NBA scores 2016: The Timberwolves showed why they’re the baby Warriors and why they’re not there yet

Minnesota’s future is brighter than anyone in the league. Their present isn’t quite there.

Dec 12, 2016, 1:00 PM UTC

NBA: Golden State Warriors at Minnesota Timberwolves

Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

For stretches of Sunday, you could see why the Minnesota Timberwolves are the baby Warriors. In fact, for almost 40 minutes, the Western Conference’s hegemon and its de facto (albeit very premature) heir apparent played some of the most entertaining basketball we’ve seen all year.

Predictably, the Timberwolves’ 90-83 lead with about 10 minutes to play turned into a 116-108 loss by the time both teams had wrapped up play for the evening. There’s no reason to act surprised — the Warriors are the league’s best team, and the Timberwolves are sporting a 6-18 record this year. We’ve seen how good they can be in stretches (usually stretches not involving the third quarter), but the team is still working through serious problems. On Sunday, those problems bit them again.

Consistency is a good place to start. You can watch the Timberwolves play three straight minutes where every ounce of their athleticism is used to shut down an opposing offense, run for points on the other end and generally dominate. You can immediately see three minutes afterward where their defense is caught out of position, where offensive players make questionable decisions and the other team goes on a five-point run.

Unfortunately, Ricky Rubio is another problem. His perennial underrated defense and offensive orchestration still works at times, but against a team like the Warriors, they’ll just constantly leave him open and live with the results. On Sunday, the results played out pretty damn well for Golden State: 3-of-10 shooting, including five missed threes. Just about all of those shots were wide open, and several of them came after 20 seconds of really solid and competent basketball from the Timberwolves. The only problem is they ended with the ball in the hands of someone who has always been a mediocre shooter, and this season, his true shooting is a shade under 50 percent. That’s a very bad number for someone who takes as many wide open shots as he does.

Their defense has been the biggest issue all season — by defensive rating, they’re only 0.5 points from being worst in the league, officially coming in No. 27 overall. Weeks back, I talked about how Tim Thibodeau won’t let the Timberwolves be a bad defensive team forever. That is still true — but maybe it’s going to be a longer development process than any of us thought. Thibodeau’s magic takes time to work, and an extremely young team that lacks veterans to push its development forwards is a classic case of a team that just needs more time.

Minnesota will eventually be good. They have to be, with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins and skilled athleticism seeping out of their very pores. But right now, they’re not, and it’s just going to take more learning time to make that happen.

We don’t need to spend our entire time here bashing Minnesota. With 25 points on 15 shots, along with 18 rebounds, Towns looked as transcendent as we all know he is. Also with 25 points on just 14 shots, Wiggins continued his slow development into one of the league’s best wings. Kris Dunn needs time, but he should eventually be the Rubio replacement that this team needs. (And if he isn’t, it looks like this team will have another pretty decent draft pick in a point guard-loaded draft class once again.)

There are reasons why we are calling the Timberwolves the baby Warriors. Their roster is built to be a fearsome unit to play against — but it’s not there yet. Through 38 minutes, they were right there against Golden State, the league’s best team. Just be patient until they learn that final 10.

Russell Westbrook is triple-double streaking no more

The longest triple-double streak since Michael Jordan in 1989 is officially over, after Russell Westbrook recorded only 37 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. At seven games, Westbrook was pushing history — only Wilt Chamberlain has ever had a longer triple-double streak, at 11. But even with his return to normalcy, he’s still averaging a triple-double for the season.

In truth, Westbrook’s game on Sunday was better than at least one of his triple-double. His 37 points came on 54 percent shooting (he made 14 shots in 26 attempts), two days after an 8-of-25, eight-turnover performance against the Rockets in a loss.

Westbrook hit a huge, game-tying triple with just under three minutes left in the game, and he followed it up with six more points before the final buzzer sounded. A game after Patrick Beverley got in Westbrook’s head, the NBA’s triple-double king was not going to be denied.

The Thunder are now 43-7 all-time when Westbrook reaches triple-double qualifications, including 10-3 this season. In his seven game trip-dub stretch, Oklahoma City won six of them — only losing that last game to Houston. Westbrook may be getting some cheap rebounds here and there, or occasionally hunts for assists, but he’s also having one of the most incredible seasons we’ve ever seen in the history of the NBA. Oklahoma City has 15 wins this season solely because of him.