Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert play together for first time in Timberwolves' loss to Nets

Anthony Edwards spoke for a lot of fans — and a lot of his teammates — when it came to seeing Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns play together for the first time before Friday's 112-102 Timberwolves preseason loss to the Nets at Target Center.

"Just like anybody else, we haven't seen it, the players ourselves," Edwards said. "I think it's pretty exciting."

But the twin towers' debut wasn't exactly exhilarating from the start and underscored that the Wolves will likely be a work in progress as they get used to playing with each other and their teammates adjust to playing with them.

"It really felt it would be clunky like that," coach Chris Finch said. "I told the guys the best thing about that game is that we got a lot on film. We can look at it, and go to work with a purpose."

The Wolves didn't score for the first 3 minutes, 15 seconds of the game as everybody tried to get on the same page. Gobert finished with 16 points and eight rebounds

"I thought it was good at times, bad at times, but that's the fun of it," Gobert said.

Towns had 15 points, eight rebounds.

The Wolves were trying to work things out all night, and Towns and Gobert were in regular conversation with each other throughout the game. Finch said the Wolves were too reliant on pick and roll on offense instead of the free-flowing offense the team wants to run. He said the team was "disjointed" defensively.

For as choppy as the Wolves looked, there were moments of potential, such as in the third quarter when a driving Towns found Gobert for a bucket and a foul. Towns said he is trying to get Gobert the ball more often than Utah did.

"I love that," Gobert said. "That was the first thing he told me after the trade, 'I know what you can do and I'm going to use you and look for you.' He's done that."

They will have some practice days before the season opens Wednesday at home against Oklahoma City.

One reason Friday was among the first times Gobert and Towns took the floor together was because of Towns' non-COVID illness that kept him out of the first week of camp and limited his availability since then.

Towns said he was once this light when he was playing for coach Tom Thibodeau, and it didn't make his body feel good.

"I just didn't like it," Towns said. "I didn't like how light I was. I was younger, too. I want to put that in perspective. The hits had more impact against me. Just having some armor always has helped me a lot."

But Towns did say he feels better at his weight now than he did then, thanks in part to experience. …

"It's a fine line," he said. "It's something I got to figure out. I don't have much time."

Neither do the Wolves before their first game that counts in this new era. Friday was a long-awaited first step.