SALT LAKE CITY – Now six games from season's finish, Timberwolves interim head coach Sam Mitchell is handing out some summer homework once his team plays its last game April 13 against New Orleans at Target Center:
Go watch some playoff games.
"I'm encouraging guys to get on a plane and go watch some of these teams in the playoffs," Mitchell said. "Don't go sit in the V.I.P. section. Don't sit in a suite. Sit in the stands. Feel the energy in the arena. Feel the intensity. Look at the players and how focused and intense they are, how hard they're playing, how now every basket is important. It's one thing to be in there in the arena and get that feel. It's a whole other experience."
Young stars Zach LaVine and Karl-Anthony Towns each attended a Clippers playoff game in Los Angeles last spring. LaVine said he'll "definitely" attend at least one this year, but hasn't decided where or when yet.
"It's a different atmosphere, man," LaVine said. "Big, big-time intensity. You can just tell how much it changes."
Towns attended a Clippers-Houston playoff game and said: "I know how that atmosphere is. Obviously we all want to play in that atmosphere."
Apparently, though, it doesn't compare to the NCAA tournament and a Final Four.
"Those are different beasts," Towns said. "No matter what I say, I think the pressure that comes with the NCAA tournament, for Kentucky especially, and being undefeated, is a lot for a lot of people to handle."
