Timberwolves Wrap: A deflating home loss to the Heat

The short-handed Timberwolves struggled on both ends of the court in a disappointing home loss to the Miami Heat on Friday night.

After starting their first true homestand of the season with a solid victory over the mediocre Orlando Magic on Wednesday night, the Wolves were beaten easily by a mediocre Miami Heat squad on Friday, dropping their record to 1-1 on the current four-game homestand.

The Timberwolves were without Jeff Teague, who was a late scratch due to a sore Achilles, and Nemanja Bjelica (mid-foot sprain), who remains the league’s top 3-point shooter over the first five weeks of the season. Third-string point guard Aaron Brooks started the game, presumably in an effort by Tom Thibodeau to keep Tyus Jones playing the majority of his minutes with the second unit.

The Wolves scored the first basket of the game but trailed the rest of the way, and more often than not by double-digits. While a single loss is exactly that, getting defeated soundly by a team that entered the game with an 8-9 record is certainly disheartening.

Karl-Anthony Towns scored exactly zero points in the entire first half. A quick second quarter flurry from Jamal Crawford was about all that stood between the home team and a vast halftime deficit; as it was they trailed by 10 points at the break.

There was a stretch in the third quarter that appeared as though the Wolves would climb back into things, but each time the Heat lead dwindled to 10 or 11 points, Wayne Ellington or another of Miami’s comparatively vast array of 3-point artists would splash a corner three, and the lead would quickly shoot back up to a much more intimidating number.

The Heat lead neared 20 points late in final frame, but some garbage time buckets from KAT, who had been quiet nearly all night, and a barrage of free throws made the final score look a bit closer than it really was.

Additional thoughts below, with a big-picture look at the Wolves rotation, style of play, and the coaching coming soon…

Tweets of the Night

Key Takeaways

• Stop me if you’ve heard this one in the past week: the Timberwolves continue to fail to get Towns enough touches. Of course, KAT can continue to be blamed for many of the defensive issues that Jimmy Butler spoke about in Jon K’s tweets above. But we’ve seen that offensively-involved KAT equals defensively-involved KAT. Right or wrong, that’s an equation that Thibs and the Wolves staff needs to look at.
• Too often, Towns is involved in the Wolves’s horns set (our own Brian Sampson has broken down horns more than once) but ends up outside the arc waiting for a pass when Taj Gibson‘s screen is used. As Jim Peterson mentioned more than once during the broadcast, Towns should be more involved in dribble-handoffs, as well.
• The Wolves defense wasn’t good on this night, of course, but outside of a handful of egregiously open Heat shooters, Miami made a ton of contested shots. While there is no excuse for laziness — and there was certainly some of that — the Wolves defense wasn’t all bad.
• More concerning was the margin: Miami shot 19-of-39 (48.7 percent) from 3-point range while the Wolves shots just 7-of-17 (41.2 percent) from beyond the arc. That’s 36 points worth of 3-pointers that the Wolves conceded to Miami — and that’s just in makes. The fact that the opposing team shot more than twice the number of threes as the Wolves is absolutely a problem.
• Kudos to Wayne Ellington for making Peterson and Dave Benz look good. Benz pointed out that the former Wolves first-round draft pick had exactly five two-point field goal makes on the season. Indeed, he shot the ball nine times in this one, with all nine attempts coming from beyond the arc. And Ellington made it Wayne with six makes, scoring 21 points on the night.
• Not having Teague and Bjelica was obviously an issue and it’s fair to mention it again. Hopefully Bjelly’s injury isn’t serious, although his foot issues are well-documented.

Player of the Game

Goran Dragic: 20 points (7-14 FG, 5-8 3P, 1-2 FT), 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 turnovers

Dragic was great in this one. He was seemingly everywhere on the court, and took advantage of some rust/tentativeness/bad defense from Aaron Brooks. Jones was also overextended for the Wolves, which made things a bit easier for the Heat point guard.

Dragic knocked down a few corner-threes of his own, and the sheer dominance of the Heat starting lineup and versatility of his game are the only reasons he wins this award and not Ellington.

Notable Box Score Lines

• Jimmy Butler: 18 points (7-17 FG, 1-1 3P, 3-6 FT), 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 turnovers
• Andrew Wiggins: 18 points (6-14 FG, 0-3 3P, 6-8 FT), 3 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists, one block, one turnover
• Karl-Anthony Towns: 18 points (6-14 FG, 0-3 3P, 6-7 FT), 11 rebounds, one block, 2 turnovers
• Shabazz Muhammad: 10 points (4-7 FG, 2-2 3P), 5 rebounds, one steal

Butler was solid once again. Wiggins had what felt like another quiet night but a solid final box score. And Towns did the majority of his damage with the game largely out of reach, as mentioned. (It’s jarring to see the 3-point column in the box score for Miami juxtaposed with the Wolves’ “Big Three” shooting a combined 1-of-7 from beyond the arc on the night. Dragic was 5-for-8 by himself.)

Muhammad was good in just 11 minutes, probably playing his best stint of the season. It was his first multi-3-pointer game this year, and he provided energy on both ends of the floor.

Next: Should Karl-Anthony Towns just play power forward?

What’s Next?

The Timberwolves stay at home for a third consecutive game at Target Center. Sunday brings a 2:30 p.m. matinee against the 7-13 Phoenix Suns, who beat the Wolves out in the desert just a couple of weeks ago.