The Minnesota Timberwolves are fighting to stay out of the Western Conference play-in — literally.
Minnesota (43-32) beat the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night in a game that escalated into a near-brawl in the second quarter and now takes that attitude into Denver to face the Nuggets on Tuesday night.
The Timberwolves have won two straight and trail Golden State by a half-game for the sixth seed with seven games remaining. The battle for seeding has contributed to a playoff atmosphere at the end of the regular season, as Minnesota showed Sunday night.
Things got testy between the Timberwolves and Detroit when Minnesota took exception to a foul on Naz Reid. Donte DiVincenzo and Reid were ejected, as well as assistant coach Pablo Prigioni.
“I’ve been in enough basketball games to kind of feel this coming,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “Two guys went at it and spilled over into the crowd, which is dangerous… Just kept escalating and escalating, mostly from their side.”
Finch hopes his team can carry that edge into the final matchup of the season against Denver. Minnesota has won the first three games and, including last year’s playoffs, five in a row against the Nuggets.
The Timberwolves squeaked out a win at home in November but have beaten Denver by 29 points and 20 points in the last two meetings, respectively. Anthony Edwards, who leads Minnesota at 27.2 points a game, has averaged 30.7 points in the three games against the Nuggets.
Julius Randle, second on the Timberwolves at 18.8 points, had 25 in the March 12 win at Denver, and Reid is averaging 14.4 points a game this season.
The Nuggets (47-28) hold a slim lead over the Los Angeles Lakers for the third seed and have little margin for error. Besides going for the best possible seed, ending a five-game losing streak to the team that eliminated them in last year’s playoffs is motivation.
“I think they’ve approached this game like it’s a rivalry, and I think we’ve approached these games like it’s just another game sometimes,” coach Michael Malone said. “We just got to play harder, whether it’s a rivalry or not. I don’t care who you’re playing. If you’re playing St. Buzzies and they beat you five times in a row, sometimes your pride’s got to kick in.”
Denver has won two in a row after dropping its first game of the five-game homestand that wraps up Wednesday night. Jamal Murray, who is second on the team in scoring at 21.6 points a game, missed Friday night’s blowout win over Utah with a tight hamstring, but he practiced on Monday.
“We didn’t do a lot of live, competitive stuff, but Jamal was out there for the entirety of it,” Malone said. “Hopefully that bodes well for (Tuesday) night.”
Nikola Jokic leads the Nuggets in points (29.3 points), rebounds (12.8) and assists (10.2), averages that rank in the top three in the NBA in each category. Michael Porter Jr. is third on the team at 18.2 points a game.
