Reusse: Timberwolves fans are left with an ugly playoff loss to lament and a villain to jeer

The Vikings were in a playoff game against San Francisco at Candlestick Park in January 1990. There was optimism among the Purple Faithful, since the Vikings had been in the same situation a year earlier, pummeling the 49ers as quarterback Joe Montana was booed off the field.

This time the score was 41-13 for the home team. As media members walked across the area behind an end zone, a familiar Minnesotan shouted out. It was the great George Latimer, a mayor of St. Paul and then a leader in the law school at Hamline.

A reporter turned toward Latimer, and Hizzoner offered the finest reaction to a horrid Minnesota sports loss imaginable: He dramatically squeezed his nostrils together — a gesture announcing, “We stunk.”

George died in 2023, and I don’t think he was much of a Timberwolves fan, but the urge put a tight grip on nostrils had to be strong among a large share of the 19,223 paid witnesses Target Center on Tuesday night.

In Game 1 of a second-round playoff series, against a Warriors team that lost superstar Steph Curry to a hamstring injury with 8:19 remaining in the second quarter, the Timberwolves managed to offer up a performance that brought back visions of the glory days of 13 straight seasons without reaching the playoffs (2004-05 through 2016-17).

The final was Golden State 99, Timberwolves 88, and we can only imagine the laughs Jimmy Butler was having in those first few minutes in the visitors locker room — even if no players, coaches or front office decision-makers remain from his scorched-court departure from Minnesota early in the 2018-19 season.

The Timberwolves managed to advance in five games vs. the Los Angeles Lakers last week — playing some good defense and dominating the boards, while making seven of 47 three-pointers. The enthused fans cheered the dismissal of LeBron James and Luka Doncic and nodded with confidence:

“Our guys are never going to shoot threes like that again.”

Sure enough, this was accurate. The Timberwolves were worse Tuesday — 0-for-15 on threes in the first half and 1-for-21 to start this fiasco.

Most alarming: Anthony Edwards scored a single point in the first half.

This came after Warriors coach Steve Kerr, also the Olympics coach last summer in Paris, offered enthused praise for Ant’s contribution to that team — in performance, in hard work, in post-practice, trash-talking pickup games with Curry and LeBron James, the best of the best.

After a first half of bricklaying, lousy rebounding and finishing second for most loose balls, the Woofies trailed 44-31. This included an incredible 11-point second quarter.

Ben Johnson, with all those unheralded transfers that got him fired with the Gophers, would have had to turn his eyes away from this abomination.

When it was over, Edwards was 9-for-22 with an extremely deceiving 23 points. As the Wolves marched slowly down the hallway to their locker room, Ant was overheard to say in a low voice:

“That one’s on me, dog.”

There were a handful of teammates who could have argued, but Edwards is The Man, and that was as bad as a superstar can play.

As the Wolves were moping, Kerr had much praise, all justifiable, to offer his athletes.

“It’s an amazing group of guys,” he said. “We’ve been the best defense in the league since Jimmy [Butler] got here, and that’s how we won tonight.”

Kerr lauded Butler for his ability to “read the game” and pointed out the amount of times he had the ball up high down the stretch. By then, the Warriors were just looking to run clock without turning the ball over.

Of all the incomprehensible stats, the leader is the Warriors having a 51-41 advantage in rebounds. “We had 18 offensive rebounds …" Kerr said. “And those guys were all 6 inches taller than us.”

Which was close to accurate.

Butler played 41 minutes, had seven of those offensive rebounds (and 11 total), 20 points and not a foul called against him.

There is one instant flashback for Minnesotans when Butler appears on a TV screen, or in a headline, or even a boxscore, and that’s what took place on Oct. 10, 2018:

Bursting into the arena portion of the Timberwolves’ practice facility to make a fool of himself, his coach Tom Thibodeau, his teammates and, later, ESPN for its complicity in helping Jimmy promote the entire debacle.

Babble away as he might about higher, competitive motives, when Butler plots one of these exits from a team it is always based on one thing: a higher pile of millions.

That tantrum destroyed Thibodeau’s tenure, created the momentum for a return to the bottom of the NBA standings, and eventually Jimmy found happiness with the first-class Miami organization — until once again deciding the path to a larger contract was to send his team into chaos.

Thibodeau was the coach who turned Butler into a star in Chicago and promoted him as the main ingredient in all success, yet when Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns had secured the two available “super max” contracts, Jimmy decided to turn into “Jack Torrance” in “The Shining.”

And there to capture Jimmy’s post-insanity drama was Rachel Nichols, sent by ESPN after getting a tipoff — presumably from Bernie Lee, Butler’s agent — that Butler would be available for a sit-down interview after his contrived temper tantrum.

Butler had bailed out on three straight appearances. He was sitting in street clothes on the bench last November when the Heat won 95-94 in Target Center.

This season, Butler earned a seven-game suspension with Miami — still run by hard-nosed Pat Riley. Again, there were many side issues offered for the feud, but bottom line, Butler was looking for an extension for more millions than the $48.8 million that he was making on his Heat contract this season.

Miami seemed road-blocked on a trading partner, and then on Feb. 5 he was sent to Golden State — with the Warriors agreeing to a $112 million extension for the next two seasons. In a twist of fate, Wiggins was the main player sent to Miami, where he will be due the paltry total of $28 million next season … half of Butler’s total.

As always, the team that gets Jimmy after his disgruntlement celebrates his talent. At 35, he’s still a tremendous athlete — and competitor, if the money’s right.

Kerr said Monday of Butler: “He turned us around completely. We were below .500 when we got him, and we’ve been one of the best teams in the league ever since.

He’s a superstar."

When contractually content. When not, he’s a super pain to everyone involved in putting the product on the court. Fans tried to remind Jimmy of that with boos every time he touched the ball.

That drifted away in the 11-point second quarter as Butler held together a Steph-less crew that often included who’s-that Warriors.

All together now, Wolves fans — a nod to your short-term hero Jimmy, and a good squeeze of the nostrils to keep the stench out in honor of George Latimer.