LOS ANGELES – In the aftermath of Friday's heartbreaking loss at Oklahoma City, the Timberwolves had to undertake some self-evaluation.
Yes, they weren't happy with the delay of game call on Jordan Bell for an untucked jersey, a call that resulted in a technical for the Thunder before Dennis Schroder's game-tying layup at the end of regulation.
But as the team reviewed film before Sunday's game against the Lakers, coach Ryan Saunders said he focused on several areas the Wolves could have been better outside of that call — and perhaps they would have won the game regardless.
"There were five instances in the last 10 seconds of regulation that we could've controlled as a group that if we win one of those, we're coming in here with a victory," Saunders said Sunday. "So, you got to learn from that. I feel good about our team. Everybody is always receptive after losses, and there's a fight in our guys."
That was the focus for the Wolves over the past 48 hours — how to learn from what happened Friday. Outside of the delay of game call, there was a late turnover, Bell missed a pair of free throws, Karl Anthony Towns missed the front end of his set of free throws and then made the second when he was trying to miss. A miss would've caused Oklahoma City, which was out of timeouts, to scramble for a final shot down one. And the Wolves could have better defended Steven Adams' length-of-the-court pass to Schroder. All that was under review.
"We saw where we could've done better," guard Josh Okogie said. "We'll make adjustments for next time a situation like that occurs."
Perhaps a jarring loss in a situation like that will cause the team to sit up and pay more attention to what it needs to do in those situation more so than if they had escaped with a win. At least that's how Saunders was thinking as the anger from Friday night subsided.
"We do have a young team … there are still situations we have to learn from," Saunders said. "Unfortunately, that one hurt. We've talked about it as a group and those games should hurt. Sometimes with a young group, if you sneak out of there with a victory — we would've loved that — but you might lose sight on the details.
