NEW YORK _ His team struggling to start the season and headed to Brooklyn Tuesday, Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau was asked before Tuesday's 119-110 loss to the Nets if anything in particular concerns him so far this season.
"Everything," he replied.
At least his team's third quarter wasn't an abomination this time, but the Wolves squandered young star Andrew Wiggins' career-high six 3-point shots made and career-high 36 points while losing for the fifth time in six games.
Wiggins scored 21 of his 36 points after halftime and 18 of those 36 came on the six 3-pointers made out of seven attempted.
His previous career high was 35 points reached last January against the Cleveland team that drafted him and traded him away for Kevin Love before he ever played a game for the Cavaliers.
Wiggins' shooting and scoring took the Wolves to the brink of their second victory this season, but free-throw shooting again hurt him and missed opportunities in the closing minutes stopped him and his team.
He missed two free throws that would have tied the game with 3{ minutes remaining.
Zach LaVine later missed a soaring layup that went around the rim and came out and then the Wolves had an airball and a 24-second shot clock violation that kept them four points behind.
Wiggins reached his career scoring high by making a jump shot in the lane that brought the Wolves within 112-110 with 56 seconds left. But Nets guard Bojan Bogdanovic's 3-pointer with 37 seconds left gave Brooklyn a 115-110 that proved to be too much.
Missed shots and their inability to get their hands on a loose ball in the frantic final 30 seconds kept the Wolves from getting any closer.
Brook Lopez led the Nets with 26 points.
Doomed by lousy third quarters in that 1-4 start, the Wolves were only outscored 22-19 in Tuesday's third, a relative victory for a team that had been outdone 24-1 in one third-quarter stretch at Sacramento and 17-1 against Denver another time.
That left them still in contention, trailing 88-84 after three quarters. They were so particularly when reserve point guard Tyus Jones started the fourth quarter with a steal and layup that brought the Wolves within 88-86 with just 12 seconds gone.
Before the game, he was asked if he was curious to see what the third quarter would look like, particularly after his team put in plenty of work concerning it at a Monday practice in Manhattan.
"I'm curious to see what the entire game looks like," he said. "That's one area we have to improve upon, one of many. You learn from each game and you learn from each practice. The first part is eliminating all the ways you beat yourself."
The Wolves took away one way Tuesday by avoiding a third quarter that cost them in their four losses.
Still, they trailed 98-91 with nine minutes left and lost Towns temporarily when he picked up his fifth foul with 8:54 still to play.
He went to the bench to save that sixth foul and Gorgui Dieng replaced him.
With Dieng and Jones on the floor, the Wolves ripped off an 11-2 run that featured Wiggins' sixth three of the night and gave them a 102-100 lead with 5:45 left.
The Nets, though, answered back with consecutive baskets: Brook Lopez's spinning shot in the lane and then former Wolves guard Sean Kilpatrick's drive to the rim that gave Brooklyn the lead back at 104-102 with 5:15 left.
Jones played 17 first-half minutes and played the entire second quarter after starter and rookie Kris Dunn picked up two quick fouls. Jones entered the game and ran an offense that kept the ball moving to the coach's satisfaction.
Jones played 32 minutes total Tuesday and finished the second half as well.
