The only bit of drama for the Timberwolves came at the tail end of their victory over the Pelicans on Wednesday night.
Would they be able to hold their fifth team in seven games under 100 points? But when New Orleans guard Dereon Seabron hit a three-pointer from the left wing with 15.2 seconds remaining, that dream was over and the bench erupted in disappointment.
"You saw how mad we got," Wolves forward Karl-Anthony Towns said.
The Wolves had to settle for a 122-101 victory over the shorthanded Pelicans, and in a twist from last season, they handled their business accordingly against a team they should beat.
They won the second quarter 44-20 and didn't let a Pelicans team that was without key contributors like Zion Williamson, C.J. McCollum, Jose Alvarado and Herb Jones back in the game in the second half. The potential for a slip-up weighed on their minds, but they maintained their footing throughout.
"We didn't have any mental lapses," coach Chris Finch said. "There was no immaturity out there when it came to screwing around with the game when we had it right where we wanted it, which we've been prone to do."
The Wolves have to prove they can do this on a consistent basis, but Wednesday was another encouraging step that this team is learning from the mistakes it made a season ago.
Their No. 1-rated defense was again suffocating as it should have been against a team whose sole scoring threat was Brandon Ingram (24 points on 11-for-25). Their offense whisked the ball around to create open shots all night, with the Wolves converting 14-for-27 from three-point range in the first half.
Anthony Edwards had 26 points and eight assists, all in the first half. Rudy Gobert continued his strong play with 17 points and 21 rebounds and was a plus-24, the same as in Monday's overtime win over the Celtics.
Gobert said he thought the Wolves' improved approach this season was due to Finch and the coaching staff setting a tone of accountability that has carried into this season.
"Give credit to the coaching staff for being honest with us, the players, about not taking any shortcuts," Gobert said. "When I got here last year, I knew it was going to be a process. But I was really happy to see that Coach Finch and the coaching staff, the way they were talking to Ant and KAT, I was really happy to see there was honesty.
"It shows that they want to win. I'm really happy and excited to be able to be a part of it and be able to keep pushing them everyday. And they're pushing me, too."
Gobert has pushed himself to new limits on the defensive end, especially in guarding the perimeter. That has helped turn the defense from good to great in the early going. Edwards has come on after a slow start which left Towns' offensive struggles as one of the lone negatives through their first six games. Towns was able to exploit the banged-up Pelicans to have his most efficient night of the season: 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting.
"If we're playing the defense we're playing and we're hitting shots like we did tonight, it's going to be hard to beat us," Towns said. "Just finding that consistency and have both offense and defense rolling and flowing the way it is — that's the challenge for us."
Shake Milton also contributed his best offensive night with 10 points
The Wolves were aware that consistency was a challenge last season; they dropped several games that were winnable that would have improved their playoff seeding. This season, there was an early hiccup in Atlanta when they dropped a 19-point halftime lead. They took the steps to make sure that didn't happen again.
"We're hungry. We know it's early in the season, but we've been setting the tone," Gobert said. "I really like the foundation that we're putting together right now and we started [to build] since day one of training camp. Regardless of who we play, whether whatever happens, we're going to come in and play defense, and we're going to hold each other accountable for that."
Man City on verge of Premier League title as Haaland scores twice in 2-0 win over Tottenham
Follow Gameview for live stats as Wolves, Nuggets battle in Game 5
Serena Williams to host The ESPYs in July
