Kyle Anderson didn’t want to say he was “surprised,” but that is kind of what he inferred. Anderson was a member of the Grizzlies when Memphis visited Target Center for three playoff games during the 2022 Western Conference first round.
Those crowds — with their intensity and deafening volumes — made an imprint in the forward’s memory.
“Just off experience of playing against Minnesota last year and playing in the Target Center, I knew it was rowdy, and the fans have been great all year,” said Anderson, who is now a key player for the Wolves.
Those types of atmospheres are what Anderson said make the playoffs great. He said Denver’s faithful in Games 1 and 2 were “hostile.”
“They were talking smack to us. You got to love that stuff,” he said. “If you don’t, the playoffs is going to intimidate you or it won’t be a good place for you. I like playing on the road and doing your thing on another team’s home floor.”
And he was glad the Nuggets had to endure similar conditions in Minnesota for Games 3 and 4, and potentially beyond.
“I’m expecting it to be a tough place for them to play,” Anderson said. “It should be hostile.”
That may not have been Target Center’s reputation for years. The arena hasn’t necessarily been rocking often over the past two decades, not that there was ever much to cheer for. But that seems to have changed over the last two seasons.
Wolves guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker recalls watching Minnesota’s play-in game against the Clippers last season on television, and then the Wolves’ ensuing home games against the Grizzlies. He remembered how evident the crowd was in those games, even through his screen.
He got a taste of the environment first person when Minnesota matched up with Oklahoma City in last week’s play-in game. The support extended beyond the game. Alexander-Walker said fans stayed around the building in excess of 90 minutes after the game’s conclusion.
“So that love that you get is exciting,” he said. “And to be able to be on the road, go against trash talk, to come home to some love is huge.”
Anderson said Target Center is in the “top three” of the many playoff atmospheres he’s experienced, and he’s pleased to be on the crowd’s good side this time around.
“That’s what you want to play the game for. Those moments when you’re a kid in the driveway, on the Fisher-Price net, you got that imaginary crowd, you gettin’ hyped, that’s what you live for — those moments,” Alexander-Walker said. “And for it to come to light, to experience that, to be a part of that, it’s fun.”
Jokic’s theory
Karl-Anthony Towns struggled through the first two games of this Western Conference first-round series ahead of Friday’s Game 3. The general thought is those performances are a continuation of Towns’ general postseason struggles.
But Denver star center Nikola Jokic had a different thought. He recalled Nuggets guard Jamal Murray’s return to the court this season after suffering a torn ACL at the end of the 2021 season.
The point guard, Jokic noted, was good directly out of the gates, then struggled for a period of time in November. Jokic hypothesized those struggles could be a stage Towns — who shined in various games after returning from the calf injury that sidelined him for four months — is currently working through.
Anybody else?
At halftime of Minnesota’s Game 2 loss in Denver, TNT analyst Charles Barkley listed the players he liked on the Timberwolves’ roster.
Mike Conley — “who’s 102 years old,” Barkley said — and Anthony Edwards.
Kenny Smith then asked if there was no one else.
“I stopped, didn’t I?” Barkley responded.
