January 26, 2013; Charlotte, NC, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio (9) drives down the court as he is defended by Charlotte Bobcats guard Gerald Henderson (9) during the game at Time Warner Cable Arena. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports

The second night of a back-to-back is never easy, but playing the Bobcats is about as easy as it gets. Of course, two of the Bobcats eleven wins have now come against your Minnesota Timberwolves, and by a total of three points. A scenario that Wolves fans have seen play out far too many times played out yet again in downtown Charlotte: Timberwolves jump out to a large lead, the lead slips to around ten points at halftime, they allow the opponent back into the game in the second-half and eventually lose. This particular tilt had more intrigue than usual in the fourth quarter, but it ultimately led to the very same sad, Timberwolvesy place it seemingly always does.

Andrei Kirilenko stole yet another opening tap for a layup, but was raked across the face and had to go to the locker room for six stitches above his right eye just fourteen seconds into the contest and did not return to the end of the quarter. Mickael Gelabale entered the game and the Wolves did not miss a beat, jumping out to an impressive 14-4 lead. Luke Ridnour started the game extremely well, throwing two beautiful alley-oops to Greg Stiemsma while finishing the quarter with 11 points on 4 of 4 shooting.

The Wolves’ offense was as active as it has been in recent memory, with solid ball movement and energy. The defense slipped towards the end of the quarter, allowing a 9-2 run by the Bobcats while J.J. Barea’s ball-stopping stalled Minnesota’s offensive attack. Barea did hit an impressive pull-up 32-footer at the buzzer to propel the Wolves to a first quarter season high in points to take a 34-22 lead into the second quarter.

The second quarter began to feel a little bit like the horrible loss the Wolves’ suffered a couple of weeks ago in New Orleans, when they were up big in the first half on the Hornets and lost in embarrassing fashion. The Bobcats pulled to within single digits before a peculiar small lineup consisting of Rubio, Ridnour, Barea, Kirlienko, and Cunningham stemmed the tide and helped the Wolves hang onto a 58-47 lead at halftime.

The third quarter was even sloppier than the first period was, with both teams struggling to generate any semblance of offensive production. The movement that the Wolves so impressively exhibited in the first quarter was gone, and they began to rely on long jump shots and kamikaze drives to the hoop. The Wolves still managed to hold a 67-54 lead with just over seven minutes remaining in the third quarter, but Charlotte’s sudden tenacity on the offensive boards led to a 9-0 run that pulled the Bobcats to within four points. The teams traded baskets for the last couple of minutes, with the Wolves holding a disappointing 77-73 lead heading into the fourth period.

The Bobcats started the fourth quarter with a 6-2 run to tie the game, coming all the way back from what was once an 18-point deficit. The run that started midway through the third quarter reached 27-12 when Charlotte took the lead on a Kemba Walker jumper, and eventually hit 37-16. Things quickly slipped from bad-to-worse for the visitors, as the Bobcats opened up a 91-83 lead with just over seven minutes remaining in the game.

After a Timberwolves’ timeout, Ridnour immediately converted a deep three-pointer before hitting a mid-range jumper after a Rubio steal and assist, cutting the Bobcats’ lead down to three points in a matter of seconds. The Bobcats began to struggle mightily on offense, but reached the penalty with six minutes left in the quarter and began to do damage at the charity stripe.

The Wolves and Bobcats traded blows down the stretch, with acting head coach Terry Porter electing to roll with the same miniscule lineup that had some success in the second quarter: Rubio, Ridnour, Barea, Kirielnko, and Cunningham. Unfortunately, Kirilenko had an uncharacteristically rough fourth quarter, committing a couple of silly personal fouls that sent the Bobcats to the free throw line, along with taking an ill-advised three-pointer early in the shot clock. With the Wolves in the penalty so early in the frame, silly fouls were costly.

Barea hit a couple of big three-point shots, the latter of which tied the game with under two minutes to play. After a defensive stop by the Wolves and a Minnesota timeout, Rubio came around a screen and converted a reverse layup while Gerald Henderson elected to shade towards an open Ridnour instead of stopping Rubio’s shot attempt. With the Bobcats down by two points with about thirty seconds remaining, the ball was on the floor and knocked loose from their possession three separate times, eventually rolling into the backcourt. Charlotte recovered the ball as the Wolves avoided fouling, and Henderson pump-faked Kirilenko into the air and hit a deep, off-balanced three pointer with under five seconds remaining.

