that stretch at all.
It started from the beginning of the game. They were too comfortable with what they were doing offensively. I think they were 8 for 12 to start the game. We didn't have the necessary resistance and force that we've been having, so our standard dropped.
Tonight wasn't acceptable. We didn't like what we did, and we could never find our way quite out of it. Give them credit, they made some shots, but we're more focused on the stuff that we can control, and we didn't do enough to force them to miss or do enough physicality to keep them off the offensive boards.
Q. With that being said, how do you now move forward knowing the stretch of games you have coming up are against opponents who are looking at playoffs, knowing that there isn't going to be a dropoff of what's coming at this team? What's our solution to this? How do you have that conversation with them?
BRIAN KEEFE: Get back to what we've been doing, how we've been playing. We've set an example of how we've played lately. Let's get back to that. Look at ourselves in the mirror and say we weren't good enough tonight and let's get back to competing the way we know that we're capable of and then stringing those possessions. Consistent, that's always the next thing for us, and that's the next challenge we have coming up with practice tomorrow, looking and reviewing and learning from this and then getting ready to play for the next game.
Q. The deficit in points in the paint and second-chance points, what is the degree of difficulty in keeping those guys out of that painted area?
BRIAN KEEFE: We've actually done a pretty good job of that lately, keeping people away from the rim. We defend the rim at actually one of the top five levels of the NBA for the whole year. We just didn't have that resistance that we've been showing, and give them credit, they took it to us in that area. But that's not what we're capable of.
Q. Another game with 19 turnovers, and I think 37 in the past seven quarters. Where does that rank in terms of what you want to fix?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think we tried to rush getting back in the game, instead of just trying to make the simple right play. You're not going to get back in a game like that by a home run. When we're good, we have good ball movement, touch the paint and just hit the open man. I think we were trying to play in crowds and getting rushed trying to get ourselves back on one possession. When we operate the way we have, except for the last two games with the turnovers, we can score pretty well but when you try to make a little bit of playing in crowds, trying to force it, that can made the lead go higher, and that's what happened tonight.
Q. Rudy Gobert has such a big impact on the game and was a big reason why Alex didn't have as good of a game as he's had recently. What do you think Alex can learn from games like this where he goes up against a player like Gobert?
BRIAN KEEFE: That's the great thing about this league. There's great challenges every night, not just -- obviously Gobert is a great player.
Alex is going to see the best of the best every night. That's the beauty of this league is the competition part of this. A lot to learn from this. I know Alex well. Alex has had a terrific year this year. I know he'll bounce back and learn.
But he'll look at some of these lessons and use those going forward, and he's done a really good job of that this year.
Q. I know Marvin picked up four fouls pretty early on there. Out of curiosity, were Alex's minutes being restricted or monitored at all?
BRIAN KEEFE: No, he was fine tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports