Timberwolves take down Nuggets aggressively, pulling away for 133-104 victory

For all the angst the Timberwolves have experienced this season, the team and fans needed an afternoon like Saturday, when the Wolves played their best game of the season in a 133-104 win over the Nuggets at Target Center.

The Wolves took down a hot Denver team that had its full complement of rotation players while having one of their best offensive games of the season. The Wolves had seven players in double figures and shot 56%, with Anthony Edwards overcoming a slow start to finish with 34 points and nine assists.

Now to keep it up.

Teams will have games like the Wolves had Saturday over the course of an NBA season. The challenge for this up-and-down squad is to bottle how it performed in this game and in its Jan. 17 victory at New York and play like this moving forward.

“Number one, it’s not getting bored of doing the right thing,” said Mike Conley, who had nine points on three shots to go with five assists and three steals. “We’ve had spells where we do it for four or five possessions and then we say, ‘Let’s go [isolations], or let’s try something else.’ No, just keep playing fast. Keep throwing the ball ahead, getting transition looks, just getting downhill and sharing the basketball. When we put energy to that side of the basketball, I think it bodes well for us.”

There was plenty to like. Edwards made a lot of the right decisions, passing early and scoring later as the Denver defense loosened. With a three-pointer from the logo in the second half, Edwards passed Karl-Anthony Towns for the most threes in franchise history, with 976.

Rudy Gobert made good on his promise to rebound better with 14 points, 14 boards and five assists. Julius Randle fit in with the flow of the offense and had 21 points, seven assists and seven rebounds while Jaden McDaniels continued his offensive surge after a slow start to the season. He followed 27 points at Dallas on Wednesday with 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting, eight rebounds and four assists.

“This looks like how he played in the first couple years of his career,” coach Chris Finch said of McDaniels. “He was a lot more aggressive out of the corners, and then the last few years, you know, he was probably more catch-and-shoot out of the corners, but we see him now driving and connecting with Rudy.”

BOXSCORE: Wolves 133, Denver 104

NBA standings

The Wolves utilized Gobert as well as they have all season, finding him inside and also in the middle of the floor off screens. Conley mentioned the team has talked with Gobert about making the right plays when they give it to him in those situations; that’s important to keep Edwards confident about throwing it to him. When they can make that connection, the offense is more potent, such as when Gobert found a cutting McDaniels early for a dunk. He had four assists in the first quarter.

“He understands when we give it to you, you have to do the right thing with it every time,” Conley said. “It’s a hard thing, especially for Ant sometimes, to want to throw that pass if we don’t get something out of it. For Rudy, it’s just about making the right reads early, not trying to do too much. When we make the right reads, we’re really tough and our offense is not so much a stagnant offense.”

The Wolves had 72 points in the paint and hit 47% of their three-pointers while keeping Denver in check in the second half as they increased their lead. The Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic had 20 points and 11 assists, but he also committed seven turnovers. Gobert also finished with four steals.

This was the team the Wolves and fans thought was in there all along. Can they play like it the rest of the season?

“We got to figure it out, as far as staying consistent. Taking our time, processing everything, playing for each other. I think we’ve been playing like that lately,” said Naz Reid, who had 13 points. “It takes a while. I’ve been saying it since the beginning of the year, it takes a while to get to this point. Still got a long way to go … but I think habits, just continue our habits we’re building right now.”