If Charles Barkley ever authors a book, might we suggest the title: “Winning in the playoffs for dummies.”
Barkley has called the Timberwolves the “dumbest” team in the NBA numerous times in the playoff series with the Memphis Grizzlies. He used “stupid” to describe Minnesota’s latest blunder of blowing a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter to lose 111-109 Tuesday night.
“When you have a big lead, you have to do stupid stuff for the other team to come back. They take bad shots, then you turn the ball over. That’s why they keep blowing big leads,” said Barkley on TNT’s coverage. “When they get a big lead, it’s like they’re like, ‘Let me get mine.’ It (the ball) doesn’t go to Anthony [Edwards] and KAT. Like everybody has the green light. And Kenny [Smith] and Shaq [O’Neal] will tell you, everybody on the team can’t have the green light. It doesn’t work like that. You’re not going to be successful. Some guys, you have to know your role and what you’re good at.”
Quick fact check. Who took the shots for Minnesota when Memphis erased the 13-point lead in the fourth quarter? For starters, it was a Towns 3-pointer – when he shushed the crowd – with 9:28 to go that put Minnesota up 92-79. After that, here’s who took the shots:
- Taurean Prince (got fouled, hit two free throws)
- Towns missed 3-pointer
- D’Angelo Russell missed 9-footer
- Jared Vanderbilt dunk
- Towns fouled on a 3-pointer, made all three free throws to put the Wolves up 11 with 6:58 to play
- Russell missed jumper
- Towns missed jumper
- Patrick Beverley missed layup
- Anthony Edwards missed 3-pointer
- Beverly makes jumper
- Edwards makes jumper
- Edwards missed 3-pointer
- Beverley missed 3-pointer
- Edwards missed jumper
- Towns makes 3-pointer
- Edwards missed jumper
- Russell missed jumper
- Edwards makes 3-pointer to tie the game 109-109
- Towns missed 57-foot shot at the buzzer
The Wolves attempted 19 shots in the final 9:28 of the game and 14 of them were taken by the big three: Towns, Edwards and Russell, which are the three players the Wolves should be able to rely on in clutch situations.
Towns was 1-of-4 with 6 points in the final 9:28. Edwards was 2-of-6 with 5 points, including the game-tying three with 3.7 seconds to go. But he also wasn’t on the floor for half of the quarter because of foul trouble. Russell missed all three of his shot attempts during the final 9:28.
The final minute was brutal for the Wolves. After Ja Morant hit a three to put the Grizzlies up 107-106 with 1:03 to play, Towns was stripped by Tyus Jones and then Russell missed a wild, off-balance shot with 12 seconds to play, putting Minnesota in a perilous situation.
“When I watch Minnesota play, they got a tremendous amount of talent. Like I said at halftime, they’re always going to let you back in the game, between bad shots and turnovers. And it came back to bite them again,” said Barkley.
The loss puts Minnesota in a 3-2 hole in the best-of-seven series, needing to win Game 6 Friday night in Minneapolis to force a Game 7 Sunday in Memphis.
“Minnesota, they deserved to lose that game. Twenty-three turnovers. You had ’em,” said Shaq. “I know they’re a young team, but at some point you have to say ‘This is working, this is why we’re up double digits in the fourth quarter. Let’s slow it down, let’s come back tot his. When this doesn’t work, let’s do something else.'”
“You take all these bad shots, then you have a coach after they capitalize on your bad shots and your turnovers, then you got a coach on the other side that’s not going to call a timeout. The crowd got into the game and Ja [Morant] got the dunk, we know it was over by then. But they definitely deserved to lose that game,” Shaq added.
