Clippers Trounce Wolves, 99-79

MINNEAPOLIS — In the words of Canis' very own AverageJer, tonight's showing wasn't even worthy of a delicious recipe recap. It felt more like a Super America chicken sandwich game.

Towns had another double-double, 16 points and 11 rebounds, but that wasn't enough to even raise the performance to "Chipotle free coupon level" in the words of our other friend Asleep at the Keyboard, who chimed in on Twitter when I asked if this was a classic recipe game (of course it was).

I thought the ugly showing by the Wolves was more like when you accidentally leave a Tombstone pizza in the oven for 45 minutes because you got distracted with your laundry or started mowing the lawn or something stupid that resulted in a completely burnt pizza that went straight into the dumpster, but the point remains the same; this was one wretched performance.

The Clippers walked out onto the Target Center hardwood and simply did whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted to do it. Six guys scored in double figures as Chris Paul (20 points, 16 assists, 8 rebounds, and +33 in his 40th career game with 20+ points and 15+ assists — the most in the NBA since he entered the league.) and DeAndre Jordan dominated from the start. There was no resistance by the Wolves; no comeback after a dreadful first half that saw them shoot 12-44 and score only 34 points. And you thought last Saturday's showing against the Jazz was putrid. Tonight was even worse.

Sam Mitchell was understandably upset in the post-game press conference, which lasted 31 seconds (h/t Jon Krawczynski) and likely wasn't music to the players' ears either.

"Worst game; didn't set screens, didn't pass the ball," Mitchell opened with immediately as he sat down in front of the microphone. "I didn't even recognize us at the start of the game. Like I told them, I wish you guys would stop asking me questions about how good they can be. They still gotta grow up. They still gotta understand. They played a team that's a real playoff team tonight. You saw what happened. We're not ready yet. So I wish they would stop reading the newspapers, stop talking to their friends, because we're not good enough to just show up and play."

"That was the worst game we've played all year," he concluded, before stepping off the podium and walking out before any reporter could even think about asking a question. It was Mitchell's shortest post-game press conference of the season. He blasted the team and fielded exactly zero questions.

"He can think what he wants, but it just wasn't a very good game," said Zach LaVine, who went 0-6 from the floor in his first scoreless game since January 10 when he played only eight minutes in Dallas. "Our offense was stagnant. We didn't make a lot of shots. They were just playing better than us so we gotta come back and do better than that."

Just as the Wolves looked like they were beginning to gel, as per the usual with the team over the past decade, the speed bumps inevitably come to slow their roll; more questions arise and doubt slowly creeps back in. While Mitchell isn't wrong in his assessment, there's no doubt he could be better in taking some heat off the players by taking some of the blame for the result, but that's one area he consistently falls short in and doesn't seem to be part of his mental makeup.

"Absolutely it was one of the worst," Ricky Rubio said. "It's not because we lost the way we lost, it was the way we played. Like I said, nobody felt comfortable out there and nobody had momentum and it was bad."

The Wolves were utterly trounced by the Clippers at home, 99-79, in one of the worst games of the year. Towns agreed with that conclusion. "I think it was [the worst game] because we came off a great win and we had the momentum on our side and we just came in and came out flat."

We'll see what Friday in Utah brings.