Giving away a shot at victory
Season-high 23 turnovers and porous defense waste hot start from the floor
MINNEAPOLIS — Through six minutes, the Rockets and Timberwolves were on pace to go to overtime tied at 160.
This was not a good sign for one of them.
The Rockets got off to a hot shooting start, but they do not execute anywhere near well enough for that to last.
They have improved defensively this season, mostly by playing hard. But the Timberwolves got great looks from start to finish, so when the Rockets hit the predictable, turnover-filled dry spells, the Timberwolves rolled to a 24-point lead and a 129-117 blowout Saturday at Target Center.
The Rockets committed a season-high 23 turnovers, leading to 36 Timberwolves points.
Jalen Green led the Rockets with 21 points, sitting out the entire fourth quarter. KJ Martin started with Jabari Smith Jr. out sick, scoring 17 points.
The Timberwolves ran their offense so well, they had a season-high 38 assists while making 61.3 percent of their shots, including 45.5 percent of their 3s.
Addition by subtraction
When Rudy Gobert was kept out by the NBA’s health and safety protocols, it was bad news for the Timberwolves.
It was also a bad break for the Rockets.
Gobert remains a defensive force like few others, but the Wolves are still working to get their spacing down with him and Karl-Anthony Towns on the floor together.
More specifically, the matchup got worse with Towns back at center.
Towns went into Saturday’s game averaging 27 points in his career against the Rockets, the second-most he has averaged against any opponent behind the 28.5 he has scored per game against the Wizards.
He was a particularly tough matchup for Alperen Sengun, as Sengun was for Towns. With Gobert in the lineup, the Rockets could have hid Sengun on him and let K.J. Martin — who started with Jabari Smith Jr. home sick — deal with Towns.
That would not be an ideal matchup either, but the Rockets could send him some double-team help in the low post and have Martin better defend Towns at the 3-point line.
Instead, Towns scored 25 points on 9 of 12 shooting through three quarters.
Sengun more than held his own, scoring 17 points on 8 of 9 shooting.
The Rockets would have been better off if he could have defended anyone besides Towns, or if the Wolves would have had any issues running an offense with two centers that they did not with just the one.
Turn over palooza
The Rockets committed so many turnovers early, it looked like they were confused and thought they were supposed to hit the targets around the arena with passes.
This is never a good
sign, but on Saturday, it brought the added angst of tearing down their best shooting start of the season.
The Rockets had six turnovers in the first nine minutes of the game while they were making 75 percent of their shots.
By the end of the first quarter, they were down 40-34, indicating the trouble they had slowing the Timberwolves. But in an unhappy reminder of last season, the worst thing about the Rockets’ defense was the position it was placed in by the seven turnovers committed by the Rockets’ offense.
By halftime, the Rockets had 15 turnovers, leading to 27 points off turnovers.
They were outscored by 20 off turnovers and trailed by 19.
Meltdown in Minnesota
When the Rockets stopped turning the ball over to start the second quarter in a stretch when
the Timberwolves got sloppy, they found themselves within three with 6:30 left in the half. They had committed seven turnovers in the first quarter. They did not commit any for 5:30 to start the second quarter.
The Rockets scored four points the rest of the half.
It did not help that Sengun had to sit down after a good start. He had scored six points, making 3 of his 4 shots, in 10 minutes, drawing a pair of early fouls on Towns and three on Naz Reid, foul trouble that seemed a good sign for the Rockets with Gobert out. But Sengun picked up his third foul reaching in on a passing guard and took a seat.
Still, the meltdown was stunning, taking the Rockets from their best shooting opening quarter of the season to perhaps their worst stretch.
Mathews tries a 2
Garrison Mathews took a 2-pointer.
He did not make it. It was a tough drive he did not quite finish. But he took it.
It was significant because it was his first shot this season inside the 3-point line.
Mathews had taken 29 shots, all 3s, in the first nine games, more than twice the previous most attempts by an NBA player without attempting a 2 (Sam Merrill, 14).
Mathews had a chance to get his first Wednesday when he put in a tough runner, only to have it taken off the board by an offensive foul.
This one counts, even if the shot didn’t.