Saunders on accusations of tanking: 'We're playing to win'

By foxsports
Published

When Flip Saunders checked his cell phone following the Timberwolves' overtime win at Utah on Monday night, he had about 25 text messages informing him the Jazz television broadcasters had accused Minnesota of tanking.

The Wolves, quite frankly, are not, Saunders said emphatically during his postgame media availability.

"That's totally irresponsible; we're not tanking games," Minnesota's coach and president of basketball operations said. "They should come down before the game, they should find out what's going on, who's hurt and who's not.  . . . We're playing to win.

"It's irresponsible for them to go on TV and say that. If you're working at ESPN, you get fired for doing stuff like that."

Saunders pointed to the fact he had only seven players healthy in Monday night's 106-104 victory. The Wolves (16-54, the NBA's second-worst record) are so strapped by injuries that rookie Andrew Wiggins had to play all 48 minutes.

Root Sports' Craig Bolerjack and Matt Harpring had the call Monday. The game wasn't televised by FOX Sports North.

The conspiracy theorist's assertion would be Minnesota's long list of injured players is a fabrication of some sort. Shabazz Muhammad is already done for the year, and Ricky Rubio, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Martin, Nikola Pekovic and a host of other players have missed significant time this season.

But Wolves owner Glen Taylor was one of several who supported anti-tanking measures before the season. If Minnesota ends up with the top-three draft pick it's expected to, it'll be because of misfortune, not intention, Saunders says.

"I'm just trying to get our guys to go out and play hard, and what happens, happens," said Saunders, who worked as an NBA analyst for ESPN before rejoining the Wolves in 2013.

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