The Wolves dominated the third quarter, but gave up points on 11 straight possessions in the fourth quarter en route to their fourth straight loss
For the second time this season, the Minnesota Timberwolves have lost three games in a row and look to a matchup with the Sacramento Kings to break their losing streak.
Mike Conley returned from injury after missing the previous two games with a left great toe sprain. The Wolves have lost all four of the games Conley has missed this season. The Kings are again without DeMar DeRozan who suffered a lower back injury on Monday.
Anthony Edwards would come out of the gates blazing hot making his first four 3-pointers, all in the first quarter as the Wolves would build as high as a six-point lead early in the first quarter.
Anthony Edwards corner 3, assisted by Nickeil Alexander-Walker pic.twitter.com/zF0iaPASYu
— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) November 28, 2024
After the strong start for Edwards and the Wolves, the Kings would take control of the game through strong play in the paint. Sacramento would score 42 points in the paint and get 16 offensive rebounds in the first half. The Kings would outscore the Wolves 38-24 in the second quarter, giving them a 12-point lead heading into the halftime break.
Edwards and Nickeil Alexander-Walker would score a combined 33 points on 10-15 shooting including 7-8 from beyond the arc. The rest of Minnesota’s rotation shot 10-25 including 0-11 on 3-pointers.
The Minnesota defense would come out of the second-half locker room a changed team, causing Sacramento to miss 11 of their first 14 shots while also forcing five turnovers. Damantas Sabonis would also pick up his fifth foul, forcing him to the bench, and giving the Wolves an opportunity to get back into the game.
The Wolves would do just that, outscoring the Kings 29-12 in the third quarter to take a five-point into the final quarter of play. Minnesota would continue the second-half dominance, building the lead up to eight points early in the fourth quarter.
NAW IS HOOPING. https://t.co/Y5wmnI8MZt pic.twitter.com/qM8GhfIt5n
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) November 28, 2024
The Timberwolves would build the lead as high as 12 points before a 16-4 run by the Kings including back-to-back 3-pointers from Malik Monk, tie the game with 3:41 remaining in the game.
The Sacramento run would continue the rest of the game with Monk and De’Aaron Fox making big shot after big shot. The Kings would finish the game on a 29-6 run including scoring on 11 straight possessions late in the game to secure a 115-104 victory over the Wolves, their fourth straight loss.
Edwards led the Wolves in scoring with 29 points but only had three in the second half. Julius Randle had 21 points of 8-14 shooting, adding nine rebounds and four assists. Sabonis, Monk, and Fox combined for 80 points, 28 points, and 22 assists.
Key Takeaways
Brad Rempel-Imagn Images
Groundhog Day
Each loss during this Timberwolves four-game losing has had a very similar script. The Wolves will get down early, rally back, and fall apart at the end of the game. Even some of their wins, like the one against the Phoenix Suns that ended with a Randle buzzer-beater, have seen inconsistent play throughout the game.
Chris Finch talked after the game about this recent phenomenon.
“Listen, it’s like Groundhog Day. We’re playing the same game every night. We get down, fight back, run out of gas, can’t close. That’s what we’ve been doing. I thought we got off to a better start and then the wheels fell off in the middle. Regrouped, played with a really good energy for a lot of the second half. Then things dried up and we couldn’t get a stop.”
Tonight, after a brutal first half, the Wolves were able to regroup, outscoring the Kings 29-12, led by their defense, which shut down everything the Kings offense was trying to do. The Wolves were able to build the lead as high as 12 points with 7:17 left in the game before Sacramento went on their 29-6 run to close the game.
In the locker room postgame, Conley talked about what happened at halftime that allowed them to turn the game around in the second half.
“We had guys address each other. I told the team, we got to be able to talk. We got to able to communicate and listen. Somebody’s talking to you, not get angry or snap back. We’re all trying to win. And we got that out. We got guys locked in on just trying to the game collectively, sacrificing the defense, offense, and playing faster. And we showed that the first few minutes going into second half and later in the third and early fourth.”
That all went away late in the game when Sacramento scored on 11 straight possessions to effectively put the game away. What seemed to be trending towards a Wolves win with seven minutes to go quickly turned into another late loss.
