Rudy Gobert Calls Out Timberwolves for Complaining Too Much in Loss

The Minnesota Timberwolves were riding a five-game winning streak heading into Saturday's matchup against the Orlando Magic, and things were looking good for a team that has put itself in position as one of the top contenders in the Western Conference.

Then the Magic came to town and handed them a 119-92 beatdown at Target Center that snapped all of that momentum in a hurry.

After the game, center Rudy Gobert didn't sugarcoat what went wrong, and it wasn't just about the basketball.

Gobert pointed the finger at himself and his teammates for spending too much time complaining instead of competing.

"I felt like all of us, and me the first, sometimes rightfully, but a lot of times, I feel like we were complaining too much," Gobert said. "We were not the team that we want to be mentally. We have to be more resilient, whether it's bad calls or when the shots don't go in or when things don't go our way. Yeah, we gotta be tougher."

This isn't the first time Gobert has had to call out the team's mental approach this season, and that's part of what makes it so frustrating.

Back in February, the Timberwolves blew an 18-point lead against the New Orleans Pelicans and lost 119-115 at home, with Gobert ripping the team's effort in his postgame comments that night too.

The pattern is hard to ignore for a team sitting at 40-24 on the season, because while the record looks great, these kinds of losses are the ones that raise real questions about whether this group can hold up when things get tough in the playoffs.

Anthony Edwards did everything he could against the Magic, pouring in 34 points on 8-of-18 shooting with five made threes, but the rest of the team let him down in a big way.

Starters Donte DiVincenzo and Jaden McDaniels combined to go 0-for-15 from the field, and Minnesota shot just 35.7 percent as a team while scoring their second-fewest points of the season.

The thing is, this Timberwolves team has the talent to compete with anyone in the league and they know it.

Edwards is putting together a career year, averaging 29.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game while playing at an MVP level, and Gobert continues to anchor the defense with 11.0 points and 11.4 rebounds per game on 70.8 percent shooting from the field across 61 games this season.

Just days before the Magic loss, Gobert talked about how the team was hungry for something bigger after their win over the Raptors, praising the energy they brought in the second half of that game.

That makes Saturday's performance even more disappointing, because the Timberwolves showed what they can look like when they're locked in and then completely fell apart just two days later.

Orlando took full advantage, with Desmond Bane going off for 30 points and Paolo Banchero putting together a dominant 25-point, 15-rebound performance while the Wolves spent their energy arguing with officials instead of competing.

The Timberwolves now head out on a four-game road trip that starts Tuesday against the Los Angeles Lakers, and if Gobert's message doesn't sink in soon, games like this one will keep happening at the worst possible time.