Timberwolves on the Brink: Can They Uncover the Secret to Turn Around a Shocking 0-2 Deficit?

Oof, you can almost feel the tension crackling in the air around the Minnesota Timberwolves as they trudge back home after yet another grinding night in Oklahoma City. It’s like watching a slowly boiling pot where frustration starts to bubble and spill before you can quite contain it. Jaden McDaniels couldn’t hold his tongue — or his hands — anymore, finally shoving Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the floor after a relentless arm hook, drawing a flagrant-1 foul in the process. And honestly? That was more exhaustion than anger—like he was just using up the fouls he had left, trying to make something stick.

The officiating has definitely rattled the Wolves, throwing them off their usual groove without them screaming it from the rooftops—more of a subtle twitch beneath the surface, distracting them on a night where they desperately need focus. Sure, Minnesota threw up a zone defense, but it got torn apart, and no matter how many different looks Anthony Edwards tried to create, the effect was marginal at best. Physically, mentally — this team just can’t seem to string together those crucial 24 seconds without the Thunder running away in the third quarter once again, sealing an emphatic 118-103 loss at the Paycom Center. The feat of fighting back seems steep this time, even compared to last year’s heartbreak against Dallas, because these Thunder? They’re something else entirely.

LEARN MORE“It’s a five-minute stretch of a game that they take over. They go up 12, 15 and the game gets out of hand,” Timberwolves guard Mike Conley told Yahoo Sports. “But for the majority of it, the first two quarters, it’s a five-, six-point game. Three-point game, they’re up, we’re up. We just gotta find a way to match or exceed the intensity that they come with in those moments in spurts.”Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, Julius Randle came back down to earth after several stellar games, playing just 10 minutes in the second half as the Timberwolves tried to go smaller to match up with the Thunder’s overall speed.Advertisement

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AdvertisementAdvertisementThe turnovers (five in the third quarter) came in bunches for the Wolves, and they couldn’t hit anything from the 3-point line. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 11 of his 38 in the period, in front of a crowd that chanted “MVP” every time he went to the free-throw line.Advertisement