The Minnesota Timberwolves dropped their home contest with the Orlando Magic on Saturday afternoon. It was a game with a rare early start, and the Wolves were decimated by their Eastern Conference foes, losing by 27 points. 

Of course, this was far from the expected result for a Timberwolves team that was gaining momentum, and for a Magic squad that has largely brought home mediocre results this season. 

It was a puzzling loss without a doubt. After the contest ended, Julius Randle spoke with members of the media in the locker room. One reporter noted that several of Minnesota's worst losses this season have come in afternoon games, and he wanted to know if Julius thought there was anything to that, or if it was just coincidence. 

"I don't think so," Randle said. "I mean, I hope not. Playoff games you can play at 12, 1 o'clock, so I hope that's got nothing to do with it. If it is, we gotta figure it out fast." 

Overall this season, Minnesota has played in five games that began at 2 PM local time or earlier. They have gone just 1-4 in those games. 

The Wolves defeated the Denver Nuggets in a matinee on the road, while incurring losses to the Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, and now the Orlando Magic. 

That's a disappointing number that feels like more of a trend than just a coincidence. Still, Randle doesn't feel like their mistakes were all due to the early start. 

"They made some good shots to be honest, but we just didn't defend," Randle said. "Like, I'm not disrespecting them at all, but they're not like Denver where they score a lot of points ... Just our execution of our coverages on the defensive end wasn't very good." 

Honestly, this is a fair assessment. Blaming the schedule is a convenient excuse, but at the end of the day, the Timberwolves are a team trying to make yet another deep playoff run. They obviously can't afford to lose games because of a 12 o'clock tip-off.

The Magic are not a team that has any business outscoring Minnesota by 15 points in a fourth quarter like they did on Saturday. Orlando has struggled to be a consistently strong offensive team all season, which makes this performance even more concerning from a Wolves perspective.

If the Wolves' defensive coverages are breaking down against a middling Eastern Conference team, better offenses will expose them even more ruthlessly when the stakes are higher, noon tipoff or no noon tipoff. 

The silver lining is that Minnesota still has enough time to get right. Over a month remains before the postseason. How the Timberwolves respond to this kind of unacceptable loss will tell us a lot about the direction they're truly trending in.