Timberwolves let one slip away against Magic

Rudy Gobert's strong performance wasn't enough Friday night.

Three turnovers. A technical foul. Bad shot selection. An ill-timed intentional foul.

Those were all fourth-quarter plays that cost the Timberwolves down the stretch in a 108-106 loss to the Orlando Magic Friday night at Target Center. 

Anthony Edwards at times was trying to play hero ball, going iso before taking a bad shot. He picked up a technical foul in what was then a 93-93 game after complaining to the officials about what he felt was a missed call on a drive to the basket. 

With the Timberwolves trailing by two points in the last minute of the game, Jaden McDaniels intentionally fouled Paolo Banchero with 9.1 seconds remaining despite the fact that Minnesota would have gotten the ball back had it gotten the stop. 

"The plan wasn't to foul at all," Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said when asked if the plan was to foul earlier in the possession. "The plan was to get a stop. I got confidence in defense and somewhere there was a miscommunication and they thought we should've fouled." 

Those plays spoiled what was a dominant start from Rudy Gobert, who looked the part of an All-Star even if he didn't get the nod, particularly early on in the contest. 

Gobert poured in 11 points in the first quarter and was his usual pesky defensive self, clogging up the lane and swatting a couple Magic shot attempts. 

While he slowed down later on, Gobert still finished with 22 points, 16 rebounds, two assists and a pair of blocks. But his dominant start was later spoiled as the Wolves kept letting their lead shrink and shrink until the Magic pulled ahead. 

Aside from even the shot selection down the stretch, the Timberwolves simply looked like they couldn't find a rhythm throughout the fourth quarter. And even before then, they were loose with the basketball, recording 17 turnovers on the night. 

"Shot selection was poor for the most part. Overall execution was poor. We struggled to get into our sets, they did a good job with their physicality, with their ball pressure, and we didn't really do a good job of battling back on that front," Finch said. 

The Timberwolves (34-15) jumped out to a 17-point lead in the second quarter, but little by little, the Magic (26-23) whittled down their deficit. It was just five by the end of the first half. Then they jumped ahead to take a couple one-point leads in the third quarter. Still, Minnesota led 88-80 entering the fourth quarter of play. 

Edwards briefly exited for the remaining 4 minutes, 20 seconds of the second quarter after he appeared to bump knees during a drive to the basket. He limped off the court and to the locker room, but returned and started the second half to much applause from the sellout Target Center crowd. Edwards finished with 22 points and five assists.

Mike Conley looked more like himself than in Wednesday’s win over the Dallas Mavericks, his first game back after a two-game absence due to a hamstring injury. Conley was dishing dimes and feeding Gobert early in the first half and hit a key 3-pointer in the third quarter that stopped some bleeding for the Wolves. He finished his night with four points and nine assists.

Conley still didn’t quite have his legs under him, shooting just 1 of 9 on the night, including 1 of 6 from deep. A couple of those were good looks that came late and could've helped Minnesota flip the script. But it was just one of those games.

Final key stats

• Rudy Gobert: 22 points, 16 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks
• Anthony Edwards: 22 points, 5 assists, 1 rebound, 1 steal
• Karl-Anthony Towns: 19 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist
• Jaden McDaniels: 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal 
• Paolo Banchero: 23 points, 6 assists, 1 rebound, 1 steal