DENVER — There have been plenty of statements flying around Timberwolves-land in the last two days. Some of them have been cold and calculated. Some of them have been fiery and defiant.
After majority owner Glen Taylor and minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez did plenty of talking as a bitter battle for control of the franchise began, the Timberwolves players made an emphatic statement of their own on the court to storm into first place in the Western Conference.
Playing the defending champion Denver Nuggets, still most observers’ favorites to come out of the West, the Timberwolves beat a team that has been clicking on all cylinders since the All-Star break. They led by as many as 26 points, flustered MVP frontrunner Nikola Jokić into a turnover-filled clankfest and withstood a late run in the fourth to secure a 111-98 victory to help them leapfrog the Nuggets into the conference’s top spot.
The Oklahoma City Thunder (51-22) have the same record as Minnesota, but the Wolves hold the tiebreaker. Maybe, more importantly, this upstart team holds no fear of the champions. They feel like when they are at full strength, they match up as well as anyone against a team that has been the class of the conference. That was the message they were determined to send on Friday night.
“Show them that we’re the better team,” Jaden McDaniels said. “We lost last time, but it was kind of a revenge game. Wanting that No. 1 seed again, I feel like that was a big key knowing we could be No. 1, so everyone came out ready to play.”
Sure, the Nuggets were missing starting point guard Jamal Murray, who was out with right knee inflammation. But the Wolves were down a star of their own with Karl-Anthony Towns missing his 11th straight game after having knee surgery. Anthony Edwards was also slowed by back spasms and Naz Reid appeared to hurt his left wrist during the game on a 2-for-12 night.
The Wolves defense dismantled the Nuggets from start to finish, forcing Nikola Jokić into four turnovers and 11-for-24 shooting and the Nuggets to shoot 39.8 percent for the game. They were 8 for 28 from 3-point range. Some of them were open looks, but they also looked flummoxed and pressured by the Wolves’ closeouts.
Mike Conley scored 23 points and hit five 3s, McDaniels continued his offensive surge with 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting and Rudy Gobert finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and two emphatic swats of Jokić in the paint.
say it with us:
DPOY
DPOY
DPOY pic.twitter.com/s86OT6RVBF— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) March 30, 2024
Gobert has had more of those loud blocked shots this season than last season, and that is intentional on his part.
“They didn’t fear me enough last year,” Gobert said. He wasn’t as physically dominant while trying to figure out how to play with his teammates in a new system. This year he is much more comfortable, and that allows him to play with more force.
“I know I’m gonna do what I have to do to impact the other team defensively and yeah, I have faith in my teammates, faith in the coaching staff and I love it,” Gobert said.
If there were any concerns about the very public and very messy dispute between Taylor and Lore/Rodriguez distracting the team as it comes down the stretch to the playoffs, there were no signs of that in Denver on Friday night. They played their cleanest, most focused half of the season in the first two quarters against the defending champs, racking up 19 assists on 25 made baskets with zero turnovers, the first time they haven’t turned the ball over in a half since 2005.
Coach Chris Finch said before the game that he was confident that his players would not be affected by the drama.
“They barely listen to me sometimes,” Finch cracked.
He may have been joking, but there was some truth in his assessment. The players seem to be most affected by the coaches they see in the huddle and the front office executives that negotiate their contracts. Even for owners like Glen and Becky Taylor, who sit right next to the bench at most every home game, and Lore and Rodriguez, who have been very visible in their three years since joining the ownership group, are so high above a player’s day-to-day concerns that they can compartmentalize the issue.
Asked about the situation after the game, McDaniels needed to be briefed on the situation to understand the line of questioning.
“I don’t even know, to be honest,” he said. “I don’t even know what’s going on, for real. I’m just going to keep that on that side and let them handle their own business.”
“I’m here to win basketball games,” said Edwards, who had 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals. “I’m just here to play basketball. Wherever that go, that go.”
Edwards and Reid combined to shoot 0 for 8 from 3-point range. The Wolves were only 9 for 28 from deep for the game. And yet they still ran away with the game. They were up by 21 points after three quarters.
On the defensive end, the Wolves were every bit the unyielding pit bulls they have been all season. They held Jokić to 10 points on 12 shots in the first half, and with Murray sitting out, Finch could put McDaniels on Michael Porter Jr., the 6-10 shooter who scorched the Wolves in the fourth quarter in Minnesota in their last meeting to help Denver squeak out a three-point win. Porter had 14 points and only two 3s.
BEST DEFENSIVE TEAM IN THE LEAGUE FOR A REASON. pic.twitter.com/eCZGXYLYsi
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) March 30, 2024
“They have talent and they know how to use the talent,” Jokić said.
The Wolves were missing Towns, Gobert and Reid in that loss in Minnesota and they still took the Nuggets to the wire, with Edwards just missing a 3-pointer that would have tied the game at the end of regulation.
“They’re the defending champs, but we got all the pieces,” McDaniels said. “Everyone on our team is versatile and can guard 1-4, 1-5. It’s a good matchup for us, but I think we’re the better team.”
The Wolves still do have a healthy respect for the Nuggets. They may have put up a fight in that playoff series last year, but they still went down 4-1. Jokić said it was no question that this version of the Wolves are better. Reid, McDaniels and Kyle Anderson are all healthy right now. They were not last April.
“They’re a great team that personally really inspires me, with what they did last year,” Gobert said. “I have a lot of respect for this team and what they have accomplished. But we know that this year, we’re a more mature team than we were last year and we know this year we have a lot of confidence to beat anyone, anywhere.”
No one knows where the ownership situation is headed. Lore and Rodriguez said on Friday that they plan to fight Taylor to the bitter end, however long that takes. In the middle of the chaos, the team looks as strong as it has all season.
“There’s a lot of things we don’t know, and what we know is that we’re the ones on the floor,” Gobert said. “We’re the ones who have to put the ball in the basket and also represent this organization. We can only control what we can control and that’s winning games.”
(Photo of Michael Porter Jr. Naz Reid and Nikola Jokić: Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images)
