Timberwolves fall apart in fourth, blow 24-point lead in loss to Bucks

Yahoo

09-04-2025

Seemingly en route to taking another giant leap toward securing home-court advantage in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, the Timberwolves wasted 36 minutes of great work with a colossal fourth-quarter collapse on Tuesday in Milwaukee, falling 110-103 to the Bucks.
The Wolves were out-scored 40-13 in the fourth quarter as their five-game winning streak came to a screeching halt thanks to a zone defense Milwaukee masterfully employed down the stretch.
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Minnesota led 95 to 71 with 10 minutes to play in regulation, but was out-scored 39-8 the rest of the way. Milwaukee scored the game's next 23 points over a span of fewer than five minutes after going down 24, with a layup from Kevin Porter Jr. bringing the Bucks to within one.
The deficit was erased entirely on a triple from A.J. Green to knot the score with three and a half minutes to play.
'It was the zone. I thought early in the zone, we missed some good looks. Then we had some turnovers that got them some good looks on the other end,' Wolves coach Chris Finch told reporters. 'Then we just kind of froze. We didn't move the ball, over-surveyed. When we did make the pass to the middle of the floor, it was late. Then turnover, turnover, turnover.'
The game nearly went off the rails moments later, as Porter Jr. and Rudy Gobert got into a quarrel that resulted in double technical fouls for Porter Jr. and Gobert and an additional tech whistled on Gary Trent Jr. Anthony Edwards hit the ensuing free throw to put Minnesota back in front for his first point of the frame.
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But Edwards turned the ball over on Minnesota's next possession, which resulted in a Bucks' transition dunk. The next possession ended in the exact same fashion, and the Bucks went up three.
Minnesota (46-33) was bamboozled by Milwaukee's zone defense as the Wolves were timid and directionless on the perimeter. Soft passes were routinely deflected or intercepted.
'Ball movement got stagnant. Body movement got stagnant,' Julius Randle told reporters. 'We just couldn't figure it out, for whatever reason.'
Milwaukee has now won five straight and is cozying into the No. 5 seed in the East and a second consecutive first-round playoff matchup with Indiana.
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Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo played integral roles in Minnesota building such a large advantage Tuesday. The duo combined for nine triples off the bench, six of which came from DiVincenzo. Minnesota largely limited Giannis Antetokounmpo through three quarters thanks to a strong defensive effort from Randle. Antetokounmpo had just six points at the break.
But all that still wasn't enough to build a cushion big enough to sustain such a meltdown. Minnesota went 4 for 20 in a fourth quarter in which it committed eight turnovers. Six of those giveaways occurred in the final 5 minutes, 20 seconds.
'It's a bad fourth quarter against a zone defense,' Finch said. 'I don't think it's a microcosm of the season.'
The Bucks closed with Antetokounmpo and four bench players — Bobby Portis, who was making his return after a 25-game suspension, Gary Trent Jr., Porter Jr. and Green. Antetokounmpo finished with a triple-double, including 13 points and five rebounds in the fourth quarter.
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Milwaukee knocking off Minnesota prior to the all-star break when the Bucks, who are without Damian Lillard for the foreseeable future, beat the Wolves at Target Center. They were pivotal again Tuesday in delivering a major blow to Minnesota's hopes of landing a top four seed.
The Wolves were set to be the No. 4 seed in the West with a win Tuesday. Now, they're eighth, and Thursday's game in Memphis looks like a must win if Minnesota is even to avoid the play-in tournament. Finch's message to the team after the game was simple.
'I just said, 'Yeah, tough one. Let's go. We've got to be better.' We've got a big game coming up, like they all are,' Finch said. 'We didn't expect to go undefeated over our last 10 games. It doesn't matter where it comes, how it comes. If it comes, we've got to go get the ones that are still there to be got.'
'We can't sit here and pout, not at this point in the season. We've got to move onto the next one,' Randle said. 'We've (bounced back before). So I'm confident that we'll do it again. As frustrating as it is, we can't let it linger into the next game. We don't have time for that right now. I believe in this team, I believe we'll do it. We've just got to do it.'
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