NEW YORK _ Minnesota's Andrew Wiggins sucked the air out of the Barclays Center on Tuesday night when he hit a 3-pointer with 56.4 seconds left to cut the Nets' lead to a single-digit. But Bojan Bogdanovic pumped life back into the home crowd moments later with a 3-pointer of his own as the Nets survived a tightly-contested race to the finish to pull out a 119-110 victory.
After the make by Bogdanovic with 37.4 seconds left to restore a 115-111 lead, Zach Lavine missed for the Timberwolves, and Nets point guard Isaiah Whitehead came out of a wild scramble for the ball with control. He hit two foul shots, and Bogdanovic added another pair for the final margin.
Brook Lopez topped six Nets in double figures with 26 points, Trevor Booker had 15 and nine rebounds, Sean Kilpatrick added 14 points, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Bogdanovic each scored 13, and Joe Harris contributed 15. Wiggins totaled 36 points for Minnesota, hitting six of seven 3-pointers, and Karl-Anthony Towns added 21 points. The Nets did a great job rebounding in the second half to emerge with a 43-41 lead on the boards.
The Nets got a first-quarter scare when starting point guard Whitehead crashed to the floor and then got his head stepped on accidentally by Minnesota's Gorgui Dieng. He left the game and was replaced by veteran Randy Foye, who missed the first six games with a strained right hamstring and was making his first appearance as a Net at a time when they are minus two injured point guards in Jeremy Lin (strained left hamstring) and Grievis Vasquez (sore ankle).
Although the Timberwolves got off to a slow 1-4 start with the NBA's youngest starting five, averaging 22.74 years, their talent is undeniable with two No. 1 overall draft picks in Towns and Wiggins. As Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said of Towns: "He's a difficult cover because he can do so many different things. He's strong on the post, he can go out on the perimeter and stretch you, and what's impressive is he can drive the ball and he can get in the pick-and-roll. Very versatile player. Those are the hardest guys to guard."
He was plenty hard to guard, scoring 19 points in the first half on 7-for-10 shooting, and he got 15-point support from Wiggins as the Timberwolves cut an eight-point Nets lead to 66-65 at halftime. Lopez hit three first-half 3s on his way to 15 points, and the Nets shot 62.2 overall and 56.3 from 3-point range.
But Atkinson worried beforehand about their rebounding and transition defense, saying, "We're playing hard, but we need to add a physicality to how we play. Rebounding goes with that. That's a definite point of emphasis."
No doubt, he emphasized it plenty at halftime after the Timberwolves outrebounded the Nets by 25-16 in the first half and built a huge 18-2 margin in second-chance points. But the Nets were a different team when they returned after halftime. Despite shooting 1 of 9 from 3-point range in the third period, they maintained an 88-84 lead because they turned things around on the boards and drove to the basket.
But no matter how many times the Nets managed get a little separation, they couldn't shake the Timberwolves, who put together an 11-2 run midway through the fourth quarter to take a 102-100 lead when Wiggins hit a three with 5:54 left in the game. But that's where Lopez responded with a tying layup to spark the Nets' determined finishing kick.
