Nothing went particularly well for the Timberwolves on Monday at Target Center, even in victory.

Minnesota didn’t carry over any momentum from its masterpiece Saturday against Denver. The Wolves weren’t sharp nor effective in their 100-92 win over the depleted Atlanta Hawks. So, while it was Minnesota’s third straight victory, it was far from inspiring.

At one point at the end of the first quarter, an object fell down from the jumbotron and landed just a few feet away from Rudy Gobert.

It was an apt metaphor for the evening — near disaster, but no harm done. Well, almost no harm.

The game took a physical toll on the Wolves, as well.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker had to be helped off the floor by his teammate in the fourth quarter after suffering what the team called a lower left leg contusion. Alexander-Walker was walking around, joking around with teammates in the locker room after the game. Naz Reid also appeared to hurt his shoulder in the final frame, only to return to action after having the shoulder heavily iced on the bench.

Minnesota led by 17 points at the half, but looked entirely disinterested for much of the night. The train fell off the tracks in a third quarter in which Minnesota had nine turnovers to just five made shots.

That allowed Atlanta to get back into the contest, and it hung around until the bitter end. Jaden McDaniels finally notched the game-sealing steal with 15 seconds to play and the Wolves up six.

De’Andre Hunter finished with 35 points as the only Atlanta player to go north of 13 points on a night where the Hawks were without Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson and Bogdan Bogdanovic. Perhaps, Minnesota saw Atlanta’s injury report and responded in kind.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch was far from pleased.

“That was a totally unacceptable second half of basketball,” Finch said. “If we’re trying to be a team and go where we’re trying to go, that’s not good enough.”

Players made it clear the coach lit into the locker room after the contest. Most found it justified.

“We felt it, we were talking about it,” Wolves guard Mike Conley said. “But we have to be better if we want to consider ourselves not mediocre, but trending toward the things we wanted to be trending toward.”

Gobert had 18 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota. Julius Randle added 20.

Anthony Edwards — who had a team-high 23 points — said Minnesota merely missed shots in the third quarter. He chalked up the turnovers to Atlanta’s aggressive defense. Edwards credited the Hawks for their play to get back into the game.

The reality is neither team played well. Both teams shot exactly 39.5% from the floor, while combining for 40 turnovers.

The Hawks’ current health situation provided a logical reason for their performance Monday. Atlanta (22-23) has now lost five-straight games. Minnesota was fresh off its most encouraging stretch of basketball of the season.

But, while Edwards denied the assertion, the Wolves appeared to take their eyes off the ball Monday. That can’t happen during what appears to be a favorable stretch on Minnesota’s schedule. Now is the time for the Wolves to establish an identity and habits through repeated success.

Those habits need to be good ones.

“That’s what Finchy was mad about. He was like, ‘I told y’all this is the stretch we need to try to put it together,’” Edwards said. “I guess he felt we came out with the right intentions in the first half and we didn’t come out with the right intentions in the second half. I’m not disagreeing with him. But I feel him. I just feel like we missed a bunch of shots, man, especially myself.”

“Who do we want to be? What team do we really want to be?” Conley said. “We have opportunities every week to be that team we want to be, whatever that is.”