For just the third time this season, Timberwolves coach Ryan Saunders had his full complement of players available that he was planning on playing. Josh Okogie and Karl-Anthony Towns both played in the same game for the first time since a win at Utah on Dec. 26 with Jake Layman, who was out of the rotation Sunday, was out for personal reasons.
This was noteworthy given the NBA is struggling to play games as positive COVID tests and contact tracing has wiped out multiple games and other teams like the Wolves' opponent Wednesday, Memphis, are down multiple contributors like guard Ja Morant.
Towns and Okogie played their typical games, but the Wolves' supporting cast around them wasn't up to the task of beating the Grizzlies 118-107 at Target Center. Memphis' bench outscored the Wolves 50-21 and that was enough to overcome 25 points from Towns, 28 from Malike Beasley and 25 from D'Angelo Russell. The Wolves lost their first game with both Okogie and Towns in the lineup in a collapse that didn't have to happen.
The Wolves were up 12 early in the fourth quarter but Memphis raced to a 14-0 run in just over two minutes to grab the lead the rest of the way. Memphis' defense clamped down and held the Wolves to just 17 points in the fourth. Jonas Valanciunas led Memphis with 24 while former Wolves guard Tyus Jones had nine points and seven assists starting in place of Morant.
The Wolves had a strong offensive start, as Beasley, Russell and Towns had little trouble scoring early. Russell hit his first four shots of the game while Beasley was 5 of 8 as the Wolves opened an early 25-17 lead 7 minutes, 43 seconds into the game. Towns accentuated that run with solid defense that helped lead to points on the other end of the floor.
However, after that strong start the Wolves started getting sloppy with the ball as Memphis tightened its defense. The Wolves had five first-quarter turnovers, which allowed Memphis to close the gap back to two by the end of the quarter.
The Wolves also couldn't get others involved offensively early on, as Russell, Towns and Beasley accounted for 27 of their 29 first-quarter points.
That carried over into the second quarter as the Wolves struggled to puncture the Grizzlies' zone defense. The turnovers kept coming, and eventually Memphis grabbed the lead from the Wolves 41-40 with 5:04 left in the half. The Wolves lost some of their defensive presence as forward Jarred Vanderbilt picked up three fouls in the first half, but to close the final minutes of the second quarter, Towns, Beasley and Russell all re-took the floor to give the Wolves the lead 58-56 headed into the locker room. They accounted for 45 of those 58 points while Memphis had 24 bench points to the Wolves' seven.
The Wolves started the second half much like the first, and after a Beasley three, they stretched their lead back to its largest total of the night 71-62 less than five minutes into the third quarter.
Russell and Beasley helped build that lead, with Russell igniting the offense whether he was scoring or setting up people.
The Wolves pushed that lead to 92-80 to start the fourth quarter but that's when Memphis made their deciding run -- and in a hurry. The Grizzlies scored 14 consecutive points over 2:18 to take a 94-92 lead. That prompted Saunders to get Towns, Beasley and Russell back on the floor, but Memphis built it's lead to 104-96 on back-to-back threes from Kyle Anderson.
The Wolves went small to close the game with Okogie playing the four, but could never make another run to eat away at Memphis' suddenly insurmountable lead.
