Timberwolves overwhelmed by Pacers again, lose 119-103

INDIANAPOLIS – A week earlier, the Timberwolves were riding high on an eight-game winning streak and were set to face a shorthanded Indiana team, which was without most of its starting lineup, at Target Center. The Wolves lost that night, and they haven’t looked like anything like the team that went on that winning streak since.

The Pacers had their starters back Monday night, and they made easy work of the Wolves in a 119-103 victory for the third loss in the Wolves’ past four games. Indiana led by as many as 23, and the Wolves were a step slow on both ends of the floor. Indiana’s quick offense tested a Wolves defense that has struggled of late with containing the ball. As a result, the Wolves keep stubbing their toe in their quest to avoid the play-in tournament.

“We got to play harder. We got to play with a sense of urgency,” guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “We’re playing like we have [things] secured, and we don’t. It needs to turn around.”

The Wolves had one of their worst shooting nights of the season; they were 9-for-35 from three-point range. Anthony Edwards, who came in questionable because of a right thumb laceration, played with a wrap on his right hand and shot only 1-for-11 from deep. He finished with 17 points and left the locker room before media could ask him about it. Julius Randle, who had found his groove as a playmaker in this offense, had only nine points and two assists. The Wolves started both halves slowly, reminiscent of some of the struggles their starting lineup had earlier in the season. Rudy Gobert finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds.

“We just need to really focus on who we are and just playing with that level of urgency and connectedness,” Gobert said. “Those two things bring the best version of ourselves. Tonight, I think the start of the game, start of the third really put us in a tough situation against a really good team. … We need to be tougher mentally and simplify things.”

The Wolves fell down eight early and never led in the game. They were down six at halftime before the third quarter took a disastrous turn. They committed five turnovers in the first six minutes of the third, and it seemed as if the Pacers knew where the Wolves were going to throw the ball before they did. Rhythm in a free-flowing offense that relies on ball movement and player movement can be a delicate thing, and the Wolves have to regain what made them such a formidable group coming out of the All-Star break.

BOXSCORE: Indiana 119, Wolves 103

NBA standings

“I thought we didn’t have any composure,” coach Chris Finch said. “We were wild offensively tonight, whether it was wild with the ball or wild with our shot selection. Every time we had a chance to tighten up the game…we’d get a stop, come down, take a rushed three in transition. Didn’t really like our composure there.”

The Wolves shot just 10 free throws, and Finch lamented that there were some times they should have taken the ball to the rim instead of firing away from three. To him and Gobert, the offense is bothering the team’s defense a bit too much.

“Sometimes when things don’t go our way offensively, we can let it affect us defensively,” Gobert said.

Tyrese Haliburton, who missed the game in Minnesota, had 24 points and 11 assists. The villain for the Wolves from that game a week ago, Obi Toppin, scored 20 points off the bench.

This dip began with Toppin hitting an improbable three from the corner in overtime of that game, and the Wolves haven’t really picked themselves up from the mat since.

“Start of the first and start of the third, our attention to detail was really poor,” Finch said. “Careless with the ball as well on top of that and shot selection. It was kind of a funky, off performance all the way around.”