SALT LAKE CITY _ While the Timberwolves speed toward their summers, they're making some kind of history on the way.
Their 120-113 loss at Utah on Friday night was their 22nd this season _ and their second in as many nights _ in which they built a double-digit lead and still lost the game.
No NBA team has done that in the past two decades, but the Wolves did so Friday after they built an 11-point, second-quarter lead and then gave it all away once again.
This time, Utah All-Star forward Gordon Hayward led the Jazz back by scoring 39 points on a night when he made four 3-point shots, teammate Joe Johnson made four and their team outdid the Wolves in that category by making 14 to the Wolves' seven.
That's a 21-point differential.
The Wolves led by those 11 points in that second quarter and again by eight in the third quarter
In Thursday's 105-98 loss at Portland, the Wolves lost a 15-point lead, which is the 15th of those 22 times they've squandered a lead at least that big.
Afterward, Wolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns said the Wolves have a summer project upon which they must work.
"That's something we definitely have got to fix next year," Towns said. "We've got to come back a more disciplined and focused team."
The Wolves had a chance to rescue themselves after they trailed by as many as eight points in the third quarter, but drew within a point three separate times, the last on Andrew Wiggins' score at the rim that made it 114-113 with 1:21 left.
But as he had done just a moment earlier as well, Hayward answered right back, this time with a jumper that brought a foul, a three-point play and a 117-113 lead with 1:15 left.
The Wolves never got so close again.
Before the game, Thibodeau said he will analyze this summer his team's 82-game games and decide best how to address. That could be trades or free-agent signings such as the ones the playoff-bound Jazz did last summer in adding veterans Johnson, George Hill, Boris Diaw. It could finding away to speed the development of young stars Wiggins and Towns.
Or a combination of ideas.
"Here's the thing: You look at how you built those leads," Thibodeau said before the game. "If you have big leads going late into the game, there obviously were a lot of good things happening to build those leads. Then you have to ask yourself: Why did we lose those leads?"
Thibodeau said there are several questions to ask:
_"Was it the start of the fourth quarter, when we were changing lineups?" he asked, referring to the point in games when he tries to get reserves on the floor so many of his starters can rest.
_"Was it not understanding the intensity of the fourth quarter?"
_"Was the defense good enough? What type of shots did we give up?"
On Friday, the answer could be found primarily in the Jazz's 3-point shooting and the Wolves proficiency at preventing it, or the lack thereof.
"I have some good ideas," Thibodeau said about what ails his team in that area. "We're going to formulate our plan and concentrate on our improvement. A big part of learning is what happened, what went wrong and how do you correct it?
"So that will be a big part of our summer."
