Timberwolves let one get away against the not-quite-last-place Pelicans

To Julius Randle, the “energy is off” around the Timberwolves the past two games. To Anthony Edwards, New Orleans “just played harder than us” in a 119-115 Wolves loss Wednesday night.

These things wouldn’t be all that bad in a vacuum one night out of a long season. But Wednesday’s loss to the 14th-place Pelicans and Monday’s loss to the shorthanded Pacers are not isolated incidents with the Wolves, who have shown a vulnerability to playing down to their level of competition.

And when the Wolves are in the position they are in, trying to keep pace in the fight for a guaranteed playoff spot, that could end up being a fatal flaw should they end up not making the playoffs when the dust clears after the play-in tournament.

“It was only three or four days ago we were playing really good basketball,” coach Chris Finch said. “It feels like a million miles away, but I’m confident we’ll get back there.”

The Wolves have prided themselves on being a defensive-minded team the past few seasons, but the defense has been missing the past two games. Zion Williamson scored 29 points on 12-for-16 shooting, and the Wolves had no answer for him no matter who was guarding him or if they tried to double-team him. The Pelicans, the second-worst team in the Western Conference and down multiple starters, shot 53%. Edwards also had 29 points but was 5-for-19. He earned the majority of his points at the free-throw line (15-for-17). The Wolves had 14 turnovers, but nine of those came in the third quarter.

“It’s weird,” Edwards said of the team’s struggles. “We’ll be all right, man. We’ll bounce back. We’ve been playing great for maybe three weeks. I don’t know what happened, but something happened with all of us. We’ll figure it out, hopefully sooner than later.”

The Wolves’ lack of clutch-time scoring again plagued them, as they didn’t hit a field goal after Edwards made a three-pointer with 3 minutes, 8 seconds remaining to tie the score 112-112. The Wolves missed three of six free throws in that stretch and Edwards missed a potential tying shot when the Wolves were down 117-115 with 1:10 left.

“Those are shots that we’re pretty happy with in general,” Finch said. “And then at the other end of the floor, we couldn’t get a rebound. So that’s it. That’s the story of clutch time.”

Following a missed three-pointer by Naz Reid (nine points, 3-for-11) with 46.2 seconds remaining, Bruce Brown missed a floater for New Orleans, but the Wolves couldn’t secure the rebound. That led to a layup for Williamson and a four-point Pelicans lead that iced the game. New Orleans had six offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter, an old problem that tends to creep up when the Wolves aren’t paying attention to detail.

“The coaches tell us every day to box out,” Edwards said. “Every day, check to see if your man crashing and box him out. We just did a poor job of it tonight, the last two games. I’m pretty sure they’re going to tell us again [Thursday]. We even have boxout drills sometimes, so I don’t know how we’re not boxing out, myself included. It’s embarrassing.”

Rudy Gobert (10 points, nine rebounds) wasn’t on the floor for the final minutes but said that while he wanted to be out there, he did “respect the decision.”

BOXSCORE: Pelicans 119, Wolves 115

NBA standings

“They call my name, I’m ready. Put me on the bench, I’ll cheer, wish the best for my teammates,” Gobert said.

Randle, who has played well the second half of the season, said he took responsibility for his part in Wednesday’s loss after making six turnovers. He scored 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting.

“We’ve just got to get our energy back, man. Our swag,” Randle said. “It’s crunch time in the season, and we’re kind of pressing. … The energy is off, it’s funky, we’re not playing with that same spirit or the same confidence. We’ve got to find a way to get our swag back and just go out and dominate like we’ve been.”