{"id":131763,"date":"2025-03-30T22:20:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T02:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=131763"},"modified":"2025-03-30T22:20:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T02:20:12","slug":"timberwolves-rudy-gobert-playoff-opponents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/30\/timberwolves-rudy-gobert-playoff-opponents\/","title":{"rendered":"Rudy Gobert Designates Timberwolves’ Primary Enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0<\/span>Minnesota Timberwolves<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are looking to go on another deep playoff run reminiscent of last year. Only this time around, it’s a little different, considering the absence of\u00a0<\/span>Karl-Anthony Towns<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0whom Minnesota jettisoned in the offseason in return for\u00a0<\/span>Julius Randle<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Donte DiVincenzo<\/span><\/a>. If it wasn’t true last year, it’s certainly true now: Minnesota belongs to\u00a0<\/span>Anthony Edwards<\/span><\/a>, it’s solely his team. It hasn’t turned out to be an easy path without Towns, and that may have played a part in what Timberwolves center\u00a0<\/span>Rudy Gobert<\/span><\/a>\u00a0meant when he recently spoke about his team’s season struggles and the forthcoming postseason. In Minnesota’s season-long struggle to build continuity and chemistry between old players and new ones, old habits kicked in, and habits that Gobert recognizes as ones to avoid and, if need be, to overcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rudy Gobert Designates Timberwolves’ Primary Enemy<\/h2>\n

Minnesota Timberwolves Center Rudy Gobert Stands His Team In Front of the Mirror<\/h3>\n

The Timberwolves capped off a scrappy, intensely heated contest with the\u00a0<\/span>Detroit Pistons<\/span><\/a>\u00a0just minutes ago. It was a wild game that saw fiery emotions and multiple ejections. It also saw the Timberwolves crush the Pistons to the tune of a 19-point victory, 123-104. The win was important as it kept the Timberwolves ahead of the eight-seeded Los Angeles Clippers in the standings and on the backs of the\u00a0<\/span>Golden State Warriors<\/span><\/a>, the sixth seed. Beating Detroit makes Minnesota 7-3 in their last 10 games. It’s all part of a continued turnaround in the previous two months, which has seen the Timberwolves pick up their game significantly.<\/span><\/p>\n

That said,<\/span> the Timberwolves have a knack for bad habits, as has been evident throughout the season and in recent years.<\/span>Some of those bad habits mess with the brain, and Gobert alluded to that when\u00a0<\/span>speaking with Jon Krawczynski of\u00a0<\/span><\/a>The Athletic<\/span><\/a><\/em> recently<\/span><\/a>. Gobert looks around the league and sees one true opponent facing the Timberwolves’ postseason aspirations, and it’s not one of the 29 other teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are our biggest opponent,\u201d<\/em> Gobert said. \u201cWe get a little complacent. When people start saying we\u2019re good and when the odds are with us, that\u2019s when we\u2019re not as a good…We\u2019ve been through it for the last few years, so by now we know that it\u2019s just about us, our approach.\u00a0It doesn\u2019t just start at the tipoff of the game. It starts right now, how we recover, the work that we put in tomorrow. We all know the things we need to do to be at our best and try to be consistent.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Projected Playoff Trajectory<\/h3>\n

It’s hard to imagine the Timberwolves going as far this year as they did last. In their current place, the play-in, provided they make it out, they would be playing either the Oklahoma City Thunder or another formidable, top opponent. Seeds two through five can change several times over the next couple of weeks, so it’s hard to determine who will line up behind OKC and in what order. Regardless, Minnesota’s path after the play-in is no sandy beach stroll. And considering they are without KAT these days, it’s even tougher.<\/p>\n

When Gobert says that to beat any opponent they face, they must first beat themselves, there’s great value to that. Complacency leads to inconsistency, and that can derail any team. For the Timberwolves, who have taken a step backward this season, complacency is not an option they can afford to play around with. As it is Antman’s team, it all starts and ends with him\u2014Minnesota’s leader and example.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Brad Rempel-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Minnesota Timberwolves\u00a0are looking to go on another deep playoff run reminiscent of last year. Only this time around, it’s a little different, considering the absence of\u00a0Karl-Anthony Towns,\u00a0whom Minnesota jettisoned in the offseason in return for\u00a0Julius Randle\u00a0and\u00a0Donte DiVincenzo. If it wasn’t true last year, it’s certainly true now: Minnesota belongs to\u00a0Anthony Edwards, it’s solely his team. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":131764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1608,62],"tags":[2109,1553,510,213,394],"class_list":["post-131763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-timberwolves","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-donte-divincenzo","tag-julius-randle","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-rudy-gobert"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131763"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131772,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131763\/revisions\/131772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}