Saturday’s 101-86 Timberwolves victory over the Nets was a rock fight for most of the night, and very briefly threatened to turn into an actual fight toward the end of a game whose film likely won’t be making the rounds at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame anytime soon.
The Wolves won without center Rudy Gobert, who sat because of a sprained ankle he suffered in Friday’s loss to Milwaukee, and they won without much of a rhythm again offensively. But even without Gobert, their defense showed up and held the reeling Nets to 34% shooting.
That was enough to get by with a victory despite tired legs and sore bodies from back-to-back nights of games.
“It was not pretty,” said point guard Mike Conley, who had 14 points. “It was a game where we were just trying to find any energy we could get. We needed everybody that went into that game today. Obviously, you could just tell our energy level with the way we weren’t moving with the ball, weren’t moving without the ball, getting back on defense. … For us to still find a way to win, that’s what good teams are able to do, and we were able to do it tonight.”
Karl-Anthony Towns and his 28 points provided most of the offense throughout the night until the fourth quarter, when Anthony Edwards finally got going with 11 of his game-high 29 points. Edwards finished 11-for-23 from the field as Brooklyn’s switch-heavy defense gave the Wolves problems most of the night, limiting them to 43% shooting. But it was a night they finished a half-game ahead of Oklahoma City for first place in the Western Conference.
“We got a lot of meaningful basketball to play. Put ourselves in really good position and we got to capitalize,” coach Chris Finch said. “We don’t expect things to be easy, but we have to play with more purpose than we’re playing right now.”
They at least had purpose most of the night on the defensive end as officials let both teams play. Then Edwards hit a number of key buckets down the stretch, including a beautiful reverse layup through traffic that brought the crowd to its feet with 1 minute, 52 seconds remaining.
