On a night when Al Jefferson had a season-high 36 points and 13 rebounds, the Timberwolves had too many ball-handling issues and defensive breakdowns to cause concern for the high-flying Dallas Mavericks.
The Wolves’ 125-112 loss Monday night at Target Center generated some unflattering numbers that almost overshadowed Jefferson’s return from his two-game suspension for a Feb. 28 DWI arrest near downtown Minneapolis.
How unflattering? Try 25 turnovers, including eight by point guard Jonny Flynn, and 4-of-22 shooting on three-pointers.
Jefferson was fantastic in his return to the floor following the two-game suspension served this past week. He jumped out to a terrific start, scoring 11 points in five minutes to give Minnesota a 21-13 first quarter lead. Dallas answered quickly, dominating the next seven minutes, outscoring the Wolves 21-6 to build a sizable advantage. Jefferson finished with 36 points, the highest scoring output for a Minnesota player this season and he also snagged a team-high 13 boards.
“My confidence has been up, I have kind of lost my confidence in the past two weeks before my little trouble and I got my confidence back and I know what I’m able to do,” Jefferson said.
Yes, Jefferson became the first Timberwolf to surpass 30 points this season by pounding his way to the basket for 36 points, and yes, point guard Ramon Sessions exploited the seams of the zone to get to the basket for five layups. But the rest of the Wolves combined to make just 35.4 percent of their shots over the zone, dooming Minnesota to its sixth straight loss and 12th in its last 13 games.
“He [Love] didn’t look like he had any energy to play in stretches and a lot of it had to do with matchups,” Rambis said.
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