Wolves lose to Jazz in double-overtime

Apr 16, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves head coach

talks to the referee in double overtime against the Utah Jazz at Target Center. The Utah Jazz win 136-130 in double overtime. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

It’s too bad that a Hall of Fame coach couldn’t go out with his team giving their best effort for the entirety of the game, but at least Rick Adelman’s crew was able to coax this sluggish affair into double overtime.

It was a sad way for Adelman to (likely) finish his career, but at least the team woke up late. It’s a shame that the game ended the way it did in part to blatant offensive foul that wasn’t called on Trey Burke and would have given the Wolves the ball, down two with 12 seconds to play. As it happened, the game ended after Burke drained a pair of free throws on the other end and Love’s three-pointer clanked off the rim.

From the start of Wednesday evening’s contest against the Jazz, it felt as though the Wolves were running in mud. They fell behind by as many as 19 points in the first half, and used a 15-point run in the second quarter to climb to to within a 51-48 score at hafltime.

It took all the way until just before the 9:00 mark in the third quarter for the Wolves to take their first lead of the night. Of course, they promptly gave it right back, falling back behind by an 80-70 mark at the end of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter saw the Wolves trail by 10 points as late as the 4:47 mark before the crunch time lineup of Love (playing center), Dante Cunningham, Robbie Hummel, Ricky Rubio, and Martin started to gain some traction.

We finally had the “Kevin Martin is officially back from injury” game, with K-Mart ultimately putting up 36 points on 12 of 24 shooting and fouling out late in the second overtime. It was as good as Martin has looked since way back in November, probably, save for a few nice games here and there. But it’s safe to say that we just haven’t seen much of the player that we watched night in and night out way back in the fall.

Kevin Love had a tough night, shooting just 4 of 15 from the field. He did put up a 19-10-9 line, which isn’t too shabby, of course. But he also turned the ball over 5 times in addition to his bumpy shooting. He’s worn down, to be sure, and the energy clearly wasn’t there.

Nobody else on the Wolves played a particularly good game, as Burke beat Rubio off the dribble consistently and Brewer was a non-factor early and didn’t play late. Hummel scored 10 points and pulled down 9 rebounds, and ended up playing 32 minutes after getting all of Brewer’s court time down the stretch in regulation and for the entirety of both extra sessions.

There will be oodles of words written in review of the season, the coaching situation, the upcoming draft, free agency, and other potential roster decisions. Rick Adelman hinted during his pregame media availability that a final and public decision on his future would be made very quickly. Whether that is this week or early next week we aren’t sure, but visit us back here at DWW for analysis on any news that might break.

Until then, it’s been a good season. Disappointing, exciting, unsatisfying, and uniquely entertaining all at once. And to think that this is still the best season this organization has seen in 9 years….let’s look forward to continued improvement in 2014-15.