Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 takeaways from 2018-19 season opener

The Minnesota Timberwolves fell 112-108 to the San Antonio Spurs in the season opener Wednesday night. Here are the three most pressing takeaways from the loss.

Much to the surprise of the NBA world, Jimmy Butler suited up and played Wednesday’s 2018-19 season opener for the Minnesota Timberwolves. It seemed like an impossibility a few weeks ago, but as ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski summed the situation up on The Jump, Tom Thibodeau “won.”

Bringing the All-NBA-caliber veteran back into the fold didn’t help against the San Antonio Spurs Wednesday night, however, with the Wolves falling on the back of sluggish play in the first and fourth quarters.

The first quarter in particular was ugly, with the Wolves turning the ball over three times in the first few minutes of the game, Andrew Wiggins bricking a 3 and taking a contested 20-footer early in the shot clock, and Karl-Anthony Towns jumping around aimlessly on the defensive end like a toddler hyped up on sugar.

Playing real NBA basketball for the first time in nearly six months, Butler was hardly his usual self. Despite finishing with 23 points, seven rebounds and four steals, he shot just 9-of-23 from the field. His lack of in-game conditioning clearly got to him and Timberwolves color commentator extraordinaire Jim Peterson noted in the second half that Butler had short-armed multiple close range shots throughout the game.

These collective struggles led the Butler-Towns-Wiggins trio to post a -3 point differential on the night.

One game is obviously a super small sample size and the unorthodox training camp the team had amidst the Butler trade saga could be a reason for the slow start Wednesday night, but Minnesota was simply unprepared for the Spurs’ challenge. Here are three takeaways from the game.