Coaches like to say basketball games aren’t won in the final moments of a game, that a win or loss is the culmination of a team’s effort over an entire game.
Jeff Teague’s awful final minute earned the Timberwolves a loss to the Hawks
Teague turned the ball over, then called a timeout with none remaining.
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Try telling that to Tom Thibodeau and the Minnesota Timberwolves, who never got a chance to beat the Hawks late in the fourth quarter after Jeff Teague turned the ball over on his team’s last two possessions.
Teague threw the ball right to Hawks’ guard Malcolm Delaney with 37 seconds left and the Timberwolves down one, only to call a timeout WITHOUT ANY TIMEOUTS REMAINING on the very next possession. You can’t make this stuff up:
This is a particularly disappointing loss that the Wolves shouldn’t have even been close to, given the Hawks have lost more than twice as many games as they’ve won this season. But man, those turnovers have got to hurt.
Who knows if Minnesota would have scored on either of those possessions? My bet’s always on a team with Jimmy Butler, Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns over a team without them. But now, we won’t ever know how that game was supposed to end.
Maybe next time.
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