Minnesota Timberwolves: Wolves drop fifth straight, lose to Kings

The Minnesota Timberwolves successfully completed a winless road trip with a 121-110 loss to the Kings in Sacramento on Friday night.

It would be hard to imagine the Minnesota Timberwolves just-completed West Coast road trip going any worse than it did.

The Wolves went 0-5. Jeff Teague didn’t appear in a single game. Jimmy Butler missed two due to “general soreness”. Andrew Wiggins re-injured his apparently nagging quadriceps contusion. Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t really show up until the last game of the trip.

Granted, the Wolves were always going to be underdogs at Golden State and at Portland, and the second half of a back-to-back at the Clippers is never easy. But finishing the road trip with losses at the Lakers and at the Kings, two teams the Wolves must finish in front of if they’re to have any prayer at the playoffs, is unacceptable.

On this night, Towns was awesome early, getting to 14 points by the end of the first quarter and 29 points by halftime, his second-highest point total in one half ever, trailing only his 30-point second half in his 51-point game against the Hawks last spring.

But nobody else came to the party, with Derrick Rose the only other Wolf to reach double figures until Jimmy Butler managed to get there in the fourth quarter. Towns missed his first six shot attempts of the second half and despite solid work on the glass struggled defensively and didn’t reassert himself offensively until midway through the fourth quarter.

Outside of Towns, nobody else on the team was efficient by any stretch of the imagination. Rose struggled, shooting 7-of-16 from the field and 3-of-6 from long-range that was buoyed by a pair of back-to-back threes late in the fourth quarter that kept the Wolves in the game.

Butler struggled mightily, scoring only 13 points (3-12 FG, 0-2 3P, 7-10 FT) and missing a pair of free throws that would have tied the game at 108 with 3:12 remaining.

Minnesota had just completed a comeback from 15 points back with nine minutes left that included traditional 3-point plays from both Tyus Jones and Towns, back-to-back Rose 3-pointers, and a 3-pointer in transition from Anthony Tolliver. Butler had a chance to tie it and keep the Kings on their heels, but the career 83.1 percent free throw shooter missed both attempts.

The Kings reapplied their foot to the gas pedal and finished the game on a 13-4 run, and that was it.

Tweet of the Game

Player of the Game

Willie Cauley-Stein: 25 points (11-16 FG, 1-1 3P, 2-4 FT), 5 rebounds one assist

Cauley-Stein did a lot of his damage early, but it kept the Kings in things as the Wolves threatened to stretch their lead to double-digits in the first quarter. It also somewhat negated Towns’ impact as the former Kentucky Wildcats were truly battling back and forth and trying to best one another.

Cauley-Stein also attempted and made his first 3-pointer of the season. Towns did a good job keeping him off the glass, however, pulling down 19 rebounds, including nine of the offensive variety to Cauley-Stein’s five.

Notable Timberwolves Box Score Lines

• Karl-Anthony Towns: 39 points (15-27 FG, 2-5 3P, 7-7 FT), 19 rebounds, one assist, one block
• Derrick Rose: 21 points (7-16 FG, 3-6 3P, 4-4 FT), 6 rebounds, 5 assists, one steal
• Jimmy Butler: 13 points (3-12 FG, 0-2 3P, 7-10 FT), 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals
• Taj Gibson: 9 points (4-11 FG, 0-1 3P, 1-2 FT), 9 rebounds, 2 assists

Save for a stretch in the third quarter, Towns was awesome throughout. Rose struggled with his shot a bit early but came on in the second half and had a solid all-around game as the starting point guard once again.

Butler had a horrible shooting night but contributed in other areas. Gibson was inconsistent from the field and had a difficult matchup with former Wolf Nemanja Bjelica.

What’s Next?

Mercifully, the Timberwolves head home and have a couple of days off. They’ll square-off against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday at Target Center — a game that they will be favored in and should ultimately win easily.