Minnesota Timberwolves: Malik Beasley comes to life against Nuggets

Malik Beasley found his scoring touch as the Minnesota Timberwolves were defeated by the Denver Nuggets on Saturday evening. Coming into the game against Nikola Jokic and co. Beasley shot a paltry 22.2% from deep on 4.5 attempts per game, leaving many to question when he would rediscover his shooting touch.

And then it happened, in his fifth game of the season, Beasley went nuclear from deep as he tried to will the Timberwolves towards victory. Unfortunately, despite the 5th-year wing’s attempts, the Nuggets eeked out a two-point victory over their Western Conference foes.

Beasley was operating in an off-ball role to begin the game, utilizing his shiftiness to get open off curls, which also led to some lovely hammer sets to get him open looks on the weak-side corner. But, Beasley also showed his ability to score off the dribble and displayed solid court awareness with his timing of when to lift or sink into shooting pockets.

The results? Six made three-pointers in just ten attempts.

Beasley ended the night with 18 points, two rebounds, two assists, and a steal, quickly making this his best performance of the young NBA season. The Timberwolves have needed a performance like this from their sharpshooter, as Beasley’s scoring gravity is essential to their pace and space offense – especially when he’s sharing the floor with slashers such as Anthony Edwards.

Here’s a clip of Beasley operating as a catch-and-shoot threat; he peels off the weak side stagger screen (also known as strong) and instantly receives the ball before going up to pull the trigger. After struggling to start the season, seeing Beasley play with such confidence is an encouraging sign. He’s obviously been listening to Ted Lasso’s advice of “be a goldfish.”

Hopefully, the lid is now firmly off the basket for Beasley, and he will begin to provide the Timberwolves with a reliable shooting threat from deep, which in turn will ignite their offense when they’re forced into half-court sets.

The Timberwolves play again on Monday, November 1st, against the Orlando Magic as they look to get their record back to .500.