After a Wolves’ timeout, Barea drove hard to his left, fading sideways from about fifteen feet from the basket on the left wing, belly-flopping across the floor while lofting an air-ball virtually straight up in the air. No foul was called on the play, likely due to Barea’s reputation as one of the leagues’ best (worst?) floppers. Replays appear to show Walker putting both hands on Barea’s hip/waist area (a foul), but Barea’s over-acting and embellishing of the contact probably caused the officials to look the other way and swallow their whistles, ending the game.

The stroke of unluckiness that blindsided the Wolves in the waning seconds is absolutely typical and expected of Minnesota’s hometown squad, and while there was plenty of blame to be passed around in the wake of the Wolves choking on an 18-point lead, this just felt….expected. The team’s record now sits at 17-24, and losing back-to-back games to the two worst teams in the Eastern Conference does not at all suggest that the Wolves will be making their long-awaited return to the playoffs.

My Takes:

- For as much as the Bobcats’ announcers (correctly) continued to harp on the fact that Walker, Henderson, and even Sessions should be able to exploit the Wolves’ smallish back-court, Luke Ridnour had an impressive evening. He was a key reason for the Wolves’ early lead, and helped them come back from the eight-point fourth quarter deficit as well. His final line of 22 points (9-14 FGs, 3-5 3pt FGs, 1-1 FTs), 7 assists, 7 rebounds, one steal and one block is exactly what the Wolves would expect of any prototypical starting shooting guard, despite Ridnour’s modest stature.

- Ridnour was really the only Wolves’ player that had an above-average game. Barea’s line of 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists with just 2 turnovers was impressive, but his game was, quite literally, a microcosm of his overall abilities. He was hot and cold, up and down, and jacked up 18 shots in his 32 minutes. And while +/- is absolutely not a statistic that is airtight or should be solely relied on, this is certainly telling: Barea was a team-low -18 (!), while Rubio was a team-high +23. That’s right, a 41-point differential.

- The Wolves play their next six games at Target Center, and if they don’t manage to win four or five of them, well….it’s over. Here’s hoping they can go on a run and hold down the fort until the cavalry (or at least Adelman, Pekovic, Shved, and Budinger) arrive. The rest of the Western Conference is cooperating, for the most part, but the Wolves will eventually have to win some game. A 2-9 record under Porter is not cutting it.

- The Wolves will kick-off their six-game homestand against the Los Angeles Clippers at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 30.

Nov 14, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Charlotte Bobcats point guard Kemba Walker (15) shoots against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Greg Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Let’s just say…if this was almost any team other than the Charlotte Bobcats, it would have been a lot worse. The Bobcats tried as hard as they could to hand the game back to the Wolves, and a battle of “I don’t want it, no you take it, no I insist” ensued, all the way up until the final buzzer. I’m not sure how else to describe how ugly this game was…but…it was atrocious. And that feels gentle.

Where to begin? Obviously, the Timberwolves missing six of the top seven players on the depth chart means that the Wolves were already starting behind the eight-ball from the opening tap. The Bobcats have been playing decent thus far in the young season, but let’s not forget that this is still a team with a rookie coach, coming off of the worst winning percentage in NBA history last season, and starting Jeffery Taylor at small forward. Not that the Wolves’ starting lineup, including Greg Stiemsma and Malcom Lee, was any more formidable.

Derrick Williams started another game aggressively, and had another first quarter in which he missed a number of shots from directly beneath the basket. He did a good job of running directly to the rim, both off of made baskets and in transition, and Andrei Kirilenko and Luke Ridnour both did a good job of finding him early on in possessions. Unfortunately, Williams struggled to either hit the easy shots or create enough contact to draw foul calls. While his aggressiveness is welcome, it is clear that the game is still not slowing down enough for him to be efficient or effective on the offensive end of the floor.

