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Minnesota Timberwolves: Turnovers prove costly in loss to Suns

By Drew Mahowald

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The Minnesota Timberwolves committed 25 turnovers in Phoenix during Sunday’s matinee, falling to the Suns by a score of 108-101.

No matter what level of basketball is being played, it’s tough to win if you commit 25 turnovers.

It’s even tougher to win when the opposing team scores 43 points off of those turnovers.

And yet, the Wolves still had a chance to win late in the game, although that chance wasn’t very big,

Trailing 87-66 in the fourth quarter, interim head coach Sam Mitchell employed a lineup of Andre Miller, Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad, Damjan Rudez and Gorgui Dieng for the majority of the fourth quarter and the deficit was eventually decreased to five.

Alas, it wasn’t enough in the end as Minnesota fell by a score of 108-101 to the Phoenix Suns.

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LaVine led the individual scoring for both teams, dropping 28 points on 10 of 19 shooting, including 3 of 4 from three-point range and 5 of 5 from the free throw stripe. Kevin Martin scored 14 of his 19 points (on 5 of 12 shooting) in the first half. Andrew Wiggins added 13 points on 4 of 8 shooting and 5 of 7 from the free throw line.

Since 25 turnovers were committed, I guess it only makes sense to identify those most responsible for them. Dieng led the way with 5, followed by Ricky Rubio with 4 and Rudez and Wiggins with 3.

The Suns were led by their starting backcourt duo in Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight, who combined to score 48 of Phoenix’s 108 points. Knight put up 25 points on 9 of 19 shooting, including 7 of 14 from deep, while Bledsoe added 23 points on 7 of 13 shooting and 8 of 10 from the free throw line. Bledsoe also collected 9 assists, 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 blocks.

It was a downright putrid performance through the first three quarters for Minnesota. They played very uninspired basketball, and the Suns simply wanted it more for a larger portion of the game. The lack of effort is evident just by revisiting the number of turnovers and the points given up off turnovers. No team that’s interested in winning will turn the ball over 25 times and allow 43 points off of those turnovers.

The loss now makes 6 losses in 7 games for the Wolves. With a quick trip home on Tuesday looming, it will be interesting to see how they respond.

Notes/Observations

  • Damjan Rudez really impressed me. Every time he sees the floor, he fulfills his role exactly how you want him to. He’s very active on both ends, and he knocks down the open trey when the opportunity is there. It’s really tough to argue against him seeing more minutes.
  • Zach LaVine entered the game tonight scoring over 31 points per 36 minutes played at the shooting guard position, but that number will certainly go up after tonight. He played nearly the entire fourth quarter at the two-guard, and put up 15 points on 6 of 10 shooting. I do think his minutes at point guard are valuable for his development, but it’s also time for him to play more at the two.
  • For pretty much the entire starting unit, tonight was awful. They all appeared disinterested and worn out from the overtime loss on Friday night in Denver. Mitchell’s decision to leave them on the bench while the second unit was playing well gets no complaints from me.
  • Lastly, this clip I got from LaVine tonight is pretty cool, so I thought I’d add it in here.

Onward

The Minnesota Timberwolves’ next action will be on Tuesday night back at the Target Center against the Denver Nuggets. The game also marks the celebration of Star Wars night.

Next: KG becomes NBA all-time leader in defensive rebounds

As always, continue to check in with Sporting Sota for news and analysis on all things Minnesota sports.

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