Ranking the 10 best games of the Timberwolves regular season
By James Siems
The playoffs will no doubt bring joy, excitement, anxiety, and at least some moments of disappointment for Timberwolves fans. (Game one against the Phoenix Suns, for instance, brought amazement at the talent of Anthony Edwards.)
But before we get swept up in that, it feels worthwhile to reflect on some of the highlights from an incredible regular season where the Timberwolves secured the second-best record in franchise history and sported the league’s top defense.
Earning 56 wins makes crowning the ten best games of the regular season a difficult task. Many factors were considered: stake in the standings, competitiveness of the game, individual performances, and external drama.
Some great games just missed the cut: a monster performance from Anthony Edwards to secure a win against a pesky Kings team, or his 44-point explosion against a Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving-less Dallas Mavericks team, to name a few.
A couple of impressive wins against the Clippers were also left off because their inclusion felt too redundant. A relatively unremarkable win against the Utah Jazz almost gets a look for one play alone. Karl-Anthony Towns franchise record 62 points against the Charlotte Hornets simply couldn’t be included because… well, you know why. There are likely other games you can recount that deserve consideration—but this is what I came up with.
10. April 9, 2024 – vs. Washington Wizards (130-121)
Top Performance(s):
Anthony Edwards – 51 points, 7 assists, 6 3-pointers
Rudy Gobert – 19 points, 16 rebounds, 4 blocks
The only game on the list against a bottom-ten team, this win against the Washington Wizards in the fourth to last game of the season ultimately gets the nod due to the incredible individual performance of Anthony Edwards.
As dynamic of a scorer as he is, it is somewhat surprising that Edwards had never eclipsed the 50-point mark until the end of his fourth season. When he did so, he did it in front of a home crowd that he managed to keep entertained despite the Timberwolves finding themselves in a 20-plus point deficit in the early goings to the bottom-feeder Wizards.
Whether his inspiration owed more to the presence of 50 Cent or the 50th birthday of assistant coach, Micah Nori, we may never know. But it was pretty fun.