After a blowout win against the defending champs on Sunday night, the Denver Nuggets fell big against the Minnesota Timberwolves in a 130-115 loss. The game was over in the second quarter when Minnesota outscored Denver 39-23 holding them to just eight made field goals.
“Just a disappointing night, disappointing effort,” Malone said to describe his teams loss. “I thought the first quarter we were OK. We lost the quarter by two points. The game was lost in the second quarter. 39-23. Their bench dominated our bench in that first half. So we built our-selves a big hole and playing behind the rest of the way.”
The Nuggets really struggled to get things going on both ends. They allowed 20 transition points, 13 offensive rebounds for 19 points and allowed 19 3-pointers. Minnesota’s bench unit outscored Denver’s 68-49.
“We got to do better on defense, have better discipline, better rotations and on offense,” Zeke Nnaji said. “I felt like at times we were stagnant. We have to get more movement, in-volved, pass, get the ball more moved around and create more looks for people, set screens.
Nikola Jokic finished the night with 21 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists while Will Barton and Monte Morris had 13 points each. Jeff Green and JaMychal Green scored 12 points.
Karl-Anthony Towns was a problem and put up 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Taurean Prince scored 23 points on 6 of 9 shooting from long range off the bench. Jarred Vanderbilt had 18 points and nine rebounds.
The Nuggets had things in order in the first quarter after going on a 10-2 scoring run to take a 17-10 lead. They shot 60% from the field with Jokic putting up seven points and six assists but Denver’s nine turnovers really costed them towards the end leading to seven unanswered Minnesota points. The Timberwolves closed it out on a 15-5 run behind Vanderbilt’s 10 points to take the 30-28 lead.
Minnesota kept doing damage and went on an 11-2 run to open the second quarter. Denver called a timeout but the Timberwolves responded with another big run 12-0 to take a 24-point lead. Taurean Prince was unstoppable off the bench scoring 14 points in the quarter. Minnesota’s bench outscored Denver’s bench 30-4. The Nuggets as a team struggled with shooting going 35% from the field and 14% from beyond the arc while allowing Minnesota to outscore them 39-23 to take a 69-51 halftime lead.
“That second unit in the first half just moved the ball, got open threes got whatever they want-ed,” Malone said. “We couldn’t score to save our lives in that quarter and we couldn’t get any stops.”
The Timberwolves had all the momentum and went on a 10-4 run to start the third quarter to go up 79-55. The Nuggets looked like they had some life in them as they answered with a 7-0 run of their own but Minnesota kept attacking and shot 44% from the field and 39% from long range. Denver struggled with shooting and went 33 percent from the field and 18% from the three, a big difference from its game on Sunday night where it shot 23 3-pointers against the Bucks. Minnesota went up 100-78.
The Nuggets starters rested in the fourth quarter and allowed their bench to take over. They won the quarter 37-30 but the damage was already done. Minnesota captured the win 130-115.
“We just need to bounce back,” Nnaji said. “We got a game tomorrow against Utah so we can’t dwell on this for too long. We just got to watch film, analyze what went wrong and come back a lot better tomorrow.”
Denver has its last road game of its six-game road trip on Wednesday night against the Utah Jazz. That’s three games in four days for the Nuggets. They’ve lost to the Jazz all three times this season and are looking to put an end to that losing streak.
The Nuggets are 28-22 on the season and are currently back in sixth in the Western Conference standings.
