The Minnesota Timberwolves reached the Western Conference finals a year ago, but this season, they are fighting just to get into the playoffs.
Minnesota has helped its cause with five straight wins and will look to make it six when it visits the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night.
The Timberwolves won the first two meetings against the Nuggets, but those games were in Minneapolis. The next two will be in Denver against a Nuggets team that has won 14 of their last 18 games.
Carrying a three-game road winning streak into Wednesday’s matchup, the Wolves will have center Rudy Gobert back in the lineup for a second consecutive game.
Gobert, who missed 10 games with back spasms, returned in Sunday’s win over San Antonio with 16 points and eight rebounds in just 19 minutes. He will be needed to help contain Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic, who is averaging a triple-double this season.
“I feel like I’m strong,” Gobert said. “I feel like I’m balanced and I can move almost how I need to move to be myself. So it was a good time for me to come back, and I’m happy that (Sunday) went great.”
Gobert leads Minnesota in rebounds (10.4) and blocks (1.5) per game, and is sixth in scoring at 11.1 points a night. Anthony Edwards is the team’s top scorer at 27.2 points, followed by Julius Randle (18.7), Naz Reid (14.9) and Jaden McDaniels (12.6).
The Timberwolves are starting to jell after bringing in Randle and Donte DiVincenzo in the trade that sent Karl-Anthony Towns to New York.
“There’s just a chemistry, a rhythm and a pace to how we’re playing,” Randle said. “Everybody’s buying in. It’s just making it easy for all of us.”
Denver is coming off a split of two games at Oklahoma City. The Nuggets lost Sunday but bounced back to win 140-127 on Monday, improving to 12-1 in the second game of back-to-backs despite not having Aaron Gordon in the lineup.
Gordon left Sunday’s game with right calf tightness, an injury that has cost him 25 games this season. He will be a game-time decision for Wednesday night, but after missing multiple games before due to the calf injury, it is unlikely he’ll play.
Russell Westbrook has played well while filling in as a starter, including Monday night when he had 16 points and seven assists. Westbrook is averaging 12.8 points, 6.1 assists and 5 rebounds per game for a team led by a perennial MVP candidate.
Jokic leads the Nuggets in points (28.9), rebounds (13.0) and assists (10.5), and ranks in the top three in the NBA in those categories. However, he’s not the favorite to win his fourth MVP; that honor goes to Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“I will say that I think I’m playing the best basketball of my life, so if that’s enough, that’s enough,” said Jokic, who is dealing with a sore ankle and elbow. “If not, the guy [Gilgeous-Alexander] deserves it. He’s really amazing.”
Jamal Murray is second in scoring with a career-best 21.5 points, Michael Porter Jr. is averaging 18.5 points and Christian Braun is fourth at 15.3 points a game, also a career high.
