Recently, the Minnesota Timberwolves have experienced a winning drought. The Denver Nuggets look to take advantage of a team down on its luck.
The Denver Nuggets are riding high on the momentum from Wednesday’s comeback victory over the Orlando Magic. After falling behind 17 points, the Denver Nuggets saw a season-best performance from Jamal Murray. Friday night brings in a struggling Minnesota Timberwolves squad to the Pepsi Center.
Despite a 4-1 start, the Timberwolves now shakily stand with a 10-16 record. Amidst an eight-game losing streak, Minnesota is desperate for a win. The past eight games don’t do the “Andrew Wiggins is finally blossoming into an overall positive basketball player” take any good.
The truth is, he is a scorer, but the efficiency has missed its mark. Unfortunately, the team’s real star, Karl-Anthony Towns, is stuck with Wiggins on the voyage to nowhere. Yet, Towns isn’t quite the model star either. As always, the two-time All-Star hasn’t found consistent footing on defense.
In his fifth season, the stretch-center still struggles to combine defense with his natural athleticism. Using Cleaning the Glass halfcourt defense numbers, Towns finishes as the worst player in terms of halfcourt defense.
Per 100 halfcourt plays, his opponents score a whopping +13.7 points. Yes, it’s easy to pick fun at Wiggins, but it’s genuinely disappointing to watch Towns squander his potential as an all-around superstar.
Bringing it back to the home team, the Denver Nuggets have plenty of strategies to keep Minnesota down on the road to losing. For the sake of this exercise, let’s stick to three.