Well, that didn’t go as planned.
The Wolves fell in Philadelphia 149-107on Tuesday night in a game they would certainly like to have back. The Sixers led the entire game and ended up winning by 42in a contest in which the Wolves just couldn’t seem to find their footing.
Joel Embiid torched the Wolves for 31points and Ben Simmons was effective at both the point guard and power forward positions, helping the Sixers cover their lack of frontcourt depth and finishing with a near triple double. Former Timberwolf Jimmy Butler finished with 19 points and four assists.
The Wolves offense performed reasonably well, but they had no answer for the Sixers on defense. Philly shot 59.8-percentfrom the field and hit 21 threes. The Wolves also got crushed on the boards, losing that battle 54-34.
Essentially nothing went the way the Wolves planned. The only bright spots were Dario Saric, who finished with 11 points off the bench and Derrick Rose who scored 15, reaching the 10,000-point mark for his career.
This is one of those games that’s best just left in the rearview mirror. We know the Wolves are a better team than they showed tonight, and they know it too. Dealing with these types of losses is part of the NBA—not a fun one, but one you learn from. While it may seem brutal now, at the end of the year, this is just one game in the loss column.
Before the contest Robert Covington said something that seems especially relevant now:
“Adversity is going to hit no matter what. You got to take the good with the bad, you got to learn from all your mistakes, you got to learn your lessons and ultimately each and every day you have to come in and get better.”
For tonight we’ll just leave it at that. The Wolves take on the Spurs on Friday and the Suns on Sunday in two key Western Conference matchups.