Timberwolves coach Chris Finch was named Western Conference Coach of the Month on Monday which, as he noted, was a nod to the team’s accomplishments and a credit to the work everyone in the organization has put in to this point in the season.

Finch was a shoo-in for the award. Minnesota enters Wednesday’s home game against San Antonio with the best record in the NBA (15-4). The Timberwolves come to play on a nightly basis, and currently have the look of one of the league’s top dogs. Minnesota is presently at or near the top of a number of national NBA power rankings.

That’s a great designation for a team to carry at any point in the season, but it comes at a cost.

Karl-Anthony Towns went to Mike Conley at Monday’s practice and noted how tired he was.

“I’m like, ‘Well, you know, it’s really hard to win in this league.’ Because when you win a lot in this league, your effort is just so much more. It’s almost like you’re playing playoff-level basketball in December or November, and other teams aren’t trying to do that yet. They’re trying to coast through it,” Conley said. “You’ve got to be able to consistently do that and build and not break down while doing it, so it’s hard to sustain winning, and our challenge now is to try to be consistent. Taking our practice days, taking them serious and using them as opportunities to try to get better and just try to keep this thing rolling.”

The question is: What’s the value in that? The NBA used to be a world in which the true title contenders revealed themselves early in the season and everyone else was just along for the ride. That no longer is the case.

Boston was 18-21 through its first 39 games of the 2021-22 season, and went on a scorching run to the NBA Finals. The Lakers started last season 2-10 before rallying to make the playoffs as the No. 7 seed and reach the Western Conference Finals. Miami was 12-15 last season, only to eventually reach the NBA Finals as a No. 8 seed in the East.

The seventh-seeded Lakers beat the second-seeded Grizzlies in the first round in the West playoffs last season. The sixth-seeded Warriors beat the third-seeded Kings. The eighth-seeded Timberwolves gave the top-seeded Nuggets possibly their stiffest test during their run to the title.

Seeds have never seemed to matter less in what quickly has become a wide-open NBA.

“It doesn’t feel like we’re in a dynastic era in the game, but consistency is certainly going to help everybody,” Finch said. “I think that’s literally what Denver thrived on last year, I think we saw how consistently they played at such a high level. Many other teams in the league, it felt like they had lulls or dips or injuries or things that derailed them. I think that’s certainly the key. But the league feels more wide open than it ever has before.”

Even Denver, while dominant for the first three-quarters of the regular season, experienced quite a lull. The Nuggets went 7-10 over their final 17 regular-season games, only to then blow through the playoffs. Denver had the world’s best player, and also seemed to out-health everyone else.

“Obviously health factors into it,” Finch said, “but consistency can drive greatness right now with everything being so open.”

Particularly for the Timberwolves. Other teams have earned their stripes and are maybe more likely to be able to flip the proverbial switch when the time comes after the all-star break or even the moment the postseason begins. The Timberwolves aren’t there yet.

Still a number of the team’s primary core pieces have no idea what is required to compete for championships, because they haven’t done so, or come even close to that level. They’re still learning. Certainly, one way to learn is through playoff experiences. But you can also do so in the regular season.

If, as Conley suggested, Minnesota is playing at a playoff-level of basketball in December, and keeps that up throughout the course of the season, the Wolves will be better equipped to make a legitimate run come April and May. Because they’ll have achieved and maintained those types of standards and habits.

“Boom. There you go,” Wolves forward Kyle Anderson said. “That’s a great way to put it.”

Minnesota, for instance, had a couple of bad habits of poor late-game offense and an inability to keep opponents off the offensive glass during its otherwise successful 2021-22 season. And, sure enough, those two deficiencies spelled the team’s demise in a first-round playoff loss to Memphis. The more bad habits you can root out during the regular season, the fewer weaknesses opponents can exploit in the playoffs.

That’s the consistency piece Finch discussed. He continues to push his team to achieve bigger and better things. He’s already mindful of any slippage Minnesota may show in its transition defense.

It’s why even amid the success, Conley said the coach hasn’t changed a bit. He’ll still walk into a film session the day after a dominant performance with 20 clips of things the Wolves did wrong.

“He’s keeping us humble, keeping us locked in and focused on each day,” Conley said.

“There’s always lots to work on,” Finch said. “You’ve got to be happy with where you are, but not satisfied, for sure.”

The Timberwolves seem to have deemed this approach — outworking and outwanting the other 29 teams from Day 1 of the season — as a potential advantage come the season’s paramount moments. And on a team striving for the highest levels of success this season, it will push itself to any lengths necessary for an edge.

“I think for us, from Day 1, we’ve been a team where if you get 10 reps, do all 10. If you’ve got 10 line touches, do all 10. If you’ve got 10 free throws, make all 10. Whatever we’ve got to do, finish our reps, just complete everything we do,” Conley said. “And that builds that consistency, it builds that callus up to where, ‘Hey, we’ve been through this. We can do this,’ kind of thing. And we’ve done a good job so far. Nobody is looking up at the standings thinking how happy we are that we’re here. We’re just a team that’s locked in, staying in the mud and working every day.”

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