Timberwolves lose final regular-season game ahead of play-in game with Clippers

There have been plenty of times in recent Timberwolves history that the last game of the season means nothing.

That's what happens when most seasons end without a playoff berth.

Rarely has it meant nothing because the Wolves already have their plans to keep playing.

That was the scenario headed into Sunday's 124-120 loss to the Bulls, who also had nothing to play for as the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference.

With a win, the Wolves could have notched their 47th of the season, and that would have matched the total from the 2017-18 season, the most by any Wolves team since 2004.

The Wolves rested center Karl-Anthony Towns and guard D'Angelo Russell for the entire game and most of the regular contributors in the second half, coming up short of that benchmark as they turn all of their focus to Tuesday's play-in game against the Clippers.

"Got a big week ahead of us, got a chance to get into the playoffs, which no one would've predicted at the start of the season," coach Chris Finch said. "Except for our guys in the locker room, they talked about it on Day 1, so credit to them. It's a good first step. Chicago led by as many as 28 in the first half. This needs to be the foundation of what we're trying to build, and regardless of what happens from here, we've got a lot of things that we've learned about ourselves."

There wasn't much to glean from Sunday night, when Chicago took a 28-point lead before the Wolves' end-of-bench players cut it to one late in the second half.

"Our first unit was out there playing not to get hurt," Finch said. "That's always the danger with these types of things."

Patrick Beverley got ejected late in the first half, so the officials made him rest while Finch gave Malik Beasley, Anthony Edwards and Jarred Vanderbilt the second half off anyway and emptied his bench.

The Bulls also ended up not playing most of their most important players, such as DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic.

The end of the Wolves' bench trimmed a 28-point Bulls lead to one late in the fourth quarter as Nathan Knight (17 points) and Leandro Bolmaro (11 points) helped inject some life into the proceedings. That comeback got to 116-115 on a Jake Layman three-pointer with 1 minute, 42 seconds to play. But a three from Ayo Dosunmu made it 121-116 Chicago with 32.2 seconds remaining and allowed the Bulls to squeak out the win. Dosunmu had 26 for Chicago while Patrick Williams had 35.

The Wolves were playing out the string, but they at least put themselves in position to enjoy the night off. Their push to get the No. 6 seed provided some of their most consistent play of the season over the past few months. They were 15-8 after the All-Star break. The Wolves entered the night with the 13th-best defensive efficiency in the NBA, one season after they finished 28th. It marked their highest finish in that metric since 2013.

Their offense was sixth headed into the night, which would mark their highest finish since 2018.

There has been a lot for the Wolves to be proud of this season, but Tuesday they will start to really see just how far they have come.

"We've got a lot of things that we've learned about ourselves, places that we need to go and get better and things we need to do better," Finch said. "That's the exciting part."