Timberwolves Wrap: Wolves struggle to score again, lose

The trend of offensive struggles continued for the Timberwolves on Sunday afternoon in an 88-78 loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

The game was ugly from start to finish, with both teams struggling offensively for much of the game, save for J.J. Barea early for the Mavs and a second half stretch during which Dallas drained a number of three-pointers to take a double-digit lead.

Dallas has been playing without Chandler Parsons of late and was also without Deron Williams on Sunday, and while the offense wasn’t pretty, it was effective enough against a Wolves team that continued to have an anemic offense of their own.

Zach LaVine struggled mightily once again, shooting just 4-11 from the field, including 2-7 from beyond the arc en route to 11 points and just one assist with three turnovers.

Karl-Anthony Towns nearly managed a triple-double in the first half, but only scored four points in the second half and spent most of the fourth quarter trying to get a tenth assist, ultimately finishing with 11 points on 5-13 shooting with a career and franchise rookie-record 21 rebounds and nine assists. He also added three blocks and a steal while turning the ball over six times.

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Andrew Wiggins was fantastic in the first half and solid in the second, finishing with 30 points on 12-21 shooting by attacking the rim and knocking down open mid-range jumpers with ease.

Defensively, the Wolves season-long issue with defending the pick-and-roll reared it’s ugly head, and with a red-hot Barea running the show for the Mavericks, it was more or less the Wolves’ downfall in this one.

Minnesota’s bigs weren’t quite active enough and Ricky Rubio struggled to get around solid (and occasionally, illegal) screens from Dallas’ big men, and Barea knifed through the Wolves’ defense with abandon, scoring 21 points on 8-19 shooting and dishing out six assists with only one turnover.

Rubio exited the game with just over four minutes remaining in what was a 15-point game at the time after taking an inadvertent forearm to the face. It’s unclear if he needed stitches, but he went directly back to the locker room. We’ll keep an eye on this heading into Tuesday night’s nationally-televised contest at Golden State.

The Wolves managed to cut the Mavs’ lead to eight points with just over a minute remaining, but that was as close as Sam Mitchell‘s crew would get.

Tweet of the Night

Star of the Night

Andrew Wiggins -“ 30 points (12-21 FG, 1-3 3P, 5-5 FT), 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers

Barea was very good for the Mavs, but was still…Barea. Meaning, he was relatively inefficient and didn’t impact the game in many ways other than creating chaos and walking into open space on the floor after the Wolves’ defense botched the screen-and-roll coverage again and again.

Wiggins was fantastic early in the game, including an awesome baseline slam and a scintillating spin move and dunk in transition. He cooled off a bit in the second half and forced some shots, plus the officials swallowed their whistles for much of the night, suppressing the damage that the reigning Rookie of the Year normally does at the free throw line.

All in all, however, a strong showing from Wiggins and a good example of the growth he’s made of late.

Notable Timberwolves Lines

Karl-Anthony Towns – 11 points (5-13 FG, 0-3 3P, 1-1 FT), 21 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 blocks, one steal, 6 turnovers

Zach LaVine – 11 points (4-11 FG, 2-7 3P, 1-1 FT), 3 rebounds, one assist, one steal, 3 turnovers

Ricky Rubio – 9 points (2-7 FG, 1-4 3P, 4-4 FT), 5 assists, 2 rebounds, one steal, 2 turnovers

Who’s Next?

The Wolves head west for a rough stretch down the coast. It begins with Tuesday night’s TNT game against the 68-8 Golden State Warriors, who lost on Friday night to the Boston Celtics in what was their first home loss since January of 2015.

It should be a lot of fun, especially since the Timberwolves have mostly played the Warriors competitively the two previous times they’ve matched-up this season.

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After that, Minnesota goes to Sacramento on Thursday to face the Kings, whom they’ve defeated three times already this season, before meeting the Trail Blazers in Portland on Saturday evening.