The Wolves kept the game within four points headed into the second quarter, thanks to a made three pointer at the buzzer by Kirilenko. Once the second unit was on the floor, however, the Bobcats extended their lead as high as fifteen points before halftime. As bad as a lineup consisting of Will Conroy/Alexey Shved/Malcom Lee/Dante Cunningham/Lou Amundson looks….well, it was worse. After outscoring the Wolves 23-14 in the second quarter, the Wolves found themselves down by a score of 51-38 at halftime.

In the third quarter, the starting lineup pulled to within eight points after a Luke Ridnour offensive rebound and put-back. Greg Stiemsma got to the line with a chance to cut the game to six, but missed both free throws in what quickly became a recurring theme for the Wolves. The Timberwolves shot a horrifying 20-37 (54.1%) from the free throw line for the game. The main culprits: Stiemsma (1-4), Amundson (1-4), Kirilenko (5-9), and even the normally fantastic Ridnour (3-5).

Even with their awful play and embarrassing display at the charity stripe, the Wolves were able to cut what was a 16-point deficit with 8:07 left in the fourth quarter all the way down to four points with just over two minutes remaining. The 14-2 run was slowed briefly by a Byron Mullens offensive rebound and put-back over the diminutive Timberwolves’ frontline of Cunningham and Amundson, and after the Wolves failed to score on their next possession, Ridnour stole the ball from Kemba Walker and threw a dangerous alley-oop on the fastbreak to Cunningham, cutting the lead back down to four points.

On the other end, Amundson and Shved combined to shut down Walker again, and Shved scored in the lane for the Wolves to make it an 87-85 game with 38.9 seconds remaining. Coach Mike Dunlap used the Bobcats’ final timeout, immediately after which veteran Reggie Williams called a non-existent timeout while trying to get the ball in-bounds in the frontcourt. After Ridnour converted the technical free throw, Ramon Sessions stole the ball from Shved and proceeded to miss both free throws after being fouled by Cunningham.

Shved was well short on a baseline jumper out of another timeout, which was rebounded by Tyrus Thomas. Thomas took three full steps and walked out of bounds (apparently expecting a foul that never came) and turned the ball right back over to the Wolves. Given a third chance to inbound the ball and take the lead, Rick Adelman called an out-of-bounds play designed to free Ridnour in the corner, curling off of a triple screen. Thomas, guarding Cunningham, sniffed out the play and remained in the passing lane, denying the ball to Ridnour. Kirilenko passed the ball to Derrick Williams, who smartly rolled to the basket after setting a screen in the middle of the lane. Williams was fouled by Mullens, and hit one of two free throws to tie the game for the first time since the first quarter.

With no timeouts remaining, Kemba Walker took went directly at Alexey Shved in isolation on the right wing. Walker crossed half court with nine seconds remaining, waiving off a high screen from Thomas. With 3.5 seconds left, Walker moved inside the three point line to his right, crossed back to his left, and faded away from 21 feet, hitting the game winning shot over the outstretched arm of Shved with 00.7 seconds remaining. Luke Ridnour’s ¾ court heave fell short, and the Bobcats eked out a win they should have had in the bag much, much earlier.

Quick Notes:

- Your nightly, gaudy Kirilenko line: 26 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal. He did turn the ball over five times and shot just 5-9 from the free throw line, but he is also being asked to do much, much more than he ever would in a healthy Minnesota lineup.

- With Will Conroy playing just four (horrible) minutes in the second quarter, the Wolves had eight players all play between 22 (Stiemsma) and 44 (Kirilenko) minutes. Hopefully, some combination of Pekovic, Roy, and Barea will return to the lineup on Friday night versus Golden State.

- Kemba Walker is really, really good. He also played an astonishing 45 minutes, sharing much of his time in the back court with Sessions, who played 32 minutes himself. Ridnour, on the other hand, held his own on the offensive end of the floor, shockingly committing zero (0!) turnovers. Here is the point guard match-up between Walker and Ridnour, by the numbers:

- The Wolves will play host to the Golden State Warriors at Target Center in Minneapolis at 7:00 on Friday night, before getting four consecutive days off in advance of a home game against Denver next Wednesday, November 21.