The Minnesota Timberwolves were appalling in the first half of Wednesday night's matchup against the Chicago Bulls. They looked like a team that had no sense of urgency, which pretty much enraged head coach Ryan Saunders. According to reports, one Timberwolves player whose first-half performance ticked off coach Saunders was Andrew Wiggins. During the halftime break, the 33-year-old head coach made sure that he would make his feelings known to his star swingman.
“You can call it a conversation if you want,” Saunders said, describing the type of discussion he had with Wiggins and the rest of the squad during halftime, via Chris Hine of the StarTribune.
Those who witnessed the tirade swear that it was more of a one-way shouting match, and for his part, Andrew Wiggins himself admitted that he was on the receiving end of a very stern talking to during the break.
“He was yelling at me a lot of the time,” Wiggins said.
Then again, being the professional that he is, Wiggins also admitted that he absolutely deserved being ripped into at that point.
“I needed it,” he said. “The first half was a bad first half. I wasn’t aggressive. I was settling. I feel like in the second half, I just was a little more aggressive, tried to get downhill, creating for guys and do whatever I could to help the team win.”
Saunders appeared to have successfully light a fire under Wiggins, with the 6-foot-7 small forward lighting it up in the second half to finish with 25 points (on 10-of-19 shooting), a 3-pointer, five rebounds, nine assists, and a steal.
Despite their second-half surge, however, the Timberwolves still fell to the Bulls, 117-110, which marks Minnesota's seventh straight loss. As it seems, this is far from Saunders' last outburst of the season.
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