Pacers 132, Timberwolves 130: Where Were You For The Obi Toppin Game?

A lackadaisical and careless first half from the Wolves gave a debilitated Pacer team life, and a former Knick a career game.

There may not be a bigger thud that an eight-game winning streak can come crashing down to than what transpired at Target Center on Monday night.

Any momentum that was carried in from a blowout win the previous night against the Utah Jazz stopped dead in its tracks as soon as the ball was tipped for the Minnesota Timberwolves. In one of the worst first halves of the season, the Wolves got themselves in a slobber knocker against a completely debilitated Indiana Pacers team lacking its top players.

Yes, you have to hit “show more” in order to see the full Indiana list of injuries.

We’ll get more to the first half in a bit, but after the lifeless stretch of basketball that was, the energy levels started to turn in the third quarter. Down 14 points, Andrew Nembhard drove hard to the basket. Clipping Mike Conley with an elbow on the way, something Rudy Gobert didn’t take kindly to, he was met with a shoulder from the Wolves center close to the basket, with ensuing bench-clearing extracurriculars.

Nembhard, who was having a nice game with 12 points up to that period in the game, received his second technical and was ejected. Gobert was taken to task with a Flagrant 2 foul and was immediately ejected.

It was at that point in the game where if the Wolves didn’t respond, you’d have to severely question the DNA of the team in this particular game.

It was also at that point that Target Center woke up too. A sleepy start to the game was awoken by the blare of an alarm clock that was the Rudy incident, and the Wolves responded.

Anthony Edwards penned a reply of his own with a 15-point third quarter, Donte DiVincenzo adding 11 of his own, and the Wolves would go on to score 41 points in the period to pull ahead and position themselves to close the game out.

In addition to Nembhard getting ejected, the other main creator in the Pacer lineup, Bennedict Mathurin picked up his sixth foul with 3:19 left in the game.

The runway was clear; all the Wolves needed to do was get by Obi Toppin and a clutch time closeout was theirs.

Until it wasn’t. Toppin would go on to hit seven threes in the game, the most in his career across both college and the NBA, including an improbable overtime fader from the deep corner over Nickeil Alexander-Walker to give Indiana the game.

Credit to the Pacers is due. They kept coming when the deficit was at two possessions multiple times in the clutch.

But with so many losses of this sort on the season, it always comes down to the Wolves. An execution to take good shots down the stretch could have bailed them out of the first half they had, but those two things that needed to be mutually exclusive came back to rain problems down when it mattered.

“There’s lots of different ways to close out a game outside of just making shots,” Head Coach Chris Finch said afterward.

There are also different ways to start them, too.

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Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

Sometimes, It’s Also About How You Start

From Finch down to the locker room, unanimous sentiments were used to describe a porous first-half effort that set the stage for the inevitable loss.

“It’s a game we lost in the first half with our energy,” Finch said. “Decision making was poor…you create a team with confidence to get it cranked up and the shots go in.”

Coming out completely out of sync, Minnesota’s offense coughed up the ball eight times in the first half, with most of those coming deep inside the paint. It was clear from the start that Indiana’s game plan was to speed the game up, and deep paint turnovers aided their effort.

The Pacers ended the first half with 11 points in transition, completely controlling the pace of the game and getting the Wolves caught in matchup situations down the floor.

While there was semblance to their game plan, shot selection from the other team and the inability for them to fall ultimately threw both sides completely out of rhythm.

It also came with a level of overlooking an opponent and disrespecting the game when the other team is down most of their rotation; a motif of Minnesota’s over the last few seasons, but specifically this year.

“We gotta be a little bit more professional,” Julius Randle said afterward. “No matter who’s out there on the court, they’re all good players…we gotta take the game seriously.”

“We just didn’t have a purpose to start the game,” Finch echoed. “The whole first half was fighting the game.”

The Wolves closed out the opening two frames shooting just 37 percent from the field, 21 percent from three, and 61 percent from the free throw line (8-13).

The game may have been lost in overtime at the hands of Obi Toppin, but for all intents and purposes, it was almost certainly lost because of the first half.

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Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

Emptying The Notebook

• Even with up and down energy, the Wolves truly followed suit with Ant. Edwards went 2-10 in the first half (0-4 from three). Once he came alive in the third, the rest of the team did. While understandable (he is your star player after all), that’s going to need to change down the stretch in some games. Edwards will have similar halves as he did on Monday against Indiana, assuredly with how bad the Wolves schedule is down the stretch. Other players HAVE to step up and shoulder the load when things are going sideways with number five.
• The individual stat that jumps out? Mike Conley was a plus-24. The next highest on the Wolves was a plus-5 from Naz Reid. Donte DiVincenzo quietly post a minus-20, even with a really nice second half. He was one of the major offenders alongside Edwards for the rough start.
• I thought Julius Randle let the Pacers off the hook too many times. He had matchup advantages all night. While everyone has loved his unselfish play recently (rightfully so), this was a night where he maybe could have been a bit more selfish, especially in the first half when he was one of the only efficient scorers. Even with smaller bodies on him, he forced a lot of kick outs that would get the Wolves into multiple-swing situations, many times not leading to profitable possessions.
• Indiana shot 44 percent from three. That’s it. That’s the bullet point.

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Up Next

The Timberwolves will play host to the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday in leg one of back-to-back home games against the Pels.

New Orleans heads to Minneapolis off of a blowout at the hands of the Detroit Pistons, and have won just 18 games on the year. It’s a perfect chance for the Wolves to get back on track in the standings race.

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Game Highlights