Mitchell HansenWeb Editorial AssociateTwitter
Entering Sunday night's game at the Target Center, many were looking forward to the matchup between Karl-Anthony Towns and Nikola Jokic, two of the NBA's talented young big men.
Advantage Towns.
Towns finished with 32 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and four blocks to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 111-108 win over the Denver Nuggets.
“Karl was strong throughout,” Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “I thought Karl played so unselfishly, particularly early in the game. . . I thought his playmaking was huge.
“He's got a good mix going right now. He's not settling for all threes, he's getting into the paint, he's forcing the double-team and we are getting a lot of good offense off of that. . . He's scoring a lot of different ways which is good.”
Along with Towns, many others stepped up to help the Wolves to victory, including rookie Kris Dunn and second-year guard Tyus Jones, who filled in for the inactive Ricky Rubio (personal reasons).
Dunn had a near triple-double of 10 points, nine assists and eight rebounds while Jones had nine points and four assists.
“I think the way Kris started the game was huge and then of course Tyus down the stretch also,” Thibodeau said. “Tyus and Kris playing together, they played really well.”
Andrew Wiggins added 24 points, four rebounds and four assists, Shabazz Muhammad had 20 points and five rebounds, and Nemanja Bjelica added eight points and four rebounds off the bench for Minnesota, which shot 53.6 percent from the field and 40 percent from behind the arc.
“I liked the way we played down the stretch in the fourth quarter. We had a lot of guys step up,” Thibodeau said. “I liked the 29 assists, I thought that was big for us.”
Jokic finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Denver. Gary Harris had 22 points and six rebounds, Wilson Chandler and Jamal Murray had 17 points each and Danilo Gallinari had 14 points and six rebounds.
“They are a hard team to guard. They have a lot of really good offensive players and they make quick decisions and they can beat you off the dribble,” Thibodeau said. “You are constantly being contested.”
The Nuggets fall to 18-25 on the season with the loss. The Wolves, who have won five of their last seven and have now won four straight games at home, improve to 16-28 overall.
“We are trying to establish a home court. We want to make it tough for people to come in here,” Thibodeau said. “We appreciate the support that we are getting and certainly we want people coming back, but we have to give them something to cheer for, we understand that. I think the winning does that. The winning will bring people in.”
Highlight Of The Game
With 6:35 to go in the third quarter, a Dunn steal initiated a fast break that ended with a Towns monster slam to put the Wolves up 72-69.
The Numbers Game
Player Of The Game
Sunday night's Wolves Player of the Game is Karl-Anthony Towns.
Towns, who shot 13-for-19 from the field in the game, registered his 33rd double-double of the season and his seven 30-plus point game of the season. His seven assists marked the 11th time this season he has recorded five-plus assists in a game.
Towns also joins Kevin Garnett as the only Wolves player to record multiple 30-10-5 games. Garnett did it five times, most recently in March of 2005.
“Every night, he sees something different. Jokic is tough, he battles,” Thibodeau said. “In the Clippers game, Jordan was pounding on him and I think he played a very intelligent game. He moved around and he was hard to guard. I think he did the same thing tonight.”
Up Next
The Wolves will hit the road to take on the Phoenix Suns at 8 p.m. Tuesday night in Phoenix. The game will be aired on Fox Sports North Plus and 830 WCCO.
