By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Minnesota Timberwolves pulled off a convincing wire-to-wire victory on the road against the Denver Nuggets, 115-95, on March 13, 2025, during their Western Conference showdown in the ongoing NBA regular season.
Fresh off a dominant outing against the San Antonio Spurs, the Timberwolves picked up where they left off and smoked the Nuggets from the get-go after shooting the lights out from the three-point range.
Donte DiVincenzo was the first to get hot from Minnesota, followed by the duo of Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards who helped their squad set the tone after the first 12 minutes of the ball game.
May it be from the deep corner or a contested attempt from the elbow, it didn’t matter for the waxing hot Minnesota team as it was just one of those nights where shots were falling like raindrops.
Despite Nikola Jokic’s monster game, the Timberwolves relied on their deep bench and received multiple offensive outputs from different guys, including their role players.
After DiVincenzo’s early explosion, it was Jaden McDaniels who silenced the wild Denver crowd at the start of the third when he converted back-to-back three-pointers that helped maintain their lead.
Edwards then countered every basket that Jamal Murray drained with three-pointers off the pick-and-pops. It was a draining scheme for the Nuggets as everytime they trimmed the lead within 5-7 points, Minnesota immediately answered with either a demoralizing heave from downtown or a bunch of second-chance points.
Jokic tried his all to match Minnesota’s firepower, but the cold shooting night of his teammates prevented them from mounting a comeback as the Timberwolves stretched their biggest lead of the ball game to 26 points midway through the fourth quarter.
Denver head coach Michael Malone then saw enough and pulled all of his starters out including Jokic with five minutes still remaining in the game.
Minnesota’s gang rebounding was a huge factor in their win as the current Western Conference’s seventh seed had a total of 29 second chance points compared to Denver’s 11.
They also moved the ball well and located the open guys with 31 total assists, while also out-shooting the Nuggets from the rainbow area with a 17-7 disparity.
Edwards top-scored the Timberwolves with 29 big points built from five three-pointers alongside six assists and four rebounds.
Meanwhile, the frontcourt duo of Randle and Rudy Gobert combined for 36, while McDaniels chipped in 16 markers and eight rebounds.
On the other hand, Jokic had another usual day in his office as the candidate for this year’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award wrapped up the game with 34 points, eight boards, and four dimes.
However, his partner, Murray, struggled from the field and only logged in 12 points, his lowest scoring output since February 6, 2025.
