MEMPHIS – Three years ago, the Timberwolves played the Memphis Grizzlies in a playoff series, and in that series the Wolves collapsed in the second half of three games. They blew leads of more than 20 points quickly and easily, like it was routine.

That's what it felt like watching the Wolves blow a 24-point lead in the fourth quarter on Tuesday night against Milwaukee. It was almost as if they were predetermined to give up that lead, as soon as the Bucks got a couple of buckets to fall.

Because of that loss, the Wolves' chances of avoiding the play-in tournament come down to Thursday's game against the Grizzlies, with a lot of the core players from the Memphis team three years ago still on the team.

"The next game is the biggest game of the season," Wolves guard Anthony Edwards said Tuesday.

One of the biggest menaces from that 2022 series, Brandon Clarke, is out for the season. But Ja Morant, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. are all still there, even as Memphis is going through its own dysfunction only a short time after firing coach Taylor Jenkins.

For the Wolves, Thursday is their last gasp of guaranteeing themselves a playoff spot. Lose and they have to pray for help. Win and you can see a pathway to getting No. 6, considering the Grizzlies then have to play Denver, and Golden State has to play the Clippers, in only a few of the key matchups involving teams just ahead of the Wolves in the Western Conference standings.

Three years ago, that inclination to collapse and fold in the face of adversity defined them in that series. After Tuesday, how mentally tough is this Wolves team? Will they put it behind them? Or will the memory of what happened Tuesday creep back in anytime another team makes a run against them when they have the lead?

"We have no choice," forward Julius Randle said. "We can't sit here and pout at this point in the season. Gotta move on to the next one."

But moving on doesn't mean the residue of Tuesday's loss won't linger. The Wolves were treating it as just another night in the NBA, when leads similar to that can vanish from even the best of teams, like when the Wolves came back against Oklahoma City in a fourth-quarter comeback in February. But not all of those blown leads in the NBA come for a team in what was essentially an early playoff game, given the stakes.

"I don't think we feel too down about it. Part of the game, man," Edwards said. "They wasn't making shots first three quarters. We knew they was gonna start making it. We just tried to maintain. They made a great adjustment by going zone, and it messed us up."

The Wolves are liable to see some more zone after the Bucks embarrassed them with it. For their sake, the Wolves had better be telling the truth that Tuesday's loss didn't concern them too much, that they would be able to bounce back for Thursday's matchup. It won't take long to find out if they weren't, especially against a team that has had success exposing them in the past.

"We played three quarters of great basketball. Take that and go forward," guard Donte DiVincenzo said about Tuesday's performance. "But we have to learn from what they did, and watch it and how to adjust and apply it next game because they're going to do probably the same thing."

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