Minnesota’s Poor Clock Management With Under 1 Minute Left
After giving up the lead with a poor rotation, the Timberwolves found themselves down by 1 point with 33 seconds left. When you are losing late in the 4th quarter, you need to manage time correctly, however the Timberwolves failed to do so, and there are two plays that really illustrate this:
With 33 seconds left, Paul Millsap makes his And-1 free throw, and instead of calling a timeout, the Timberwolves inbounded the basketball. It looked like they were going without calling a timeout, but then, all of a sudden, Kurt Rambis calls Luke Ridnour over and the Timberwolves call a timeout at halfcourt. 5 seconds come off the clock. So, instead of calling a timeout after the made FT and advancing the basketball, he wastes 5 seconds and then calls a timeout.
This is 100% on Kurt Rambis. He has to know whether or not he wants to call a timeout and communicate that with his team. This isn’t a situation where the defense throws something strange at the offense and they are forced to call a timeout. This is just Kurt Rambis being unsure of what he wants to do, leading to confusion. As Ridnour brings the ball up, you can just see the confusion from everyone on the Timberwolves.
The only somewhat logical explanation that I can think of is that the T-Wolves were wasting time because they wanted to take the final shot. But right out of the timeout, they go quick, so that doesn’t make sense either.
The second instance of poor clock management comes out of Rambis’ timeout. The Timberwolves run a play, get a decent look, but can’t get the shot to go down. Paul Millsap gets the rebound, and instead of fouling him (a 72% FT shooter), the Timberwolves (and the three defenders that are watching him) allow him to make an outlet pass, leading to a fast break opportunity for the Jazz.
Looking at that opportunity, we see another mistake. This one by Martell Webster wiping away a mistake about to be made by Gordon Hayward. Hayward is the Jazz who gets the pass from Raja Bell. Instead of dribbling the ball back out and wasting more time, he goes right at the rim for a dunk. If he makes it, the Timberwolves would have 14 seconds to try and tie the game. However, Webster fouls him, allowing the Jazz to stretch the lead to 4 and put the game out of reach.
