If the preseason showed us anything, it is that, without Love and Rubio, Minnesota craves rhythm and flow at both ends of the floor if it is going to compete. Halting, tentative play had unleashed a rash of turnovers and produced shoddy perimeter defense in Toronto, and now poor spacing on offense and more shoddy perimeter defense was betraying them in Brooklyn.

Then the Nets got overconfident, the Wolves kept grinding, and coach Rick Adelman finally found players who could spread the floor and snap passes to each other on offense, and cluster and rotate in a rhythm born of universal trust and effort on defense.

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