The Timberwolves are proving rather inept at closing basketball games when met with much resistance. A 22-point halftime advantage Tuesday in Chicago wasn’t enough to stop another end-of-game avalanche from wiping out the Wolves.

Chicago went nuclear from the field down the stretch, causing Minnesota to combust in a 129-123 overtime loss to the Bulls.

“Defense fell apart. Super loose on defense. I think they hit a bunch of threes, too, to tighten the game up. But I think it was 27-second half transition and … second-chance points,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters. “They got the easy stuff, and the stuff that they needed back.”

Chicago started a pair of centers — Andre Drummond and Nikola Vucevic — in response to Minnesota’s big-ball lineup. That paid dividends, as the Wolves were outrebounded 48-42. Chicago had 56 points in the paint to Minnesota’s 40 — including 16 second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds — and the Bulls blocked 16 shots.

Drummond had 16 points and 16 boards, while Vucevic tacked on 24 points.

But Chicago’s guards and wings were equally good. DeMar DeRozan had 33 points — going 17 for 18 from the free-throw line. Alex Caruso was a menace defensively, finishing with four blocks and two steals while making Anthony Edwards’ life difficult down the stretch. And Coby White caught fire in the second half to shoot Chicago back into the contest.

White scored 30 points in the second half on the strength of seven triples. Each one helped Chicago chip away at Minnesota’s advantage and push the Wolves further and further into danger mode.

Finch noted a couple of key defensive game plan mistakes. One came with 4 minutes, 42 seconds to play, when Minnesota failed to switch a screen that left Vucevic open for a triple that pulled the Bulls to within five. Not even a minute later, Karl-Anthony Towns was switched onto White on the perimeter. And rather than pushing up on the guard to force him off the line, Towns laid back, and White buried what was essentially a wide-open look from deep to trim Chicago’s deficit to just two.

“That’s six points right there,” Finch said. “Literally game plan stuff.”

Minnesota again struggled to generate late-game offense and made one poor decision after another.

Kyle Anderson picked up a mindless technical foul from the bench with 90 seconds to play in regulation to essentially grant Chicago (24-27) a free point. Finch didn’t concur with that call.

“It seemed to me like an incredibly quick and unnecessary — at that point and time — call. Just reacting to a play in the moment,” Finch said. “I don’t think it was overly demonstrative. I don’t think there was any excessive discussion or language used or anything like that. Just really, really quick.”

After Towns missed a go-ahead look from well beyond the arc in the final five seconds of regulation, Rudy Gobert appeared to be trying to foul Caruso in a tie game, only to be bailed out by a Bulls timeout. DeRozan missed at the buzzer and Minnesota (35-16) was granted new life in the extra session. But it didn’t use it wisely.

The Bulls continued their onslaught in overtime, pulling Towns into seemingly every defensive action and generating good looks because of it. DeRozan scored 10 points in the extra session. Minnesota’s offense couldn’t keep up.

It was the polar opposite from the first half, where Minnesota was lights out, as Towns and Edwards combined for 41 points over the first two quarters while holding Chicago to 1-for-10 shooting from deep.

Edwards finished with 38 points and 12 boards, while Towns had 33. But neither was good enough when the game reached its climax.

Chicago scored 36 points in the third to trim its deficit to nine points. From there, it was all about execution. And Minnesota isn’t winning any of those such battles of late. The Wolves are 5-5 in their last 10 games and have held an advantage of eight-plus points in the final frame of each of those defeats.

They’ve dropped to third place in the Western Conference playoff picture.

“It has to be focus and intensity as much as execution,” Finch said of the late-game snafus. “You play well, you get up. I don’t know, it’s a question for the guys. But our seriousness has to be at a high level. Just because we’re up doesn’t mean the other team is going to go away. Just the turnovers and the threes, the turnovers and the transition and the turnovers and the offensive rebounds, it’s too many bites at the cherry for them.”

And just another thing for the Wolves’ front office to consider ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline.