MINNEAPOLIS — There was more star power injured Monday night than there was in the game. But the decimated Timberwolves handled their woes better than the Nets.
Brooklyn found a way to lose to what’s left of Minnesota, blowing a nine-point fourth-quarter lead and falling 122-115 in overtime before 15,824 at the Target Center.
The Nets squandered an 89-80 cushion against a team that had dropped 12 of their past 13 and was missing both Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. The Nets coughed up a 23-14 run to end regulation, and let the Timberwolves shoot 70 percent before the extra period.
“Unacceptable,” Kenny Atkinson said bluntly. “We were lucky to get to overtime, quite honestly. Even at halftime, I felt we weren’t playing at a high level, not playing up to Nets standards.
“Give them a lot of credit: They were down guys, they fought extremely hard, they were extremely competitive and they were rewarded with the win.”
It’s been awhile since the Nets (16-16) won, suffering their first three-game losing streak since Kyrie Irving went down on Nov. 14.
With Kevin Durant and Caris LeVert both hurt, Spencer Dinwiddie had a game-high 36 points and eight assists. But the Nets couldn’t make the plays or get the stops when they needed.
The Nets allowed scores of some sort on nine of the last 11 possessions and got outscored 19-12 in the extra stanza.
“Them scoring basically 20 points in overtime, it’s only a five-minute stretch — that’s not near good enough,” Dinwiddie said.
“That’s a tough one. We just didn’t really play very well the whole game, but to let a lead slip away, it’s disappointing,” said Joe Harris, who added 19 points. “It’s a level of focus right now. … It’s more a mental thing than anything else at this point. … We have to muster up energy and a level of focus.”
The Timberwolves looked focused. Rookie Jarrett Culver had 21 points, while ex-Net Shabazz Napier had a team-high 24 with eight assists. He scored eight in OT alone to guide his new team past his old one.
“Execution, just playing hard, just go down the list and see how much we messed up,” Jarrett Allen said. “We’re not playing how we used to.”
Leading 89-80, they coughed up nine unanswered as Napier found Kelan Martin — making his first start — for a game-tying layup.
The rest of regulation was tooth-and-nail, and the Nets trailed 103-101 until Taurean Prince got a lucky roll to pull the Nets even with 26 seconds in regulation.
They forced a miss by Napier to ensure overtime. But that’s where he tormented the team that traded him in the Durant deal.
Gorgui Dieng had a game-high 20 rebounds, including catching the Nets ball-watching for an offensive board on an airball. It typified their night.
“That speaks for itself,” Atkinson said. “That was a microcosm of the game, a lot of those plays.”
Dieng, starting for Towns, scored the first basket of overtime on a putback. Dinwiddie answered, but Napier scored to leave the Nets in a 107-105 hole.
Allen sank a pair of free throws to tie it. But Robert Covington’s 3-pointer put Minnesota ahead 110-107, and the Nets never led again.
Garrett Temple cut it to one at the line with 2:38 to play, but Martin hit a dagger corner 3 to make it 113-109. Napier’s fadeaway rainbow floater over Allen left the Nets in a 115-109 hole with 1:39 that they never climbed out of.
“We let our missed shots affect our defense,” Atkinson said. “Listen, it’s on me, too. I could’ve done some better things out there, made some better moves. It’s all of us.
“We’ve got to find out what it is. If it’s fatigue, then we’ve got to figure that out. If it’s changing rotation, then we’ve got to figure that out. But after the [Christmas] break, we haven’t played well at all.”