Atlanta lights up Timberwolves from deep as Minnesota drops third straight

Dec. 7—The Timberwolves seem to have a clear matchup problem — elite shooting teams light them up from deep.

Much like Charlotte did last week, Atlanta chowed down on a feast of open triples Monday at Target Center, going 25 for 49 from 3-point range en route to a 121-110 victory.

Minnesota's lone lead of the game was 2-0.

The Hornets and Hawks entered Monday as the League's top-two 3-point shooting teams.

The loss was the Wolves' third straight as they struggle to navigate the most difficult portion of their schedule to date. It doesn't get any easier Wednesday, when Utah comes to town.

The Jazz currently rank sixth in 3-point shooting percentage.

Minnesota has given up a bevy of wide-open 3-point attempts all season — often to the opponent's third, fourth and fifth offensive options — as a product of the team's aggressive, fly-around defense.

The Wolves are always scrambling and recovering, so enough ball movement generally leads to an open triple. But opponents haven't been able to connect on those open looks for most of the season.

Teams like Atlanta (13-12) almost always will. The Hawks' lineups always feature four or five shooters. Eight different Atlanta players hit triples Monday. Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot hit seven. Former Wolves center Gorgui Dieng went 3 for 4 from deep. Jaden McDaniels said the Wolves didn't do a good enough job closing out hard and running shooters off the 3-point line.

"It's just something we come in with and we know they shoot the three ball tremendously well. If we do a great job of defending the three and making it at least difficult on them, they're not going to shoot 51 percent from three, giving ourselves a better chance," Karl-Anthony Towns said. "Even if we get them to shoot 40 percent today, we're talking about a whole different game and a whole different postgame (press conference). It wasn't the offense for us that was the problem. It was the defense tonight, which was the flip in the narrative we have of us."

Some of Atlanta's offensive success came in transition, but the Hawks also had plenty of success from deep in the half-court sets. Atlanta shot just 15 for 41 from inside the arc, but that doesn't matter when you're lighting it up from deep.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said the Wolves didn't possess their usual urgency to contest shots.

"A lot of them were just short closeouts or not getting out to guys who we didn't think could shoot the ball," Finch said. "When I look at the tape, in terms of our scheme, I was pretty happy. I didn't think we were being picked apart in the initial. It's just that we didn't keep moving around."

Hawks star guard Trae Young posted 29 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. Clint Capela had nine points, 16 rebounds, four blocks and four assists.

Minnesota (11-13) shot well from deep, as well — a welcomed change from the norm this season. The Wolves shot 43 percent from three. Malik Beasley went 6 for 13 on triple tries en route to 24 points. Anthony Edwards had 20 points and seven assists, but shot just 6 for 19 from the floor, while Towns finished with 31 points and 16 rebounds.

Minnesota was without D'Angelo Russell, Jaylen Nowell and Patrick Beverley. It's been short-handed in each of its three losses, but Finch noted other guys simply have to step up more than they did Monday.

"There's no margin for error for our team no matter what you're talking about — rotation, effort or defense or shooting. We just don't have much margin for error," Finch said. "That's why we've got to play basically full throttle and get back to guarding people. When we do that we have a chance."