Timberwolves handle Hawks for third win in a row, yet remain disappointed

The Timberwolves defeated the depleted Atlanta Hawks 100-92 on Monday night at Target Center, but of the 25 Wolves wins this season, this one felt most like a loss.

The Wolves committed 16 turnovers against a team that was down several key contributors, including NBA assist leader Trae Young. They had nine turnovers in the third quarter alone, shot 40% overall and let the Hawks hang around until the final minute.

If the Wolves want to be a serious basketball team, they would have had a more focused effort against the Hawks, especially in the second half. That’s the message coach Chris Finch drove into his team when he ripped the players in the locker room after the game.

“That was a totally unacceptable second half of basketball,” Finch said. “If we’re trying to be a team and go where we’re trying to go, that’s not good enough.”

Anthony Edwards led the Wolves with 23 points, but he was 6-for-20 overall from the field, 9-for-13 from the free-throw line. Edwards wasn’t quite as harsh in his assessment of the Wolves as Finch. To Edwards, the Wolves missed a lot of shots, hence the tight game.

“At least we won and got cussed out,” Edwards said. “[Finch is] not wrong, man, but they’re an NBA team. They didn’t have like a go-to guy on the floor. Everything was random. The hardest team to beat in the NBA is when there’s no go-to guy. They did a good job. They had a lot of randomness.”

Julius Randle had 20 points and eight rebounds but five turnovers. Naz Reid had 15 points off the bench, while Rudy Gobert had 18 points and 10 rebounds. When the Wolves aren’t playing well, Gobert often speaks about the team’s need to improve its habits and be more consistent. He didn’t have to Monday.

“I feel him,” Gobert said of Finch. “At this point we should have learned our lesson. We know how great we can be, but it’s about ourselves. It’s about our approach. It’s about our consistency. And it’s about not getting complacent.”

BOXSCORE: Wolves 100, Atlanta 92

NBA standings

DeAndre Hunter led Atlanta with 35 points. Despite their self-inflicted mistakes, the Wolves still came away with their third consecutive victory, but Finch was disappointed they could not build upon the good things they did in a 133-104 blowout victory of Denver on Saturday.

“Guys were upset in the locker room before he got in there, and then when he left, guys were really just quiet,” said point guard Mike Conley, who had four points, four assists and four steals. “Kind of soaking in all the information we just heard. We’ll respond. This group responds well to that.”

The Wolves had started the game with a 28-20 lead after one quarter despite shooting 36% and committing five turnovers. They put some distance on the scoreboard in the second and seemed to have the night moving in a good direction with a 60-43 halftime lead. They coasted on that lead the rest of the night. It got as close as six at various points in the second half, but Atlanta could never quite put together a run to scare the Wolves. Finch’s postgame message to the team centered not as much on the details of what went wrong Monday, but on how the Wolves need to approach the rest of the season. At least it happened during a win.

“It was obvious we weren’t all there,” Conley said. “So coach let us know about it during the game, after the game. We felt it, we were talking about it. But we have to be better if we want to consider ourselves not mediocre, trending toward the things we wanted to be trending toward.”

There was a moment of concern for the Wolves when guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker needed help off the floor after landing awkwardly in the fourth quarter. There seemed to be positive news that Alexander-Walker escaped serious injury after the team said he had a lower left leg contusion. Alexander-Walker was moving gingerly on his own in the locker room after the game, joking with teammates and told forward Leonard Miller he’d be OK.