By Anthony Maggio
FOXSportsNorth.com
January 15, 2011
Everything was going so well.
The Minnesota Timberwolves led 55-48 on Saturday night, totaled only six turnovers, were shooting better than 52 percent and holding the Orlando Magic to 39 percent from the floor.
Then came the third quarter, when Minnesota pulled a 180 and couldn't correct itself soon enough to avoid a 108-99 defeat to reach the midpoint of the season with a 10-31 record.
"We talked about at halftime, they are going to come out strong and we can't turn the ball over and come out sloppy," Kevin Love said. "And that's exactly what we did."
Orlando started the quarter on a 10-3 run that featured three turnovers and shortly after stretched the lead to six following two more Minnesota turnovers. By quarter's end, Jason Richardson had 13 points alone and the Magic had outscored the Wolves 33-18, including 12 points off of a whopping nine turnovers.
Against one of the NBA's elite squads, there's no room for a lousy 12 minutes.
"Whether it was getting rattled or trying to make home run passes, we ended up turning the basketball over," coach Kurt Rambis said. "That is the sort of mistakes that plagued us throughout the season. Every other quarter was fine."
Orlando pushed the lead to 12 with 4:15 to play in the game, enough that the Wolves' furious late rally fell short. Minnesota pulled within three points on Wayne Ellington's steal and layup with 21.1 seconds to play, but would get no closer.
Thus the Wolves were saddled with their sixth loss in seven games, but in terms of a measuring stick at least this loss showed progress. After all, despite a handful of different faces in Orlando's huddle following a pair of major trades since the last time these teams met, this is the same Magic squad that handed Minnesota its worst loss of the season
