Takeaways: Timberwolves slump in fourth quarter of 123-112 loss to Nuggets

The stat feeds were down at Target Center for most of the second half, and the Timberwolves told reporters they wouldn’t have official box scores until potentially hours after the team’s 123-112 loss to the Denver Nuggets.

But the lack of numbers didn’t conceal the fact that it was a bad shooting night for Anthony Edwards, and that’s the main reason the Wolves fell to 0-2 against Denver this season.

“Nothing they did. I just got to make my shots,” Edwards said. “It’s that simple. Just missed a bunch of shots. Go to the gym tomorrow, hopefully make ’em.”

As the stats trickled in, the Wolves provided just the point totals for the players on the evening. Edwards had 26 points, but he was shooting just 3-for-14 from the floor when the stats froze late in the third quarter. Eventually, the NBA produced a boxscore revealing Edwards was 8-for-23 on the night, including 0-for-8 from three-point range.

Julius Randle also scored 26 points while Naz Reid had 19, 17 of those coming in the first half.

Nikola Jokic had 27 points for Denver while Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray and Tim Hardaway Jr. each had 23.

The Wolves, who saw their four-game winning streak end, continued a concerning trend through their first 13 games this season (8-5): They haven’t defeated any teams above .500. They have lost twice against both the Lakers and Nuggets.

“Maybe we didn’t move the ball enough,” Reid said after the Wolves finished with 23 assists. “We had like, 30-something assists, the last two nights maybe. Maybe that’s what it was. I think it was self-inflicted. I don’t think they really triggered anything that made us do anything. I think it was just us.”

Edwards chalked up the loss to a bad night shooting for him. He said the quality of his looks were fine and Denver didn’t do anything out of the ordinary to make the game harder for him.

“I make my shots, we win the game. Think we lost by like, what, 11 points, 10 points,” Edwards said. “No matter what shots I take, I got to make ‘em.”

The Wolves got off to a slow start against Denver’s zone defense, and the Nuggets raced out to a 17-7 lead in the first 4 minutes, 40 seconds. But the Wolves defense, which has struggled when Rudy Gobert is off the floor this season, picked up the intensity the rest of the quarter, especially when he went out. The Wolves were a minus-6 with Gobert on the floor in the first; they were a plus-8 with him off the floor. Reid had a strong first quarter with seven points, three rebounds and three assists in seven minutes.

Reid continued that into the second quarter as he played 17 minutes without a break and finished the first half with 17 points. The Wolves took a 60-55 lead into the half despite Edwards shooting just 1-for-8.

“Offense didn’t come easy to some of our guys who have been scoring well, and I think they got a little frustrated,” coach Chris Finch said.

Then in the fourth, Denver took a one-point lead and extended it to eight in the opening minutes, and the Wolves never got back in it. When asked about the team’s difficulty beating quality opponents, Reid said: “I don’t want to say like we had a back-to-back, so forth and so on. I feel like everybody was ready. We did have a slow start. Maybe that’s one of the reasons. I’m not 110 percent sure, but we’ll say we do have to be better.”

One of the keys to beating Denver is to take advantage of the time Jokic is off the floor. In the second quarter, Denver won those minutes by five points as Murray had nine over that stretch. Jokic rested 5 minutes, 5 seconds in the second quarter, the same amount of time Edwards rested for the Wolves. Denver led 43-40 when Jokic checked back in. Then the Wolves went on a 10-2 run against a double-big lineup of Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas.

In the fourth quarter, Denver again won those minutes by seven and was leading 100-92 when Jokic and Edwards both re-entered the game.

BOXSCORE: Denver 123, Wolves 112

There’s not a lot of love lost between the Wolves and Nuggets, who have squared off in the playoffs twice in the past three seasons. That emotion carried over to the floor. There was a lot of chirping between the two teams and a few moments officials had to take control. Reid picked up a technical foul after an exchange with Valanciunas, Gobert picked up a flagrant foul for an elbow to Hardaway Jr. on a screen and Finch picked up a technical arguing with officials.

The Wolves brought back their purple-and-pink Prince-themed jerseys for the first time since the 2018-19 season. They also had a matching purple court, a night after they had their bright green NBA Cup court in their victory over Sacramento. The arena played Prince’s music throughout the game.