Wolves season ends with loss to Oklahoma City, NBA's worst record

The Western Conference's final playoff spot and sole possession of the NBA's worst record each were at stake during the Timberwolves' season-ending 138-113 loss to Oklahoma City on Wednesday at Target Center.

Turns out, the home team oddly was the winner and the visitors the losers.

What else might you expect from a 16-victory season that thankfully gave the Wolves faithful who gathered for Fan Appreciation Night the greatest gift of all — its final game?

Thunder superstar Russell Westbrook won the league's scoring title with 37 points — 34 of them before halftime — but his team's season ended right along with the Wolves' when New Orleans beat San Antonio at home to win the West's eighth and final playoff spot.

By finishing the season with 12 consecutive losses, the Wolves guaranteed themselves the NBA's worst record (16-66, third-worst in team history) and thus the best chance to win May's draft lottery.

They'll own a 25 percent chance to win the June draft's No. 1 pick, but more important, they now know they can't draft any lower than fourth, which allows themselves a shot at one of four players: big men Jahlil Okafor from Duke and Kentucky's Karl-Anthony Towns or guards D'Angelo Russell from Ohio State or Emmanuel Mudiay, who played in China this season.

Wolves coach Flip Saunders called that fourth-slot basement "very significant" and guarantees the Wolves "an impact player" whom they can add to "our nucleus of good young players."

Saunders called it a "forced" but necessary change.

"It's not something we wanted, but you have to understand and realize things," Saunders said. "It's important you change course rather than run in mud. We made the change. It was a painful change at times from a fan standpoint, a loss standpoint and from a standpoint of what we ultimately want to do. But it's something we had to do."

That change gave Wiggins and LaVine the space and time to grow. Wiggins played all 82 games and more minutes than anyone in the league except Houston's James Harden, and Wednesday's 23-point night was his 31st 20-point game of the season. He is expected to be named the NBA's Rookie of the Year within days.

LaVine played 77 games and finished the season with a 19-point, 13-assist game, even though the Wolves trailed by as many as 28 points and never seriously challenged Westbrook and the Thunder.

"We found out a lot more about our players," Saunders said. "Tonight I saw Zach make plays he couldn't make the first month of the season. We feel we're going in a positive direction from where our record is."

"If we get it, we get it," Wiggins said, referring to that 25 percent chance of winning the draft's No. 1 pick. "No matter what, next year I feel like we're going to be a much, much better team."

The Wolves now haven't made the playoffs since they reached the 2004 Western Conference finals. That by far is the longest postseason absence by any team in the league. The Thunder on Wednesday did what it needed to do, but its season ended when New Orleans won, too.

Saunders said there's a lesson in the night's outcome for his young team.

"It's amazing in this league when it comes down to one game," Saunders said. "You play 82 games and it comes down to one. It's a learning experience for young players. You never know when that one game is going to be. You can't really take games off. You want to be as consistent as you can."