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The Minnesota Timberwolves were ready for their encore.
Embarrassing the Denver Nuggets was a neat trick, a refutation of the underachievement narrative that dogged the Wolves through much of the 2025-26 regular season. But in retrospect, trouncing the Nuggets could be rationalized as a favorable matchup against an opponent whose potent offense was overly reliant on two players the Wolves could defend well, and whose defense was always vulnerable.
The San Antonio Spurs are more formidable. A top three defense to pair with a top three offense, powered by a deeper roster and led by a generational talent that everyone knows is going to both own and durably change the modern NBA game sometime in the relatively near future.
But not Monday night in San Antonio, where the Timberwolves felt like the better team – very slightly, but very consistently – over the course of a 104-102 victory that snatched home-court advantage in their best of seven series that now stands 1-0.
The Spurs’ generational superstar, the gigantic yet exceptionally coordinated Victor Wembanyama, had a whopping 12 blocked shots – but scored a measly 11 points. The Timberwolves more conventional superstar, Anthony Edwards, returned nine days from the time it was announced he would be out “multiple weeks” from a bone bruise and hyperextension in his left knee, and tailored his game to gild his team’s strengths and bolster his team’s weaknesses as they took care of business – the Nuggets – in his absence.
Tenacious defense
Most of the game played out like a dogfight between two evenly-matched teams. There were 17 lead changes, 19 ties, and no team led the other by more than nine points. Such intense and sustained competition accrues in the Wolves favor, as they won 13 fewer games in the regular season (49 to 62), were playing on the road in San Antonio, and were regarded by the bettors and the pundits as huge underdogs.
For three seasons now, the Wolves are at their best when their identity is wedded to tenacious defense. While star defenders Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels led the way, San Antonio spreads and shares its offensive firepower throughout the roster, requiring a deeper commitment to defense and a greater adherence to the game plan from the rest of the roster to throttle the Spurs. The Wolves players and coaching staff both delivered in that regard.
While staunch defense has again become a constant, the welter of injuries (Donte DiVincenzo lost for the season, Ant’s recent absence, a calf strain derailing Ayo Dosunmu the past two games) and the concentrating force of higher stakes playoff basketball have compelled the Wolves to become much more resourceful.
Backcourt backups shine
Six weeks ago, Mike Conley was drifting toward retirement and Terrence Shannon Jr. was the most acute disappointment among the three members of the “young core” expected to add depth to the team this season. On Monday, Conley and Shannon were solid and significant in their respective roles while comprising the starting backcourt.
Conley was able to obscure the defensive demerits of his slight size and advanced age by guarding catch-and-shoot specialist Julian Champagnie, while nailing 4-of-7 three-pointers and leading the team with six assists. The team was +10 in his 24:13 of play.
Shannon excels at driving to the rim and finishing with force via his twitch-quickness, six-foot, six-inch, 223-pound athletic frame, and fearless nature. On Monday, his first two shots were blocked by Wemby and he had just four points on 2-7 shooting in the first half.
But in the second half, those drives began to pay off in Spurs fouls and his torrid finishes. He was 3-6 from the field but also drew enough whistles to get ace Spurs guard Stephon Castle to foul out and to be himself awarded 8 free throws, making six. The Wolves shot 1 free throw in the first half, a miss by Gobert. They shot 20 free throws in the second half, led by Shannon.
Going big pays off again
Chris Finch once again deployed the big frontcourt of Gobert, Julius Randle and Naz Reid together and they were a +9 during the gambit, a crucial advantage during such a tightly fought contest. The trio of bigs was a successful experiment against the Nuggets. On Monday, Finch cited the ability of Naz to guard smaller wings (as the “small forward” among the threesome) as providing him more trust in that lineup. It should become a permanent part of the Wolves arsenal.
On the other hand, Finch once again benched Gobert for most of the fourth quarter in order to put more space and pace into the offense against the Spurs. In the fourth quarters of their three regular-season meetings, Minnesota outscored San Antonio 108-67. Gobert played just a little more than four total minutes in those three, 12-minute periods. (He was unavailable due to an injury in one of those games, but the point – and the point differential – still stands.)
On Monday the Wolves had scored 69 points in the first three quarters – specifically, 24, 21, and 24. In the fourth quarter, it was 35, led by Ant, who poured in 11 points in a suddenly aggressive 5-for-7 shooting spree in the first five minutes of the period. Gobert entered the lineup with 1:10 left to play in the game and the Wolves up by 5 after starting the final stanza down by three.
Late turnovers and mistakes
A series of turnovers and poor decisions nearly cost Minnesota the game in the final minute. After the game, Finch blamed himself for not calling more timeouts and Ant bemoaned mistakes such as turnovers and failing to box out to prevent offensive rebounds and putbacks by the Spurs. A last-second three-pointer that would have won the game for San Antonio fell away.
No timeout during the slippage was one of the very few mistakes made by Finch lately. Once again he had the team primed to play the sort of high-caliber hoops necessary to beat a foe like the Spurs. The team came out with poise and purpose and stayed that way for all but the final 90 seconds or so. Meanwhile, Finch’s rotations blended the verities of scrappy defense with the resourceful innovations detailed earlier.
After the game, Randle noted that the Wolves have begun to grind out wins by wearing down their foes. He memorably said he believes this happens because Minnesota “raises the tempo and raises the pressure.” Few teams have the sufficient physicality and skills to erode the stamina of their opponents through both speed and bulk. But that helps explain why Denver is out of the playoffs and San Antonio is suddenly, surprisingly, down a game to this revamped and rejuvenated Timberwolves outfit.
