Before the Timberwolves' 128-116 loss to the Jazz, coach Chris Finch tried to deploy a psychological tactic against Utah, who had no players in the NBA's COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
Hours before the game, Karl-Anthony Towns joined six others in the protocols, which included starters Patrick Beverley, Jarred Vanderbilt and Anthony Edwards.
"We're kind of playing with house money," Finch said. "They've got nobody in protocols. I don't think they've been affected at all. The pressure is on them to come out and beat a depleted team. We just have to go out, play hard and throw in a lot of shots."
D'Angelo Russell and the Wolves' bench had nothing to lose, because few expected them to win against a Utah team that had almost its full complement of players, including stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.
That team beat a nearly fully healthy Wolves team by 32 at Target Center a few weeks ago.
Offense wasn't the issue for the Wolves, as they had six players hit double figures.
The Wolves actually had a decent night shooting from 3-point range (38%) but didn't have the defense to keep Utah from pulling away.
Russell had 19 points on 7-of-20 shooting to go with 14 assists. Malik Beasley had 33 points while Jaden McDaniels had a season-high 16 points.
Donovan Mitchell had 28 points for Utah while Rudy Gobert added 20 points.
This split-squad version of the Wolves hung around through the first half. Utah never led by more than 10 as Beasley continued his strong shooting with 16 points. Jake Layman, who went from out of the rotation to suddenly starting because of all the absences, had nine in the first half.
Utah used an 8-0 run near the end of the first quarter to take a 33-24 lead. The Wolves bench led a second-half surge in which the Wolves took a 50-47 lead on an 11-2 spurt of its own.
The Wolves went cold toward the end of the half, which allowed Utah to take its biggest lead of the half, 70-60, late in the second as Gobert got a couple buckets inside and Royce O'Neale hit a 3.
In the third quarter, it looked like Utah was starting to pull away for good. The Jazz increased its lead to 15 as Bojan Bogdonovic hit a pair of 3s.
Finch said before the game the Wolves were going to throw up shots and if they went in, they might have a chance of winning. They were able to cut into that 15-point lead by hitting five straight 3s at one point. That kept The Wolves within striking distance at 86-79 following a Russell 3. Russell was 4 of 7 in the third quarter after going 2 of 8 in the first half.
The Wolves had the game within 112-105 with 5 minutes and 30 seconds left.
But Utah scored seven of the next nine points to end the upset bid.
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The Star Tribune did not travel for this event. This article was written using the television broadcast and video interviews before and/or after the event.
