ORLANDO – Maybe only in his uniquely driven world could a guy such as Timberwolves star Jimmy Butler find a perverse kind of happiness in his team's stinker of a loss, 108-102 at Orlando on Tuesday.
The man they call Jimmy G. Buckets — the G stands for Galled, given this game — said the Wolves got what they deserved after they went 12-3 in their previous 15 games and the Magic had won only once in nearly the past six weeks.
"We need to humble our damn selves," Butler said. "I'm glad we lost. Came in here on our high horse, thinking we're a really good team and we haven't done anything yet. Good for us, man."
Only 12-31 when the game began, the Magic outrebounded the Wolves 51-37, outscored them 35-27 in the fourth quarter and yet won even though they committed 16 turnovers to the Wolves' seven.
That's largely because Magic shooting guard Evan Fournier scored a career-high 32 points, mostly against Butler, and because big man Bismack Biyombo delivered a crucial 10-point, 16-rebound, five-blocked shot performance.
"They played better than us," Butler said. "They played harder than we did. They did everything right. We didn't play the way we were supposed to and they whipped our butts. I'm happy."
The Wolves are 9-1 within their Northwest Division, 23-6 against Western teams but only 6-11 against Eastern teams, with losses to the Magic, Charlotte, Indiana, Detroit and Brooklyn, among others.
Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau called his team "flat," the rebounding "problematic" and his team's mere 10 free-throw attempts "very unusual." He said "you've got to dig deep" to explain their record against Eastern teams, mentioning the absence of Butler and Jeff Teague among other factors in some of the losses.
