There are several confirmed sightings of Tom Thibodeau actually seated on the Minnesota Timberwolves bench during a game. As in he didn’t spend all 48 minutes on his feet barking out instructions, calling out defensive sets and working the referees non-stop.
“I’ve noticed that,” Ron Adams, the Golden State Warriors assistant coach, says with a laugh. “But Tom is still Tom.”
For better or worse, Tom certainly is still Tom. The embattled head coach was as fiery and intense as ever during Minnesota’s 102-95 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday. How intense? Thibodeau argued his way into a technical foul with 24.5 seconds remaining and his team leading by eight.
He wasn’t sitting in the second half. Not with the Timberwolves, now 6-2 since the Jimmy Butler trade, trying to play their way back to .500 and become a playoff team for the second straight season.
The stakes are even greater for the head coach. Thibodeau, who ended the...