Player grades from Minnesota Timberwolves’ loss to the Nuggets
By Ben Beecken
The Minnesota Timberwolves staged a late rally and pushed the Denver Nuggets to overtime, only to fall on a Nikola Jokic jumper in the final seconds.
73. 98. 86. Final/OT. 100
The Minnesota Timberwolves were laughably cold from beyond the arc all night long and trailed by 16 points midway through the fourth quarter, but they still managed to get the game to overtime before their offensive ineptitude finally caught up to them.
Both the Wolves and the Nuggets entered this game as teams with better defensive units than offenses, but very different offensive attacks. Denver plays at the league’s slowest pace, while the Wolves use the most possessions of any team in the NBA.
In this one, the Nuggets got their way. Despite the game going to overtime, the Wolves were held below 100 points and shot a hideous 6-for-45 from 3-point range. That’s 13.3 percent, if you’re scoring at home.
The Wolves offense was horrendous throughout, but after peaks and valleys on defense for most of the game, they began to lockdown the Nuggets in the fourth quarter. Trailing 90-74 at the midway point in the frame, the Wolves shutout Denver for the balance of regulation, going on a 16-0 run to push the game to overtime.
The overtime period brought more of the same for the Wolves on offense, unfortunately, and Denver’s offense finally woke up.
Minnesota continued to brick long-range jumpers and while they did a decent job drawing fouls on the Nuggets to get to the free throw line, they didn’t score in the paint as often as they should have.
Ultimately, the Nuggets had the ball in a tie game with just over 26 seconds remaining. Nikola Jokic, who struggled through another inefficient night, drove left and faded away over Karl-Anthony Towns after the Wolves’ All-Star cut off his driving lane. Jokic rainbowed a jumper over KAT’s outstretched arm that rattled in with just over two seconds left.
After a timeout, the Wolves struggled to get the ball inbounded. It was thrown into traffic in the left corner, bouncing off Andrew Wiggins and to Josh Okogie in the corner. Okogie’s desperation heave at the buzzer was just off, and the Nuggets emerged victorious.
Considering the Wolves were once again without both Jeff Teague and Shabazz Napier, an overtime loss to one of the best teams in the league is hard to be too upset about. But at some point, Ryan Saunders’ crew either has to get better at shooting 3-pointers, stop shooting quite so many, or add at least a shooter or two to the roster.
Otherwise, this team will settle in the bottom third of the league’s offenses and struggle to reach their full potential.
Player Grades
KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS. B+. Towns played a solid all-around game, save for his 3-of-14 from beyond the arc. He guarded Jokic for most of the game and forced him to take 23 shots to get his 20 points and out-rebounded him by a 16 to 6 margin. KAT also added six assists and a couple of blocks and hit a game-tying 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter. But there will be better days ahead for Towns.. Center. Minnesota Timberwolves
Wing. Minnesota Timberwolves. ANDREW WIGGINS. B+. Wiggins was solid in this one, scoring 25 points (10-22 FG, 1-6 3P, 4-4 FT). He could have been more efficient and fell in love with the jumper a bit too much, but was seemingly unstoppable once again when he chose to put his head down and charge to the rim. The five assists and four rebounds were good contributions, too.
B. Covington didn’t attempt a shot in the first half and didn’t score until late in the game, finishing with just four points, six rebounds, two steals, and two blocks in 31 minutes. He was just 0-for-2 from beyond the arc, too. However, Covington steed up big time in the fourth quarter, smothering his matchups on defense and swarming to the ball. He was a huge part of getting this game to overtime.. Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. ROBERT COVINGTON
B. <a rel=. Wing. Minnesota Timberwolves. TREVEON GRAHAM
Guard/Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. JOSH OKOGIE. B. Josh Okogie’s 36 minutes were the third-most on the team, behind only towns and Wiggins. He scored 17 points but shot only 4-of-12 from the field as he was often out of control on his way to the rim. His aggression and athleticism led him to 11 free throw attempts, however, and Okogie knocked down seven of them. There were three consecutive trips to the free throw line in the fourth quarter by Okogie that ended in 1-for-2s, which hurt the Wolves as they were completing their comeback, but his defense alongside Covington and Graham was huge down the stretch.
C+. Culver started at point guard for the third straight game and was solid once again, although he wasn’t quite as involved on offense, save for a nasty dunk in transition in the first half. Culver finished with 10 points (4-9 FG, 0-4 3P, 2-4 FT), three rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block in 31 minutes.. Guard. Minnesota Timberwolves. JARRETT CULVER
D. Layman struggled mightily in this once, missing all six of his 3-point attempts and finished 4-of-12 from the field overall, missing a couple of point-blank shots too after doing a good job of getting into the paint. Layman had five rebounds and two blocks to go along with his inefficient eight points.. Forward. Minnesota Timberwolves. JAKE LAYMAN
Other Players
After playing 22 minutes last time out, Jordan McLaughlin saw only nine minutes of playing time in this one, not attempting a shot and dishing out two assists against one turnover.
Noah Vonleh received the initial minutes at the backup center spot, playing five first quarter minutes and only grabbing one rebound and attempting one shot. He was a shocking -13 in that stint.
Gorgui Dieng got the rest of the minutes at the 5 behind Towns. He had five rebounds but missed all four of his shots from the floor. Dieng drew a charge and was active on offense, setting his typically awesome screens and crashing the glass. He finished with a +7 in the plus-minus column.
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Up Next
The Wolves will play in their first back-to-back set of the season, flying out to play the Pistons in Detroit at 6 p.m. CT on Monday.