There are certainly schematic aspects of their game they need to fix, but until the Wolves show the ability to consistently execute on the court and keep the same intensity at all points of the game, losses like tonight and last night will just keep happening.
Locker Room Growing Apart
After the game, Edwards talked at length about what he thinks is going wrong with the Wolves, starting by taking accountability for his role in tonight’s loss.
“I’mma take this one tonight though. I’mma put this one on me. We made all the right plays. We just got to, if I’m the guy, I got to make those shots down the stretch. I missed a couple shots and they made shots. So, I’mma take this one.”
Edwards also spoke about if he feels, as one of the leaders of the team, he can speak out to his teammates about what is going wrong and how the team can fix it.
“It’s tough. As the person who’s supposed to help try to figure things out, sometimes it’s tough, because you look at everybody, and everybody got a different agenda. It’s like, ‘What the fuck am I supposed to say?’ You know what I mean. I’m trying to get better in that aspect, figure out what the hell to say to get everybody on the same agenda, because everybody right now is on different agendas.”
Conley was asked a similar question about whether or not he feels the locker room drifting apart and what he feels he can do to keep people together.
Trust me we’ve spoken through the last three losses as a team, as players. And at the end of the day, man, it comes down to us believing, believing again, believing in what we do. It’s not about you in the big game. It’s not about if you’re making shots, missing shots, if you turn it over. We have to live with each other’s deficiencies. We have to live with each other’s mistakes and pick each other up. And that’s what the message is right now is you can’t be immature about this
Edwards said that the Wolves have been playing like “front runners” and getting too high when things are going well. That was certainly the case tonight when a double-digit lead late turned into yet another brutal loss for Minnesota.
While all the players in the locker room felt down after the loss, they didn’t seem to feel like what is going on can’t be fixed. There was certainly some confusion about why these types of losses keep happening, but that it could the issues plaguing this team are correctable.
It’s not something fans want to hear after a game like tonight, but there is still a ton of basketball left to be played. The 8-10 start to the season is not where anyone wanted to be at this point in the season, but will so much of the Wolves issues being about mental issues and execution problems, there is still time to turn everything around.
What was clear is that something has to change and soon. Hopefully, the Wolves can use this Thanksgiving holiday and some time with family to reset and come back together as a team on the other side.
Lacking Defensive Identity
Last season, it was immediately clear that the Timberwolves identity was their defense, which finished the season as the number one rated defense in terms of defensive rating. Not only was it the best in the NBA, but possibly the best defense of the past few seasons in the NBA.
This year, that has been far from the case as there have been countless defensive mistakes that would have been unheard of for last year’s team. Edwards opened up about what he feels the identity of this team is.
“We’ve been trying to figure this out for the whole year, man. We thought defense was our identity, and it’s not looking like it at all. Our identity right now – me and Mike was talking about it – I think it’s we soft as hell as a team, internally. Not to the other team, but internally, we soft. We can’t talk to each other. Just a bunch of little kids. Just like we playing with a bunch of little kids. Everybody, the whole team. We just can’t talk to each other. And we’ve got to figure it out, because we can’t go down this road.”
Edwards talked through some of the reasons the defense has been struggling for long stretches so far this season.
“Doing what the fuck the coach tells us to do. The coach tells us one thing, and we go out there and do a whole other thing. That’s not our gameplan. The shit that you see us all doing on defense, that’s not what the coach is telling us to do. We supposed to be doing a totally different thing. And we go out there and try to manipulate, in our mind, that we smarter than the coaches. I don’t know, man. Shit is crazy right now.”
These quotes added to the sense that much of the Wolves issues are about the mental side of the game. In some ways that is easier to fix, but in other ways it may take dramatic steps with the roster to fix the locker room chemistry.
The worst part about the NBA is also the best part, there is always another game right around the corner. The Wolves will have another chance to break their losing streak and fix what is going on with the team, or dig themselves further into the hole.
Up Next
Like many of us, the Timberwolves will take a one-day break for Thanksgiving before returning back to action for their final game of the Emirates NBA Cup against the Los Angeles Clippers. The game begins at 6:30 PM CT with fans being able to watch the games on ESPN.
The Wolves are still mathematically alive to advance past the group stage of the NBA Cup but would need to beat the Clippers by a very wide margin along with needing multiple other teams to lose their final game.