With a three-game winning streak, including four straight at home, on the line the Minnesota Timberwolves came out flat and didn’t turn it up until the very end of a 109-103 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night.
Nemanja Bjelica missed four wide open three point shots. Head coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau committed a technical foul that gave Pacers star Paul George four-straight free throws (of which he hit all of them) with Indiana leading 82-81 late in the game. Karl-Anthony Towns’ father was hit by Crunch, the team mascot, as he sledded down the stairs at Target Center and was in crutches after the game.
It was a weird night.
“I thought we were low-energy,” said Thibodeau, summarizing the game. “I thought we started the game slowly, we were slow to react to the ball. The rebounding was a problem the whole game, then the times which we did play pretty good defense, we didn’t finish it. And they hit timely threes at the end of the clock, many of which off of loose balls that were just rolling around.”
He didn’t focus entirely on the negatives, however, in his post-game press conference.
“The positive was I thought the willingness to share the ball, and then the fight,” he said. “I didn’t like the start of the game, but I did like the fight at the end.”
The Wolves played better in the last 10 minutes of the game, but by then they were fighting an uphill battle. For reference, Minnesota tied Indiana 24-24 and 33-33 in the final two quarters, but lost the first quarter 25-20 and the second 27-26.
The lack of energy showed up in all aspects of the game, but was particularly prominent in team rebounding. The Pacers dominated the boards 44-34.
“That’s been one of our strengths all year, and it’s one of the few times that I felt we were slow reacting to the ball, so we were flat,” said Thibodeau. “When you are like that, you have to work your way through it. You have to be mentally tough to continue to battle, fight, scrap, get yourself going, get each other going.”
Towns led the team with 33 points and 10 rebounds. Zach LaVine had 23 points, Andrew Wiggins had 21 and Ricky Rubio finished with four points and 11 assists.
“He’s just gotta work through it,” said Thibodeau of LaVine, who started the night cold. “To me it’s a long season, guys go through things. I think getting a couple easy baskets got him going a little bit, so it was good to see. Gets to the open floor, that’s when he’s really dangerous. Thought he was making quicker decisions, I think that helps.”
Thibodeau drew a technical for arguing with referee Scott Foster with the team down 82-81. He argued a foul called on Wiggins that resulted in three free throws from George. George, who had 32 points on the night, got an extra free throw out of it, and the team did not rally until later in the game with a deficit they could not overcome.
“There’s not much he can’t do,” Thibodeau said of George, who he coached with Team USA and says is a prototype for Wiggins. “He can hurt you in transition, and if you give him any seams or you make body position mistakes against him, he’s clever.
“I thought he got a couple calls that were tricks.”
The other controversy came late in the game when Jeff Teague stepped out of bounds with the game on the line. Replays on the jumbotron clearly showed his foot out of bounds, and he was also fouled after stepping out. Neither infraction was called by the officiating crew.
“That was probably a little under three minutes down ten, and 15 seconds to go, I thought he was out of bounds,” said Thibodeau. “So it’s a three and a chance to tie.
“But we put ourselves in a bad position, because we didn’t play well.”
Here is video from Thibodeau’s press conference:
Wiggins wasn’t sure why the Wolves didn’t come out with more energy, but he was certain that Teague stepped out of bounds.
Rubio also acknowledged the lack of energy and said that an emotional win over the Phoenix Suns in the previous game was no excuse.
Towns took the blame for the lack of energy, saying he could have done more to spark the team when they came out flat.
