The Minnesota Timberwolves entered Saturday night's matchup against the Brooklyn Nets coming off a close loss to the Denver Nuggets on Christmas Day, as they jumped out to a nine-point lead in overtime before being dismantled by a 17-point period by Nikola Jokic. Looking to bounce back, the ideal opportunity awaited them with the Nets.

One of the worst teams in the NBA this season, the Timberwolves also had the advantage of playing at home, with all signs pointing toward the team notching its 21st win of the season. However, the Nets had other plans, pulling out a 123-107 upset victory led by 57 combined points from Michael Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas.

It was a poor performance from Brooklyn in their three-point shooting, converting just 11-of-40 attempts from beyond the arc. Additionally, they lost the turnover battle to Minnesota, but their key to victory was attacking the Timberwolves in the paint.

The Nets scored 66 of their 123 points in the paint, compared to the Timberwolves, who had just 46 points there. After the game, head coach Chris Finch addressed the team's inability to protect the paint when asked if it was lack of basket protection or an issue with ball activity.

"I think it was both. I think we took bad routes at the point of attack. We didn't kind of play with the physicality, they got to the corner on us and Rudy was too far down the floor. We gave them too much of a runway," Finch said.

Nic Claxton, Danny Wolf, and Day'Ron Sharpe all found themselves scoring a handful of baskets in the paint, and while they may not have the caliber of bigs that Minnesota has, they have depth and were able to attack a team coming off a high-intensity game.

Teams struggle to step up to the plate after big games all the time, but it seems as though this Timberwolves team just doesn't match the level of the teams from years past. Obviously, there's still plenty of time to turn things around, but losses to the Kings and Nets don't help their case.

While the Timberwolves have some favorable contests upcoming, they will see them during a four-game road trip that features a back-to-back and two games in three days. The schedule gets far more challenging after their road trip, so Finch and his staff need to get these players dialed and a rotation locked in before the tough matchups start rolling in.