What went wrong for Wolves down the stretch against Grizzlies?

The Minnesota Timberwolves led the Memphis Grizzlies 125-121 with 1 minute, 41 seconds remaining in Saturday night's game at Target Center in Minneapolis. From there, things began to unravel in what eventually became a 127-125 defeat.

The turnaround started innocuously enough. Jaren Jackson Jr. made a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to two.

But then things started to turn. Rudy Gobert got a look in the paint and was fouled on the shot, but missed both his free-throw attempts. Ja Morant went up over him the next possession for a layup to tie the game. Julius Randle was looking for a go-ahead bucket and attacked Jackson, but lost control of the ball, resulting in Minnesota's 19th turnover of the game.

"Should’ve just went, got in the lane, make a play like I have been doing, but I just lost my handle," Randle said postgame.

Morant drove in and hit a floater, the eventual game-winner, over Anthony Edwards the next trip up the court.

JA MORANT FOR THE TIE.

JA MORANT FOR THE WIN. https://t.co/6oJ5p71bWr pic.twitter.com/6XWRTITnfO
— NBA (@NBA) January 12, 2025

The Wolves had not one, but two chances to tie or take the lead after that with 18.1 seconds remaining. Chris Finch called a timeout to advance the ball, and Randle inbounded the ball to Gobert, who attempted to flip it back to him, which nearly resulted in yet another turnover. Randle got control of it and dished it to Edwards for a good look at a go-ahead 3, but it hit the back of the rim. Donte DiVincenzo came flying in and grabbed the offensive rebound, his 10th board of the game.

That gave the Wolves new life, retaining possession of the basketball with 6.1 seconds remaining. But the team's final play ended up breaking down. Edwards inbounded the ball to Randle at the top of the key. Edwards, Randle said, typically pops to the corner, but the Grizzlies took that away. Instead, Edwards came up the middle, negating any driving lane for Randle.

"If he would've went corner, I would've went and tried to make a play, but he came up middle, so I was trying to just get him a clean look, dribble handoff and let him attack," Randle said.

By the time Randle was able to hand off the ball to Edwards, there were just 2.4 seconds left on the clock. Edwards dribbled to the wing and got off a 3-pointer, but Brandon Clarke was all over him with a hand in his face. His shot came up short of the front of the rim, and ultimately, the Wolves ended up on the wrong end of the back-and-forth battle.

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— John Brisker (@JohnBrisker2021) January 12, 2025

"It's one of our out-of-bounds plays, and we didn't execute the back end of it," Finch said of the final possession.

The final sequence was hardly what lost the Wolves the game. Memphis snagged 21 offensive rebounds which it turned into 25 second-chance points. Memphis also attempted 25 more shots. The 19 Wolves turnovers translated to 27 points for the Grizzlies. Despite all that, Minnesota put together one of its better offensive performances, assisting on 37 of its 47 made shots, and had a chance to win in the final minutes. It's a game you need to steal when that chance is there.