Minnesota Timberwolves guard Donte DiVincenzo dribbles the ball past Indiana Pacers guard Ben Sheppard in the first half at Target Center in Minneapolis on March 17, 2025. / Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images
The Minnesota Timberwolves officially lost in overtime, but where they truly lost the game was in the first half.
The Wolves lacked energy from the start and while they regained an edge in the second half, they couldn’t put the Indiana Pacers away and ultimately fell 132-130 in overtime Monday night at Target Center in Minneapolis. The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak as Minnesota continues to battle for position in the Western Conference playoff picture.
“The game was lost in the first half,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “Just our energy and our decision-making was poor.”
Obi Toppin may not be Irish, but he had plenty of luck and good fortune on St. Patrick’s Day on a night the Pacers (38-29) were without four starters in Pascal Siakam, Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner and Aaron Nesmith. Toppin, who finished his night with a team-high 34 points and 10 rebounds, hit a pair of go-ahead 3-pointers in overtime — a bank and a fadeaway — the latter being the game-winner. Julius Randle missed what would have been a game-tying jumper as time expired.
The Wolves (40-30) opened the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run as Nickeil Alexander-Walker made a floater, found Jaden McDaniels for a layup and Mike Conley and Naz Reid, who scored 21 points off the bench, each hit 3s. That run gave Minnesota an eight-point lead, but it couldn’t ever put away Indiana, which took a 115-112 lead with under a minute to go.
McDaniels immediately answered with a game-tying 3, and Randle came up with a steal on the other end. Edwards was fouled a made a pair of free throws for a 117-115 lead with 30.1 seconds remaining. The Wolves got a stop on the other end, but the ball went out of bounds off them. TJ McConnell’s layup tied it at 117-117 with 4.6 seconds remaining.
Anthony Edwards missed a game-winning 3-point attempt as time expired to set up overtime.
It was a truly horrific start for Minnesota, which turned it over on its first two possessions of the game and never found a rhythm in the opening quarter as the Wolves and Pacers played to a 30-30 draw. Things began to snowball in the second quarter as the Wolves couldn’t buy a shot and Indiana was able to build a lead as large as 15 points and take a 14-point advantage into the half. Things didn’t turn around until the third quarter when the Wolves started cutting into the deficit and then Rudy Gobert and Andrew Nembhard each got ejected in a sequence that seemed to re-energize Minnesota.
“We needed to start with that energy. We didn’t have an energy, we didn’t have enough physicality, we didn’t have enough force in the first half, so we had to find it somewhere,” Finch said. “I thought it was a tough decision to throw (Gobert) out. I didn’t think it was worthy of a (Flagrant) 2.”
Edwards scored a game-high 38 points, including 15 in the third quarter as the Wolves whittled down their deficit, but he shot just 9 for 24, including 1 for 11 from the 3-point line. A number of those attempts were poor shots down the stretch in the fourth quarter and overtime when the Wolves had a chance to close it out. Donte DiVincenzo was also a driver of the comeback effort in the third quarter, and he knocked down five 3s and finished with 19 points off the bench.
Published 48 Minutes Ago|Modified 11:48 PM EDT
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