3/8 RECAP: Lack of Jimmy Butler's Influence Quickly Overtakes Rose Storyline in Loss to Celtics

In a game that started as a one-man show surrounding a former All-Star, the narrative quickly changed into a tragedy about a team missing its current All-Star.

Yes, Derrick Rose is now officially a member of the Timberwolves. He warmed up with the team, cheered on his team from the bench and talked with his teammates.

But he never played. In the meantime, something more pressing became clear.

As he sat, the Timberwolves faced the best defense in the NBA; while they never let the game fully slip away from them, it became apparent very quickly that they were missing an All-Star.

No, not Rose. They were missing Jimmy Butler, and have been since he his injury on Feb. 23.

"You've gotta want to do it. It's gotta be a collective will," Tom Thibodeau said after the game. "Right now we have to have the correct perception where we are."

They were able to start the temporary Butler-less era on a good note, beating lowly and tanking Chicago and Sacramento handily in consecutive games. But since then, they've faced exclusively playoff-bound teams, and have yet to win a game.

Now, after losing their third straight for the first time, they find themselves in a new challenge.

"You regroup," Jamal Crawford said. "Obviously, we've been a resilient group not to lose three into this point. We'll get back on our horse and we'll figure it out."

They'll need to figure out the consistent pattern throughout these games, as all three they've involved an inability to capitalize on chances late.

Against Portland, they held a lead for the majority of the game, but lost when Damian Lillard took over. Against Utah, the Jazz led for the most part, held off an early Wolves run in the fourth, only to take control late.

In fairness, some other stuff happened in that game, too.

Still, while Thursday's game against the Boston Celtics was initially dominated by another subject, the overarching theme of recent weeks eventually took precedence.

It was a game where Andrew Wiggins -- on a night where he was mostly and justifiably aggressive -- struggled to make "winning" impact plays at any point. With the exception of a strong showing in the second quarter, Karl-Anthony Towns was mostly invisible.

Even Tyus Jones, who's been a typical exception to the plus/minus rule, had his worst game of the season and struggled to do anything against Boston's dynamic backup Terry Rozier.

With the exception of Nemanja Bjelica -- who had a career night, scoring 30 points and hitting six 3s -- the Wolves played well enough to win for most of the game, but not when it mattered most.

"To open the game, I scored some easy 3s, and tried to rebound the ball," Bjelica said. The problem is we played against one of the best teams in the league, and they're an amazing team."

Just like the game against Portland, Boston's star got going to close out the night. Kyrie Irving had 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting and put the game away in the final five minutes by scoring on a variety of different types of shots.

Meanwhile, the Timberwolves played a mostly democratic style on offense down the stretch. It kept them in the game for a good chunk of the fourth quarter, and even made it interesting prior to Irving's explosion.

But when Irving started to go off, Butler's absence was as missing as it's ever been.

Against most teams, it would make sense for a guy as efficient as Towns to attempt to take over the game. Against a team that collapses the paint like Boston, that is a much tougher task. Wiggins tried it, but failed much more often than he succeeded.

Meanwhile, the Celtics bench played with the same level of democracy and had more success.

Marcus Smart made a number of winning plays defensively, including a momentum-setting steal-and-score off a Wiggins post-up. Marcus Morris killed the second unit in the first half. Rozier -- as he has all year -- played well above his size and defended guys like Wiggins at a higher level than the naked eye would expect.

Butler wouldn't have necessarily saved this game, and he wouldn't have necessarily saved the Wolves from losing to Portland or Utah, but he would have given them a much better chance.

"We're shorthanded, Thibodeau said. "We can't afford to play cool."

More importantly, Butler's skill set was exactly what has been missing over the past three games -- the first three-game losing streak of the season, to boot. They have the talent to stay with playoff teams, but they don't have the star to close them out right now.

The Wolves might have signed a former All-Star on Thursday, but it was the lack of their current one that quickly came back to light.

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