Timberwolves Wrap: Wolves lose close one to Thunder

The Timberwolves led for much of Wednesday night’s game against the Thunder before falling behind down the stretch, ultimately losing by a final score of 126-123.

It was a performance consistent with how Sam Mitchell‘s bunch has been playing of late. The Wolves played very well for much of the game, but had enough issues that allowed the struggling Oklahoma City Thunder to stick around.

One of the more glaring problems that the Wolves had on this particular evening was free throw shooting. The home team shot just 18 of 28 from the charity stripe — only 64.3 percent. Heading into the game, Minnesota was the second-best free throw shooting team in the NBA.

The Wolves held Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in check for much of the game but couldn’t contain KD down the stretch. Andrew Wiggins (understandably) was unable to stop Durant one-on-one as the superstar drilled a three-pointer at the 1:45 mark immediately after the Wolves had cut the deficit to just two points.

After a long two-point jumper from Zach LaVine, who was fantastic all night long, Durant hit a jumper of his own to stretch the score to 118-113 with 1:26 left on the clock. The Wolves called a timeout, and Wiggins promptly threw the ball out of bounds. Then Wiggins and Gorgui Dieng had a miscommunication on defense and a Steven Adams dunk effectively ended the game.

More from Dunking with Wolves

• The dream starting 5 for Minnesota Timberwolves 5 years from now
• Anthony Edwards’ latest accolade is a great sign of things to come
• In an OT thriller, Team Canada snatches Bronze from Team USA
• Timberwolves start, bench, cut: Mike Conley, Shake Milton, Jordan McLaughlin
• Which Timberwolves roster additions have upgraded the bench?

It was a disappointing, if not predictable, way for the game to end. Some garbage buckets from LaVine and Karl-Anthony Towns put the final margin at just three points, but the game was more or less decided between the one and two minutes marks in the fourth quarter.

On the bright side, LaVine followed up a strong game in Cleveland on Monday night with an even better game on Wednesday. He shot an insane 14 of 17 from the field, including 5 of 8 from beyond the arc. (Weirdly enough, he missed three of the five free throws he attempted.)

He did only manage one assist in 29 minutes, but played extremely well off the ball when alongside Ricky Rubio. Towns, Wiggins, and Dieng all also had outstanding performances, but in the end, the lack of defense is what did the home team in on Wednesday night.

Tweets of the Night

Clip of the Night

Star of the Night

Karl-Anthony Towns – 19 points (8-15 FG, 3-3 FT), 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks, 2 turnovers

Zach LaVine – 35 points (14-17 FG, 5-8 3P, 2-5 FT), 2 rebounds, one assist, one steal, zero turnovers

This is the first time ever we’ve expanded this portion of our recap to two players, but in an un-fulfilling loss with a few fantastic individual performances, it had to be done.

LaVine was spectacular, scoring 35 points on 17 shots. He only had one assist but he also didn’t turn the ball over a single time in 29 minutes of playing time. The confidence was oozing from the second-year guard, and he played smart all evening. (Side note: LaVine made all five of the Wolves’ made threes on the night. The rest of the squad was a combined 0 for 6 from long-range.)

Towns had a well-rounded game, struggling from the field early on but playing well in all other facets and scoring efficiently down the stretch, including the above and-one on a monstrous dunk. As it turns out, he’s a fantastic player.

Other Notable Timberwolves Lines

Ricky Rubio – 4 points (1-6 FG, 0-3 3P, 2-3 FT), 10 assists, 2 rebounds, 3 steals, one turnover

Gorgui Dieng – 21 points (10-13 FG, 1-2 FT), 9 rebounds, one assist, one steal, one block, one turnover

Andrew Wiggins – 20 points (8-14 FG, 0-1 3P, 4-6 FT), 4 assists, one rebound, one turnover

Wiggins rebound watch: the reigning Rookie of the Year pulled down exactly one rebound in 37+ minutes for the second consecutive game. The four assists is great, but the rebounding cannot remain this putrid.

Who’s Got Next?

The Timberwolves head west for a rough stretch of road games, beginning with a Friday night showdown in Salt Lake City.

Next: Timberwolves' Key Contributors at Midway Point

Utah is another young, up-and-coming team that was expected to make a much larger leap in 2015-16 than they have thus far. The 19-25 Jazz is only a couple of games out of the playoff race and should provide a fun match-up for the Timberwolves on Friday.

After Utah, the Wolves head to Portland and then to L.A. for a game each against the Lakers and Clippers.