The Timberwolves have a mess on their hands after wipeout by the Spurs

Deputy Wendell: “It’s a mess, ain’t it, Sheriff?”

Sheriff Bell: “If it ain’t, it’ll do ’til a mess gets here.”

MINNEAPOLIS — It feels appropriate to pay homage to “No Country for Old Men,” a movie that begins with a slaughter in the West Texas desert, after watching the San Antonio Spurs come to town and tear apart the Timberwolves, limb from limb.

Tommy Lee Jones’ character’s pragmatic response as he surveyed the carnage left from a drug deal gone bad signaled a concern for the present situation. Underneath his steely glare, there was a much bigger worry about what could be coming down the road.

There was no such subtlety to Wolves coach Chris Finch’s assessment of a 115-106 loss to the Spurs on Monday night, a game in which the Timberwolves trailed a well-coached, organized and far less talented team by 20 points in the first half and as many as 35 in the fourth quarter.

“They just outpunked us in every way possible,” Finch said. “Outran us, outcompeted us, out-physicaled us. It was ugly and unacceptable.”

The Timberwolves fully expected to have their struggles early in the season. They made a sea change trade for Rudy Gobert and set out with an ambitious plan to zag with a super-sized frontcourt while so much of the league was zigging with smaller lineups. It is still far too early to make any judgments one way or the other. The Wolves are just four games in and still learning each other and adapting to a style of play that is far different from last season.

But the totality of San Antonio’s victory on Monday night was enough to put the Wolves on notice for the first time in this young season. They are 2-2 in what was supposed to be a soft opening to the schedule, with home losses to Utah and San Antonio and both wins coming against lowly Oklahoma City. The Jazz (3-1), who also have wins over Denver and New Orleans, and the Spurs (3-1), who also won at Philadelphia on Saturday, have punched above their expected weight so far this season. But losing a game wasn’t the main issue for the Wolves on Friday night.

This performance was about more than a team that is still getting to know each other. It was about more than learning how to play with two bigs or even about running into a team on an unexpected hot streak.

The problems that the Timberwolves had on Monday night against San Antonio seemed more deeply rooted, and thus more concerning. Playing a team with nowhere near the talent that they have, they allowed the Spurs to run circles around them all night long, a bigger indictment on their hearts than on their ability.

“We knew they’re a hard playing team and this is two hard-playing teams that have come in here and played the game the right way and made more efforts than us,” Finch said. “Those aren’t things that we certainly can tolerate.”

There are plenty around the league with doubts that a Karl-Anthony Towns-Gobert frontcourt pairing can work from a schematic standpoint. In this…