Timberwolves Wrap: Up-and-down stretch continues with loss to Grizzlies

The Timberwolves followed a win with a loss for the fourth straight time with a disappointing loss to the previously reeling Grizzlies on Monday night in Memphis.

All those minutes. All that travel. The back-end of a back-to-back set of games. That was enough of a recipe to spell disaster against a Memphis Grizzlies team that had lost 11 games in a row and saw it’s head coach fired in the midst of the carnage.

Excuses? Sure. The Wolves lost a game that the hapless Grizzlies were trying to hand to them, but the only real glaring issues in this one was the fatigue of the players — largely brought on by Tom Thibodeau, of course — and offensive execution down the stretch, which isn’t really a new thing, either.

After a see-saw battle that saw a number of ties and slight lead changes, the Wolves took a slim lead with just a few minutes to go in the game. Suddenly, neither team could execute on offense, and it was the Grizzlies that finally scored on a couple of possessions in a row and ultimately built a one-point lead.

Jimmy Butler, who had almost single-handedly kept the Wolves offense afloat throughout the night, dribbled himself into a tough spot in the paint and threw the ball away while trying to kick it out to Andrew Wiggins in the corner.

After a foul and two made free throws from Tyreke Evans, the Wolves called a timeout with just over 12 seconds to play — plenty of time to execute and get a solid look at what would be a game-tying 3-point attempt.

But the Wolves came out of their timeout and never got the ball within three feet of the 3-point line. First Butler and then Karl-Anthony Towns dribbled through traffic well beyond the arc and barely looked at the rim until Butler was forced to hoist a tough, contested 3-point attempt from the left wing. It clanged off the rim as the buzzer sounded, and Memphis had snapped their 11-game losing skid

Tweets of the Night

It’s not very often (read: never) that I’ll shine a light on a Paul Allen tweet, but I don’t think this falls under the realm of #hottakes. The fact that Towns attempted just six shots in this game is…unbelievable. As identified in the preview prior to the contest, Towns had his hands full with Marc Gasol and JaMychal Green, but a seven-point performance is unacceptable, and it has as much to do with the flow of the offense as it does with KAT himself.

Key Takeaways

• Did I mention that KAT had just six shot attempts? Jeff Teague only had six as well, to go along with just two assists.
• If you’re a frequent reader of DWW, you’ll know that I’ve been clamoring for Butler to have the ball in his hands more often. He did in this one, finishing with 30 points on 21 field goal attempts and five assists to just two turnovers. The issue was the reliance on isolation play at the end of the game, coupled with the lack of true pick-and-roll calls involving Karl-Anthony Towns throughout the game.
• Taj Gibson has been awesome for the Wolves this year, but he should never shoot the ball 11 times to a combined six for Towns and Teague.
• Gorgui Dieng had another great game off the bench with 10 points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes.
• Nemanja Bjelica‘s absence probably hasn’t been talked about enough. The team has been alternating wins and losses the entire time without him.
• Then again, if alternating wins and losses is the worst thing that happens to this team (in other words, no long losing streaks), they’ll finish up just fine and will be squarely in the playoff race.

Player of the Game

Jimmy Butler: 30 points (11-21 FG, 2-7 3P, 6-7 FT), 5 assists, 4 steals, 2 rebounds, 2 turnovers

This game didn’t really deserve a POTG nominee; Gasol led the Grizzlies with 21 points on 6-of-14 shooting but had just seven rebounds and seemed a touch off on offense. He did control the pain for the most part, but it didn’t feel as though Memphis won this game as much as the Wolves were stuck in mud for practically the entire 48 minutes.

Despite a couple of bad possessions to end the game, Butler was fantastic early on and solid for much of the game. The Wolves now need to find the balance of Butler handling the ball more often but handling it in more creative ways, with his teammates moving around him rather than standing and watching.

Notable Box Score Lines

• Karl-Anthony Towns: 7 points (2-6 FG, 1-2 3P, 2-5 FT), 11 rebounds, 3 assists, one block
• Andrew Wiggins: 12 points (6-17 FG, 0-2 3P, 0-0 FT), 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 turnovers
• Jeff Teague: 12 points (5-6 FG, 2-2 FT), 2 assists, one rebound, 2 turnovers
• Taj Gibson: 14 points (4-11 FG, 0-1 3P, 6-6 FT), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, one steal, one turnover
• Gorgui Dieng: 10 points (4-5 FG, 2-2 FT), 7 rebounds, one assist, one steal, one block, 2 turnovers
• Jamal Crawford: 5 points (2-10 FG, 1-5 3P), one rebound, one assist, 20 minutes

Outside of Towns’ disappointing night, Wiggins had an inefficient night of his own. While he’s been refreshingly active on the glass and defensively of late, his rhythm in the flow of the offense appears to have disappeared.

One thing that may have gotten lost in the absence of Bjelica is that Jamal Crawford’s minutes have increased. There was a stretch in the second half in Memphis when Crawford jacked up multiple contested shots early in the shot clock — that’s the Bad Jamal that many Wolves fans were wary of when the signing was announced over the summer.

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What’s Next?

The Timberwolves are now 14-11 and have been treading water for the better part of almost three weeks. They’ll face the Clippers for the second time in just over 72 hours on Wednesday night. The game is in L.A., so it’ll tip at 9:30 CT and it will be televised on ESPN.