The Minnesota Timberwolves have risen once again, and they are hungry. For the first time in franchise history, the Wolves took a 2-0 lead in a back-to-back playoff series. The Denver Nuggets suffocated in their very own Ball Arena. Anthony Edwards and Co. logged their jaws into the defending champions. They blew out Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets in Game 2.

Only hours before the contest, the Wolves found out Rudy Gobert would be unable to make the game. He missed attending the birth of his daughter, and weather conditions prevented him from flying to Denver. They had lost their primary Jokic defender, a tempting advantage for the champions.

Even then, the pack mauled the Nuggets worse than the first time. In Game 2, the Timberwolves beat Denver by 26 points. The Joker was held to just 16 by the duo of Towns and Naz Reid. It was the embodiment of team effort and an outright desire to win the basketball game.

Yet even after blowing out a major threat to the championship, Draymond Green felt Minnesota played lousy basketball and needed to improve their mentality in the playoffs.

Draymond Green gives playoff lesson to Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves

Green immediately noticed the hunger the Timberwolves were experiencing during this run. Speaking of Game 2, the Warriors forward heavily complimented Minnesota’s defense for stepping up and completely draining the Nuggets of any hope. Nikola Jokic looked defeated, a rare sight since his MVP ascension.

They beat them by 26. Yet, Draymond Green wasn’t satisfied with the way the Wolves played. In his opinion, Edwards and his crew should have “annihilated” the Nuggets on that day. He blamed their mentalities for not being able to beat the champions by 40 points.

“When you’re in the playoff series and this is when we talk about the know-how. We spoke about the know-how. This is the know-how. When you’re in the playoff series and you got a team down like that, especially defending champions, you step on their necks”, Green expressed. The four-time champion didn’t mean to say the Wolves didn’t play well. Rather, he spoke about the small mistakes teams start making once they get complacent.

“Minnesota start turning the ball over there for a while. Start getting a little fancy, a little careless with the basketball with the shot selection. And Denver starts to make a run,” he said. Currently, the Wolves have a foot in the WCF. But as the competition moves ahead, it’s crucial to never approach a game casually.

The uncharacteristic and minuscule mistakes are the ones that eventually go unnoticed and turn the tables. Hence, the Timberwolves need to improve their sharpness in that regard. However, even being young hasn’t stopped them from acting like mature and purpose-driven stars. Anthony Edwards and Co are on to something special and it is just the beginning.