SACRAMENTO, California – The salvation that remains to be made so that Jimmy Butler still appears on the list of Timberwolves despite the noise surrounding his exchange request is as follows: at least they should not be terrible as long as he figures on the list and plays well.

But not everything went according to plan, as the Wolves were about to beat their first season against the Kings of the Golden 1 Center (121-110) on Friday, bringing them to 4-9. on the season.

Their defense contains as many potholes as a Minnesota road after a snowy winter. Their rebound is as ample as the oversized sweatpants. And although the Wolves made a remarkable effort in the fourth quarter to reduce their lead by 15 points to two, the night was incomplete, as was most of the season. Aside from Derrick Rose's 50-point night last week, Wolves have little to celebrate. At one point, Butler thinks he's somewhere else and the Wolves are running out of time to rack up the victories as long as he's still there.

The Wolves lost 39 points against Karl-Anthony Towns while the Kings had five goals, led by Willie Cauley-Stein with 25 and former Wolves forward Nemanja Bjelica with 14 points and eight rebounds.

After the match, the Wolves' locker room was dark, waiting for a long flight back to Minneapolis. Questions have already surrounded the franchise off the field; now, there is a myriad of problems on it. The Wolves have talked forever about how they need to improve their defense and bounce back.

"We always talk about it. I mean, I think that as a team we talk a lot and we do not go out to do what we are supposed to do, "Butler said. "We talk about it during the match, before the game, damn the same thing after the match. But every time we are there, I am a serious man, we just have to go out and do it. "

As it did in the last Wolves games, Towns had a dazzling start.

The 29 points scored by the cities in the first half were the second highest number of goals scored in half-time and the most points scored in the first half.

But the Wolves could not get away from the Kings because of their porous defense. De'Aaron Fox (16 points, 10 assists) led a quick attack and the Wolves offered little transition defense.

"We have to find ways to win the game, do little things and defend," said Towns. "If we can not do that, we will not win. It's simple basketball, attack and defense. We play well in offense. We do not play defense well. "

The cities cooled considerably to start the second half and the Wolves had trouble scoring in the third quarter. The Kings strengthened their lead to fourth place with a relentless transition leading to 38 decisive points, as if the Wolves were not tired enough at the end of a long trip.

Although the Wolves have reduced the deficit to two, they do not have enough means to defeat the Kings fast and return home to face a long look in the mirror.

"These are small details, a little thing called communication sometimes," said Gibson. "But everyone is at fault. You can not watch a room here and there. We are a team and must fix the problem together and when we lose, we lose together. When we win, we win together.

But there has not been a lot of this lately.