Wolves continued to expand their territory in Colorado to include Ball Arena on Wednesday.
The Timberwolves’ 115-95 win was their fifth in a row over the Nuggets dating back to last postseason, which includes Minnesota’s 20-point comeback in Game 7 of the second-round series. Minnesota has held the Nuggets under 105 points in four of those games and won by 20 or more points in three of those games.
“When someone beats you so many times in a row, it’s something that you need to figure out,” Nuggets star Nikola Jokic said. “You need to think about it.”
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Jokic, who finished with 34 points on 13-of-23 shooting, and Russell Westbrook, who finished with 19 points on 12 attempts from the field, were the only Nuggets who scored more than 12 points.
Minnesota’s defense continued to hound Jamal Murray, who scored 12 points on 15 shots.
“They’re into the ball. They know what they’re trying to do,” Jokic said.
“They’re really aggressive, and they have personnel for that. They’re a good team.”
The leader of Minnesota’s pack, Anthony Edwards, continued to take a bite out of Denver’s defense. He scored 29 points and hit 5 of 12 attempts from 3-point range, while Julius Randle, who’s yet to lose to Denver since being part of the Karl-Anthony Towns trade in the offseason scored 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Jaden McDaniels, a big part of Minnesota’s menacing defense added 15 points.
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Minnesota (17-40) outscored Denver (7-30) by 30 points from 3-point range and turned 12 offensive rebounds into a 29-11 advantage in second-chance points. The number of offensive rebounds wasn’t the issue, but the efficiency with which Minnesota scored afterward was a big problem.
“We’ve had an issue this year when teams shoot 40 3s, we all run into the paint. We just have a hard time understanding long shots and long rebounds. That’s been quite a few times this year. We’ll watch the film and try to get a better feel for how they got 29 second-chance points,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.
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“Obviously, they’re a good team. We’ve just got to find ways to be more consistent from game to game, from quarter to quarter, from half to half.”
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After the Timberwolves took a 12-point lead on the first possession of the third quarter, Denver used a 7-0 run to get back within five. Minnesota needed only a few minutes to get the lead back to double digits thanks to consecutive 3s from McDaniels. Malone thought his team looked tired after a back-to-back set in Oklahoma City and missed Aaron Gordon against a bigger team.
The Nuggets have one more chance this regular season to reclaim their territory. That comes April 1 at Ball Arena.
“We just didn’t have it tonight,” Malone said.
“I would never say that this is a pride thing. Is it disappointing that we’re down 3-0 to them? Is it disappointing that they beat us three times on our homecourt last year in the playoffs? Yeah, of course that stings. That hurts. We’ve got one more crack at them later on this season.”
TIMBERWOLVES 115, NUGGETS 95
What happened: Minnesota led by eight after the first quarter and took a 57-48 edge to halftime. Denver fell behind by 14 after the third quarter and got blown out in the fourth quarter, dropping to 42-24.
What went right: Supermascot Rocky made his backward attempt from halfcourt on the first try, winning a custom snowboard for a lucky Nuggets fan. Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets with 34 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
What went wrong: Denver’s first-half offense left a lot to be desired. The Nuggets went 3 of 16 from 3-point range, made just 5 of 10 free throws and committed nine turnovers which led to 16 Minnesota points.
Highlight of the night: A lob from Jamal Murray to Christian Braun brought the Nuggets within five early in the third quarter and forced the Timberwolves to take a timeout. It started with a stop and an outlet pass from Russell Westbrook to Murray, creating a two-on-one that Braun finished with a two-handed slam.
Up next: The Nuggets’ three-game homestand continues Friday against the Lakers.