Wolves lose twelfth straight as Nuggets roll, 110-101

Twelve. Losses. In. A. Row.

With an embarrassing home loss to the mediocre Denver Nuggets on Monday night and the Philadelphia 76ers one-point win over the LeBron James and Kyrie Irving-less Cleveland Cavaliers, the Wolves are tied with the one-time punchline Sixers for the lowest win total in the NBA. And five wins nearly a week into January is nothing to write home about, to say the least.

The Wolves’ injury issues have expanded to include sickness, as well as coaches. It’s beginning to feel a lot like the 2012-13 season, only with worse players and coaches. Flip Saunders, Chase Budinger, and Robbie Hummel were all kept home with illness while former Toronto Raptors head coach (and Coach of the Year!) Sam Mitchell ran the show.

Mitchell reinserted Mo Williams back to the starting lineup while friendly play-by-play man Dave Benz assured the loyal fans that it had nothing to do with Zach LaVine‘s performance of late. Of course, Dave. Because teams usually change the lineup when things are going well.

After jumping out to a 7-0 lead to open the festivities, the Wolves struggled for pretty much the rest of the way. Things got ugly quickly, and the team only seemed to be playing hard after they were already down by 15+ points. The effort was commendable at that point, but it was far too late to make a difference.

After trailing by as many as 24 points in the first half before a late Williams three-pointer cut the deficit to 21 at the break, the Wolves actually got within 13 points just before the midway point of the third quarter before suddenly falling apart once again. It was the Wolves’ starters that got the team back into the game, but a bench crew made up of only rookies and second-year players that relinquished it in short fashion.

Mitchell rolled with LaVine (after Williams picked up his fourth foul, and a technical foul to boot), Andrew Wiggins, Shabazz Muhammad, Anthony Bennett, and Gorgui Dieng. Soon after, Glenn Robinson III saw third quarter minutes. A lack of depth combined with injury and illness was to blame, of course, but the rotation almost felt Adelman-esque for a bit.

The Wolves fell behind by 24 points once again and couldn’t manage to climb loser until the final four minutes of the game. They actually got it back to 10 points around that same time, but couldn’t keep Kenneth Faried and J.J. Hickson off the glass down the stretch as the Nuggets built it back up to 15 points before the Wolves pushed back to bring the final deficit to just nine.

To the Wolves’ credit, the starters continued to play hard, even late in what was at one point a pretty bad blowout. On the other hand, the lineup of young players seemed to lack that same energy for much of the third quarter, which is obviously unacceptable.

Wiggins had a mostly disappointing night offensively and was absolutely lit-up by a scorching Arron Afflalo (34 points on 11 of 18 shooting, 4 of 6 on three-pointers). Other than a couple times that Afflalo lost him in transition, Wiggins’ defense was passable. Afflalo just got hot and couldn’t miss his step-back jumper, regardless of distance from the basket.

The Wolves’ rookie played better down the stretch, ultimately shooting 8 of 18 from the field including 3 of 5 from beyond the arc and scoring 20 points. He also added 7 rebounds and 4 assists.

LaVine was bad, and Williams generally wasn’t much better. The Wolves point guard play continues to be one of their largest issues, and will improve dramatically with Ricky Rubio‘s return. Williams scored 17 points on 7 of 14 shooting with 7 assists, but turned the ball over four times and committed five fouls in 25 minutes. LaVine shot just 2 of 9 in 29 minutes and finished with a team-worst -26.

And while plus/minus numbers mean next-to-nothing on a raw, per-game basis, the -26 was easily the worst on the team, with Bennett’s -18 is the next closest. Interestingly, Thaddeus Young finished with a +14 and Williams a team-high +18.

The Nuggets were led by Afflalo’s crazy 34 points, with Faried only managing 15 points and 7 rebounds. Hickson shot 8 of 10 from the floor and put up 16 points and 11 rebounds in 32 minutes off the bench.

The Wolves will host the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night. The game won’t start until 8:30 p.m. as it will be televised by ESPN in the second of two Timberwolves game on the Four-Letter this season.

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