On Wednesday evening, the Minnesota Timberwolves dropped to 2-3 with a frustrating home loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Timberwolves found themselves down by 20 in the second half before storming back and taking a late lead, only to have Lakers guard Austin Reaves hit a game winner on them as time expired.
The Reaves play occurred when he got a screen from a teammate, then navigated around Rudy Gobert, who bizarrely positioned himself off to the side of Reaves instead of in front of him, and then lofted in a floater over Donte DiVincenzo.
Users on X, formerly Twitter, were frustrated with the former Defensive Player of the Year, to say the least.
“Rudy Gobert is slow and old now and provides zilch offensively, and an average defense, but the smarter than everyone GM doubled down on his investment and basically used up every asset imaginable so now it’s next to impossible to pair Ant up with a star,” wrote one fan.
“There’s about 20 centers in the league that’ll give you what 2025 Rudy Gobert is giving the Wolves rn and it’s a sad sight to see,” added another.
“Idk guys, you can yell about the coach all you want, I don't care who the coach is if this is what Rudy Gobert is now the team isn't gonna be very good,” chimed in another.
A frustrating start for the Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves entered this season hoping to continue to build off two straight trips to the Western Conference Finals. Instead, the team has already lost twice to the Lakers, and superstar Anthony Edwards has already been sidelined with a hamstring injury that will keep him out for at least another week.
As previously mentioned, Gobert seems to have lost at least a step, and the team can't count on Mike Conley for much at this stage of his career. Losing Nickeil Alexander-Walker in free agency over the summer also didn't help the cause.
The Timberwolves will next take the floor on Saturday for a road game against the Charlotte Hornets.
