Julius Randle discussed the Minnesota Timberwolves’ collapse after they blew a 24-point lead in the final 10:09 of their 110-103 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
“Our spacing and ball movement, we were super stagnant,” Randle concluded. “We just didn’t get any good looks.”
Sometimes, the answer is that simple. Minnesota’s ball movement dried up after the Wolves put on a masterclass in the first three quarters. Once the ball stopped moving, the Timberwolves began taking less-than-ideal shots, especially when the Bucks began surging back into the game.
Still, there is a follow-up question I must ask.
Why, after three-quarters of near-flawless basketball, did the fourth quarter devolve in such a negative way?
The Timberwolves played great team basketball through the first three quarters. They amassed 22 assists on 37 made baskets, with all nine players who logged minutes also having an assist.
Going into halftime, Anthony Edwards was playing aggressively and attacking the rim. Although he was 10 of 23 from the field, it was hard to argue with the shots that he was taking. Edwards only shot two 3s in the first half and went 2 of 5 from distance in the third. Minnesota was also funneling the ball to Donte DiVincenzo and Naz Reid, who had 16 and 17 points while thriving in their roles.
Minnesota had four players in double digits entering the fourth quarter, including Jaden McDaniels, who had 13 on 6 of 11 shooting after a week of low offensive output(averaging 6.0 points per game over the last four games). The ball movement had been crisp and efficient, evidenced by the shared scoring and assists and the team only turning the ball over five times going into the fourth.
The Wolves entered the fourth quarter with a 20-point lead. Their defense had held the Bucks to 44.3% shooting from the field and 26.9% from 3. However, after a 4-1 run to enter the fourth, there was a noticeable shift in Minnesota’s offensive approach. At the 10:09 mark in the fourth quarter, the Wolves led 95-71 following a Donte DiVincenzo 3 off a Mike Conley assist.
What followed was the collapse. The Bucks switched to a more zone coverage-heavy defense, and Minnesota’s ball movement stopped immediately. As Chris Finch explained after the game, this was the main culprit for the fourth-quarter collapse.
“We need to move the ball early, pass, pass, pass it, just for the sake of movement to shift the zone,” he said. “Everything was a hole, and then the pass was late coming to the middle of the floor, and they were getting their hands on it.”
Finch summed up the schematic problems. However, other issues manifested following DiVincenzo’s 3 to expand the lead to 24. The Wolves started missing shots at an alarming level. Rudy Gobert would get blocked, and Reid would miss a 3-point shot on back-to-back possessions with little ball movement.
The Bucks took advantage and went on an eight-point run to cut the lead to 16 with 9:06 left. Finch called a timeout to check Randle back into the game for Gobert, ostensibly to bring more spacing to the floor to attempt to break Milwaukee’s defense.
Reid missed another shot out of the timeout, and the Bucks sprinted out in transition to score quickly. A possession later, Nickeil Alexander-Walker made an errant pass out of bounds.
Edwards and McDaniels checked back into the game at the dead ball to try to bring more offense in to break the zone. However, Edwards being subbed back in had a near opposite effect. A minute later, he missed a 3-point heave early in the shot clock against the zone. On the next possession, DiVincenzo missed a 3 early in the clock. A possession later, DiVincenzo turned the ball over.
Sensing the changing momentum, the Bucks started pushing the ball in transition, creating another eight-point swing in the 1:40 since Edwards returned to the game. The swing forced the Wolves to take another timeout at 6:41, and they only led by eight.
Minnesota’s offense was more rushed in the ensuing minute of gameplay. McDaniels missed on a two, Randle took an ill-advised 3, and Edwards shot another 3 in succession. That allowed for another five-point Bucks run.
After more poor Wolves offense, the Bucks would tie the game 97-97 with 3:35 to go. They had collapsed. Still, the Wolves faced a crunch-time opportunity to save face, recalibrate, and pull off a win.
However, the bad habits from the fourth quarter lingered. Edwards turned the ball over twice in the final minutes, and his only shot attempt was a heaved 3 with six seconds left. Randle also turned the ball over in crunch time and failed to register a shot in the final minutes.
The turnovers led to more fast-break opportunities for the Bucks, who outscored the Wolves 13-6 and cruised to victory. Outside of an Edwards technical and two baskets from DiVincenzo, Minnesota failed to score on every other possession.
“We just have to be better, get the ball, move it side to side, get the spacing,” said DiVincenzo after the game. “Watch it, look at it. But it starts on the defensive end. We get stops, they can’t set their zone. So it starts on that end, always.”
He later talked about the disappointment in the locker room.
“Everybody in here is pissed off,” he added. “But just regroup and come back because we know we have a huge game on Thursday.”
Minnesota lost one of the remaining four games in a razor-thin Western Conference seeding race to determine who will stay out of the Play-In Tournament. The loss could be attributed to a perfect storm or a bad fourth quarter.
The lack of ball movement and trust they displayed in their teammates while attacking a zone defense could be a sticking point for the remainder of the season and playoffs. When asked if he expects to see more zone coverage, Randle acknowledged this at the end of his post-game interview.
“If teams are smart, probably,” he said. “I ain’t going to give them the blueprint.”
The Wolves will need to regroup and find an answer to the blueprint Milwaukee created to steal the victory before a season-defining matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday night.