Timberwolves’ throttling of Thunder shows they can beat Nuggets

After a dominant and emphatic win at Target Center over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Minnesota Timberwolves are officially headed back to the NBA Playoffs. They earn back-to-back playoff bids for the first time since 2004.

With their backs against the wall and facing elimination in the play-in tournament, the eighth-seeded Timberwolves turned a close game into a blowout, dominating the tenth-seeded Thunder in the second half. They sent Oklahoma City home while a raucous Wolves home crowd cheered them on.

It was a dominant showing from the Minnesota big men, with the Thunder finding they had absolutely no answer for the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert. The two combined for 49 points and 21 rebounds while shooting 63% from the field. There were no signs of difficulty between Gobert and Kyle Anderson, with SloMo setting his teammate up for easy buckets all night, as if Sunday afternoon’s outburst never even happened.

As commentator Mike Breen noted on the ESPN broadcast, it has been somewhat difficult to tell which version of this Timberwolves team will show up on any given evening that they take the floor. But if the iteration that we saw on Friday night travels to Denver for round one of the playoffs, Minnesota fans could be in for a treat.

Now officially occupying the eight seed in the Western Conference, the Timberwolves will be matched up with the top seed in the West and their division rival, the Denver Nuggets. The team from the Mile High City features the likes of back-to-back reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, as well as one of the most lethal offenses in basketball.

The Minnesota Timberwolves showed why they will have a chance against the Denver Nuggets.

On paper, Minnesota should not have any remote chance of winning this series, especially with Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid still sidelined with injuries. But Friday night’s performance against the Thunder showed they are hitting on all cylinders at the right time. Factoring in intangibles and considering the overall direction of both teams, there are several factors in the Wolves’ favor that could make this series interesting.

For one, the Nuggets did not have a strong end to the regular season. Near the All-Star break, Jokic appeared to have a third straight MVP award locked up, but he and the rest of his team struggled down the stretch of the season. Winning just seven of their final 17 regular season games, Denver appeared to let their foot off the gas, and it nearly cost them the number one seed in the playoffs.

Sure, there is the argument that they can “flip the switch” come playoff time, but we are talking about a Nuggets team that has only reached the conference finals once in the Jokic era. As the cracks begin to show for Denver, the Timberwolves should be licking their chops.

After all, Minnesota has shown all year long that they are capable of beating anyone or losing to anyone. They have repeatedly played up and down to their competition, much to the confusion of the fanbase. If the Wolves can use Friday night’s win as a springboard and continue their high level of play in Denver on Sunday, things could get interesting fast.

It will take a herculean effort to win four games in seven tries against this talented Denver Nuggets squad, but the Timberwolves’ season has been filled with perplexing winning and losing streaks. Despite their injury-depleted roster, Minnesota may still have an outside shot at winning their first playoff series in 19 years.