The Wolves' loss to the Kings was historically bad
Of the 1,483 games the Timberwolves have lost in 31 seasons as a franchise, the stunning way they fell at home to the Sacramento Kings Monday night might be the worst of them all.
The Wolves went from shooting the lights out to getting their lights knocked out in an epic comeback by the Kings, who rallied to win 133-129 in overtime after trailing by as many as 27 points, including by 17 late in the fourth quarter.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, it was a historically bad loss.
"The Kings trailed the Timberwolves by 17 points with 2:49 left in the 4th quarter. Since 1996-97, the first year of play-by-play data, NBA teams entered the day 0-8,378 when trailing by 17 or more in the final 3 minutes of the 4th quarter or overtime."
It's the 10th straight loss for the Wolves, who have now endured two double-digit losing streaks since the beginning of December and are an NBA worst 5-24 since Thanksgiving.
The backbreaking play of the night was a sensational execution of an intentional miss on a free throw by Kings point guard De'Aaron Fox, with the ball ricocheting perfectly off the rim back to him for an easy, uncontested layup to tie the score at 119-119 with under four seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
De'Aaron Fox perfectly executes the missed FT bucket to tie the Wolves pic.twitter.com/ZoHMItWSlg
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) January 28, 2020
The impossible loss came after Minnesota honored Kobe Bryant before the game. Bryant, 41, was among nine people killed in a helicopter crash west of Los Angeles on Sunday.
"I mean the loss of Kobe is something that we all think of," Wolves guard Shabazz Napier said, via ESPN. "But the competitor he is, he would be upset with us, truly upset with us, and I think once you step on them lines all you're thinking about is playing the game at the highest level. Today we did a dishonest to him, to the Minnesota Timberwolves organization, to the fans."
Sacramento outscored the Wolves 33-11 over the final 5:42 of the fourth quarter, led by Buddy Hield's 42 points off the bench, including 18 in the final five minutes.
Minnesota hit a franchise record 23 threes, including seven from Andrew Wiggins who finished with 36 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 23 points and Robert Covington hit six triples en route to 24 points.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.