It won't make up for what happened in the 2023 playoffs, but the Minnesota Timberwolves are riding high into Saturday's game in Minneapolis against the Utah Jazz after picking up a big victory in their most recent performance.
On Wednesday, the Timberwolves handed the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets their first loss of the 2023-24 season with a 110-89 blowout victory at home.
Anthony Edwards scored 24 points for Minnesota, Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 21 points and eight rebounds and Mike Conley hit 7 of 9 shots for 17 points in the start-to-finish win.
"The maturity comes when you stack performances like this on top of each other, so that remains to be seen," Wolves coach Chris Finch said. "But this was a great focused effort."
Minnesota limited two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic to 11-of-23 shooting, and the Nuggets struggled on the perimeter, going 6-for-33 from 3-point range in their first loss after starting 4-0.
Denver coach Mike Malone acknowledged that teams are going to try to match what Minnesota did and give the Nuggets their best effort because they are the champs. If the Wolves needed any motivation, the memory of being knocked out of the first round and only winning one of five playoff games against Denver provided it.
"I didn't think our approach was where it needed to be," Malone said. "That team came out like they wanted to get some revenge."
Conley, who'll face his former Jazz teammates in Saturday's game, liked that the Timberwolves remained poised to bring their record to .500.
"Our mentality coming into this game, it was going to show one way or another, and I feel like we passed that test," he said. "We came in and just competed. No complaints. Guys did their job."
The Jazz couldn't quite say the same about parts of their most recent outing, a heartbreaking 115-113 home loss to the Orlando Magic on Thursday. Utah blew an early double-digit lead during a rough second quarter, and then couldn't hold on for the victory after erasing a 14-point deficit and taking the lead against the Magic on Lauri Markkanen's 3-pointer with 19.2 seconds left.
Jazz coach Will Hardy, whose team has lost three of its past four games, lamented Utah's miscommunication on the ensuing play, which resulted in Orlando's Paolo Banchero hitting the game-winning bucket with 14 seconds remaining.
"Going forward, for us to continue to improve we've got to get better at our communication and improve our composure," Hardy said.
Utah's second-year coach liked that the Jazz fought out of a seven-point hole to momentarily take the lead in the final 1:41. But being outscored 36-24 in the second quarter and having a late defensive breakdown when it counted most shows there's room for improvement.
"That's a very hard-fought game on the second night of a back-to-back," said Hardy, whose team cruised to a 133-109 win over Memphis the previous night. "I never question the effort of the players in the locker room. I thought they played really hard. Winning the first quarter, the third quarter, and the fourth quarter — it was fantastic, but we sort of lost our minds in the second quarter for a little bit there."
—Field Level Media