Timberwolves ugly first quarter leads to loss to Golden State – Twin Cities

On By Littum

The Timberwolves have had some ugly losses this season. For a variety of reasons, Wednesday’s 116-115 loss at the hands of the Warriors might be near the top of the list.

Golden State was without four of its rotation players in Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski and Kyle Anderson and also on the final leg of a four-game road trip. The Warriors season is quickly running out of steam.

But Minnesota’s start in the nationally televised game was so poor that the Warriors had no choice but to take the massive early lead and run with it.

The Timberwolves delivered perhaps their worst quarter of the season – which is saying something – out of the gates on Wednesday. By tradition, Target Center fans are not seated until the home team scores the first points of the contest. They were left on their feet for the first four and a half minutes of the game as the team dug into a 13-0 deficit.

Minnesota trailed 34-12 after the first 12 minutes.

“The game was lost in the first quarter,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “That’s the obvious statement.”

Donte DiVincenzo noted that the Warriors (20-20) — who entered the night as losers of four of their previous five games — “came out with energy.”

“They came out the way we should have come out. There are no excuses. I just think we have to be better at starting the game,” he said. “We start the game differently, this is a different story.”

It is a common theme for this year’s Wolves. If they just didn’t turn it over, if they just grabbed a few extra defensive rebounds, if they just didn’t have that one bad quarter, everything would be dandy. But the “if onlys” pile up and doom Minnesota (21-19) to mediocrity. During the back half of the season, Rudy Gobert — who was a major culprit in Wednesday’s defensive rebounding woes — hopes the Wolves can be more consistent.

“Not being a team that plays with the right mindset of waves, but trying to be consistent with our mindset and our focus and our physicality,” he said. “If we do that, I think the game will take care of itself. We have improved offensively. I think our chemistry gets better, our IQ gets better when we try to play for each other. Just our mindset, consistency, being focused on defense, being focused on not having those stretches when we’re a completely different team because of our lack of focus, or a lack of whatever it is — physicality or competitive mindset. Reduce these lapses. And when we do, we are really good.”

To the Wolves’ credit, they battled back from there and were within striking distance throughout the second half. The third quarter was a pollution exhibition, with Minnesota attempting 20 free throws in the frame and Golden State taking 10. A hot start in the final frame pulled Minnesota to within six early in the quarter. And the Wolves drew even in the final minutes.

But despite Minnesota’s best efforts to keep him from doing so, Steph Curry found several different ways to get good looks in the fourth and cashed in on the majority of them.

On the other end, Minnesota struggled to create good looks when it needed them most.

Still, the Wolves had a chance in the final 10 seconds. Golden State led by two when Gary Payton II missed his second free throw. But Golden State grabbed its 14th offensive rebound of the night from the miss, the Warriors got the ball to Curry, who buried both free throws to put Golden State up four and give the star guard 31 points on the night.

Anthony Edwards came down the floor and buried a triple with just one second to play, but it was largely a blur. The clock expired on the subsequent innings.

“We got a chance to get back in the game,” Gobert said, “but we can’t allow ourselves to put ourselves in that position.”

The Warriors are now 8-16 in their last 24 games. Three of those wins have come against the Wolves. And now Minnesota has a loss in its toughest five-game stretch of the season, which starts with a back-to-back with a game in New York against the Knicks on Friday and a home game with Cleveland on Saturday.

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