'Sticky' Timberwolves offense looks to get unglued in Game 3

Some people can't stand the word moist.

The sound of it or even the writing of it on a page can produce a visceral reaction that crawls across someone's face and won't fade for at least a few minutes. It might be happening to you right now.

There's a word that's similar for the Timberwolves offense — sticky.

That's the term coach Chris Finch has used when the Wolves offense stagnates. The ball gets sticky. Players hold onto it too long. There's too much isolation and the Wolves aren't as efficient as a result.

Finch used that word a lot more earlier in the season as the Wolves were trying to find their offensive footing. He used it a lot less in the second half of the season, when the Wolves had the most efficient offense in the league from January onward.

But Finch trotted out "sticky" again following Tuesday's 124-96 blowout loss to Memphis in Game 2 on Tuesday night, a defeat that tied the first-round NBA playoff series at one.

"There was no ball movement. Really super sticky," Finch said. "... We haven't really done that for a long, long time. We'll look at it and I thought there were lots of passes out there to be made. I just thought we didn't see them or didn't want to see them."

Game 3 is Thursday night at Target Center.

One metric the Wolves like to look at to measure ball movement is team assists. In their 130-117 Game 1 victory, they assisted 32 of their 45 field goals. In Game 2, they assisted 16 of their 30 field goals.

"The game never really settled into a flow for us," Finch said.

Finch has often said the Wolves offense is rhythmic. It can lock into that rhythm, but sometimes it gets out of rhythm. It can take some time at the beginning of the season to get going, and that was the case of the Wolves.

Over the second half of the year, it hardly fell out of step like it did Tuesday night in a city famous for its rhythm.

"Every defense gives something up," forward Taurean Prince said. "So it's up to us to have enough IQ and be the pros we are to exploit that and continue to put ourselves in a good position."

When it comes down to it, the Wolves need their best players to play at their best. The Wolves won Game 1 when two of their top three had outstanding games. Karl-Anthony Towns had 29 points and 13 rebounds in Game 1. On Tuesday, the center battled his old nemesis foul trouble and had only 15 points on seven shot attempts.

Anthony Edwards came back to Earth after scoring 36 in the opener with 20 points and five turnovers in Game 2. A lot of the guard's damage came after the game was out of hand.

D'Angelo Russell has yet to shoot and score well in the series. Russell is only 5-for-22 from the field through the first two games for 21 combined points. The point guard did have nine assists in Game 1, but the Wolves miss and need his scoring. When they get it, like they did in their 109-104 play-in victory over the Clippers, the impact can take the Wolves to a higher level.

Russell said before Game 2 that the Grizzlies were doing a good job of denying him the ball after he scored 31 points per game in the regular season against them.

"I thought [Russell] had some good looks that he didn't let fly on the catch," Finch said after Game 2. "Just going to have to play off the catch a little bit more. Hey, they're going to get into you. They're going to make it uncomfortable, no matter whether they deny or get it and pressure you. We got to find a way to get him some easy looks."

Those can come within the flow of a well-oiled offense. Not an offense that stands around long enough to become sticky.