MINNEAPOLIS _ Entering, Monday, no team had benefited more from the growing pains of this new iteration of the Timberwolves more than the Denver Nuggets.
In the teams' previous two matchups, the Wolves chucked and missed a fair number of three-pointers _ 71 to be exact, for a percentage of .18.
At times Monday night, the Nuggets dared the Wolves to shoot on them and employed a zone defense whose main flaw is a hot shooting team from outside.
The Wolves fared a little better from deep this time around (31%), but the Nuggets still got the better of them in a 107-100 Wolves loss at Target Center, Minnesota's sixth straight loss.
Denver came in down three contributors in Jamal Murray, Paul Millsap and Gary Harris, but their depth turned up in a big way. Michael Porter Jr. looked like the much-hyped prospect he was entering college with 20 points and 14 rebounds while Jerami Grant did a lot of his damage in the first half with 19 and All-NBA center Nikola Jokic had 17 and 13 rebounds.
The Wolves had a chance to cut the Nuggets lead to two with under a minute to go, but Karl-Anthony Towns missed a shot from the left block while Will Barton (18 points) sent a most of Target Center packing with a three to clinch the victory with 30.4 seconds remaining.
Towns finished with 28 points, eight rebounds and five assists while Josh Okogie added 16. New Wovles forward Allen Crabbe had three in his first game.
Towns came out fired up to take on Jokic, and was intense from the moment the ball tipped. After his first shot attempt came up empty he was already complaining to officials, and didn't turn down the chippiness form there. He channeled it in a positive way in the first quarter, going for 10 points, five rebounds and two assists as the Wolves clung to an early lead. They began the game by scoring the first seven points of the night, though Denver would get back in it with a quick 8-2 spurt.
There wasn't much movement in the lead through the early part of the second quarter as both teams' bench units kept the same pace. It wasn't until midway through that both teams went on successive runs. After a Malik Beasley jumper pulled the Nuggets within 37-36, the Wolves scored nine straight, with Josh Okogie making a few hustle plays to ignite that stretch.
But that 10-point lead was short-lived. Grant couldn't miss for Denver, who then reeled off the next eight points. After the Wolves reclaimed a 51-47 lead, the Nuggets went on another 8-0 run to take a four-point lead, their biggest of the half.
For some of the quarter, the Nuggets trotted out a zone defense that the Wolves had trouble moving against. Their three-point shooting, which was solid to start the game (7 of 13), went cold. They were 1 of 9 the rest of the half. But an Okogie three-point play late allowed them to go into the half down just 55-54.
The Nuggets continued the zone into the third quarter and the Wolves were able to hit a few more threes, both Andrew Wiggins (15 points) and Robert Covington hit their firsts of the night, but it wasn't enough to make a serious dent in Denver. Meanwhile, the Nuggets shot 50% as they were able to scramble the Wolves around defensively to get to the rim for some easy baskets.
In the fourth, Porter Jr. extended the Nuggets lead to six with 7:51 to play, forcing Ryan Saunders to call a timeout as Denver clawed out its biggest lead of the night. They would push it to 10 as Saunders called another timeout with 5:49, this time moments after the Nuggets outhustled the Wolves for a couple offensive rebounds. The Wolves would cut it to four twice, but never closer.
