One relic of the past that nostalgia-driven basketball fans yearn for is the classic rivalries of old. Back in the day, the league had teams that would stay together for years, battling the same teams in the playoffs year after year, building up animosity and a little healthy sports hatred.
But for a variety of reasons, rivalries in the NBA have fizzled out a bit over the years. Player movement has led to less continuity with team cores and we aren’t seeing these classic matchups year after year in the playoffs that lead to those epic rivalries like we saw in the 90s with the Pacers and Knicks, the 80s with the Celtics and Pistons, and many others.
But the current iterations of the Nuggets and Timberwolves are building up quite the history and quite the animus toward each other. Things started heating up after the 2022 season when Tim Connelly jumped ship from Denver to Minnesota.
Tim Connelly swapping teams helped fuel rivalry
Connelly worked his way up to President of Basketball Operations and was with the team for almost a decade, playing a key role in putting together the core of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, and Michael Porter Jr.
But the Wolves gave Connelly an offer that the Nuggets weren’t willing to match and he left the Mile High City. Upon arriving in Minnesota, he seemingly set out to build a team specifically designed to combat the Nuggets and Jokic. In his first big move with the team, Connelly made a blockbuster trade to acquire four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert from the Jazz.
The Wolves didn’t fully gel that year, but the team came together to get into the playoffs as an eight seed and gave the Nuggets a solid fight in the first round. But they only won a single game and Denver went on to win the first championship in franchise history with a team built almost entirely by Connelly.
Timberwolves ruin Nuggets’ title defense in epic fashion
But last season, the Wolves clicked and surged to contender status in the West, in part thanks to their massive frontcourt that included Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Naz Reid. They split the four regular-season meetings with Denver before meeting in an epic second-round playoff matchup.
The Wolves bludgeoned the Nuggets, winning the first two games in Denver convincingly behind a bruising, physically imposing defense. But the Nuggets responded like champions, winning the next three and seemingly taking back control of the series.
But the Timberwolves showed incredible resolve, holding court in game 6, then going into Denver and pulling off a 20-point second-half comeback to beat the Nuggets and knock out the defending champs in game 7.
Timberwolves have had Nuggets’ number lately
This season, some of the key characters have changed, most notably KAT, who’s now in New York, but the rivalry has remained and the Wolves continue to play very well against the Nuggets. Minnesota has won all three head-to-head matchups this season by a combined 52 points.
They’ve given the Nuggets’ offense as much trouble as any team in recent years and it’s not particularly close. The teams will match up on Tuesday night for the final time in the regular season and hopefully, the Nuggets can make a statement. But regardless of that result, this has become as close to a rivalry as the league has, and as much as Nuggets fans may not want to see it, this would make for a tantalizing playoff series for a third season in a row.