Jimmy Butler was clearly not impressed with Taj Gibson’s fullcourt heave

The Minnesota Timberwolves got a win Wednesday night, but Jimmy Butler echoed what we were all thinking after Taj Gibson’s desperate heave to end the first half.

For the first time in a long time, the Minnesota Timberwolves have hope this season. The addition of a few veterans during the offseason, headlined by former Chicago Bulls Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson, has the league’s longest playoff drought set to end in the spring.

The Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Clippers 113-107 on Wednesday night, to push their record to 15-11 on the season. The final margin does not reflect how Minnesota was not significantly challenged for much of the game, and they had a 13-point halftime lead.

Gibson grabbed a defensive rebound under his own basket as the clock ran down in the first half, with no time to dribble, get a shot off and have any chance it would count if it went in. The attempt fell woefully short, and it would not have counted if it had somehow reached the basket. But Butler had some playful choice words for Gibson, as a reflection of what anyone watching in the arena or on television had to be thinking.

Butler clearly said “WTF was that?” in reaction to Gibson’s shot as the team’s left the floor. It appeared to be a somewhat focused and legitimate, if desperate, attempt to make the shot over the full length of the floor. Which makes Butler’s reaction all the more fitting.

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Gibson and Butler are now in their seventh season as teammates. The first six of course came in Chicago with the Bulls, and Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau was their coach for the first few of those campaigns. That tie to Thibodeau is why they were brought to Minnesota, and the two presumably have a good relationship.