MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Anthony Edwards scored 24 points for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who delivered the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets their first loss in five games this season with a 110-89 victory yesterday in the first rematch of their first-round playoff series from last spring.
“I didn’t think our approach was where it needed to be,” Nuggets coach Mike Malone said.
“That team came out like they wanted to get some revenge.”
Karl-Anthony Towns added 21 points and eight rebounds with tireless defence on Nikola Jokic and Mike Conley had 17 points on seven-for-nine shooting for the Timberwolves (2-2), who went 26 for 27 from the foul line and led from start to finish.
“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.”
Jokic had 25 points and 10 rebounds and Jamal Murray scored 14 points for the Nuggets (4-1), who shot just six for 33 from three-point range to fall below 20 per cent for just the third time in the last four seasons, according to Sportradar.
“Hopefully it’s a reminder that we’re going to get everybody’s best every night,” Malone said. “Our mentality coming into this game, it was going to show one way or another and I feel like we passed that test,” Conley said. “We came in and just competed. No complaints. Guys did their job.”
