Wolves hang on to nip Nuggets

Through the first 2½ months of the season, crunch time proved crushing for the Timberwolves.

But things are getting better.

Sunday at Target Center, in a back-and-forth game that featured the Wolves leading by as many as six points but trailing by nine with 6 minutes, 6 seconds remaining, the Wolves finished the game on a 20-8 run and beat Denver 111-108.

It was the Wolves' second straight win and fifth in seven games. And it was their second consecutive victory in a game decided by four or fewer points, a category in which they were 0-for-10 before Thursday's victory against the Clippers.

And so there was the feeling that a corner was being turned by a team that once again won a big game by going small.

"I think we're really starting to learn,'' said Shabazz Muhammad, who scored 20 points, including a driving fast-break dunk with 3:01 left that brought the Wolves all the way back from that nine-point hole. "We kept believing.''

The score was tied entering the fourth quarter in a game in which both teams shot better than 50 percent. It was still tied at 91 with 9:33 left when the Nuggets (18-25) took advantage of a few Wolves misses and a quick cluster of turnovers to go on a 9-0 run to go up 100-91 on Darrell Arthur's 14-footer with 6:06 left.

After struggling on defense for much of the night, the Wolves clamped down. On offense, the ball kept moving and shots kept falling.

After taking that nine-point lead, the Nuggets were 3-for-12 with three turnovers over the final 6 minutes.

Towns made two free throws with 5:40 left, and the comeback was on. Thibodeau put rookie Kris Dunn — who started in place of Ricky Rubio, who was out for personal reasons — back into the game in place of the struggling Zach LaVine, in a small-ball lineup that had Dunn and Tyus Jones in the backcourt.

And, for the second straight time, that duo proved dynamic.

"We got good minutes out of them last game, too,'' Thibodeau said. "They play a lot together in practice, and they have good chemistry. So you feel it can work in the game, too.''

With two ballhandlers up top, both with the ability to drive and collapse a defense, there were shots to be had. Towns' free throws started a 12-2 run that featured a Towns drive, six successive points from Andrew Wiggins and Muhammad's drive.

The Wolves weren't done. The score was tied with 1:53 left when Nikola Jokic hit a driving, go-ahead hook shot for Denver with 1:36 left. But Towns hit a jumper and the Wolves never trailed again.

Towns finished his duel with Jokic with 32 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists; Jokic produced 18 points and eight rebounds.

Towns passed out of double-teams early, demanded the ball late.

"He's rebounding, scoring, defending, everything,'' Wiggins said of Towns. "There is nothing he's not doing right now.''

"He's been coming on for a while,'' Thibodeau said of Dunn. "His defense has been good from the beginning. Offensively, he's figuring it out. He understands the speed and size of the game.''

The Wolves scored 31 points off 18 Denver turnovers. The Nuggets got 22 points for Gary Harris, 17 each from Wilson Chandler and Jamal Murray off the bench and 14 from Danilo Gallinari.

The Wolves got another shot of confidence after a second straight down-to-the-wire victory.

"We hit shots,'' Towns said. "We made them miss. We had the will and determination to come out with a win.''