After traveling halfway across the country from Sacramento to Minneapolis, the Spurs headed into the den of a Minnesota Timberwolves squad that is pushing to get into the top six and avoid the play-in tournament. The Spurs managed to hang tough for almost three quarters, getting as close as five points a few times after being down by 14 in the first half, but the Wolves were just too hot and had an answer every time the Spurs threatened, hitting 21-42 from three to hand the Spurs a 124-141 loss.

De’Aaron Fox led the Spurs with an efficient 22 points and four threes, and Stephon Castle had his fifth 20-pointer off the bench in six games, along with 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Eight Wolves scored in double figures, led by 25 from Anthony Edwards and 20 from Naz reed off the bench.

Observations

• At least tonight’s game started on time. When the Spurs played in Minnesota back in December, the game was delayed for over an hour after they noticed during shootaround that the paint was pealing off the Wolves’ City Edition court, and the teams had to wait for the court to be changed and warm back up. They had the same court out today, but there were no issues this time.
• Castle and Rudy Gobert got each other in foul trouble in the first quarter, with Castle drawing two of Gobert’s three and Castle getting his second trying to grab the ball from Gobert on the prior play. The refs weren’t letting much go early in the game, to the annoyance of both teams. Gobert had to sit the entire second quarter, but Castle kept playing.
• Probably trying to find a spark, both Sandro Mamukelashvili and Blake Wesley got some second quarter run. Mamu provided a couple of driving layups on offense but otherwise was no help on defense despite his best effort, while Wesley committed a travel and left Mike Conley open for a three in three minutes of action. He got more time in garbage time, and immediately inbounded the ball off the back of Gobert for a layup.
• The Spurs as a whole have had issues all season with leaving their men wide open, especially in the corner, to unnecessarily help on defense. Whether it’s a scheme issue or a bad habit, it’s something that has to change. Overall, the Wolves hit 11 threes in the first half, many open and/or off of offensive rebounds, but the Spurs managed keep things close by getting to the free throw line and only were down by 8 at the half.
• Anthony Edwards has already served his 16-technical suspension this season, and his team is on the cusp between the play-in and playoffs, so you would think he would try a little harder to keep himself in check and not do anything that would give him another suspension and hurt his team. While he did not receive any T’s in this game, he tried a few times, at one point even yelling at the ref after he had already gotten the whistle on a pretty soft call. He may have been sitting out the next game on another night with a different officiating crew.
• The Spurs shot well in this game, hitting over 55% from the floor, including 68 points in the paint and getting to the line nine more times than Minnesota, but they just couldn’t get enough stops. Even on the rare occasion that the Wolves did miss a three, and the ball would ricochet back into their hands just for them to hit it on the second try. The Wolves are already more talented (and obviously healthier) than the Spurs, and despite the usual complaints about them giving up too many offensive rebounds and open threes, it’s one of those nights where you just tip your cap to an opponent who couldn’t miss and move on.

The Spurs will be right back in action tomorrow to kick of a ahem very easy (if they want it to be) four-game home stand, beginning with a miniseries against a depleted Dallas Mavericks team. Tip-off will be at 7:30 PM CT on KENS 5.