The Timberwolves were a 20-win team entering Saturday’s contest at Target Center.
Brooklyn was 9-19.
Yet there was zero doubt throughout the evening as to who was the better basketball team. The Nets outclassed Minnesota in every possible department en route to a 123-107 win.
Brooklyn was more disciplined and tougher defensively. It moved, played in transition and made the right plays on offense.
You know, everything good NBA teams do — and what the Wolves can only be bothered to deliver on a sporadic basis.
Perhaps Minnesota — 44 hours removed from a heartbreaking loss to Denver — had Saturday chalked up as a win when it entered the arena. That would’ve been a jarring case of ignorance.
Brooklyn has now won seven of its last 10 games and entered Saturday allowing the NBA’s fewest points per game in December (102.7)
The Nets selected five players in the first round of the June NBA draft and, understandably, started the season slow out of the gates. But Brooklyn has developed a clear brand of basketball that entails doing just about everything the right way.
And Brooklyn received an added boost Saturday in the return of scoring guard Cam Thomas, who missed nearly two months with a hamstring injury. Thomas scored 30 points off the bench in just 20 minutes and served as the Nets’ closer when Minnesota made a mini push in the middle of the final frame.
The Wolves tend to reserve their best basketball for the best opponents. That’s a bad habit, and one that did them in against a team that’s far better than its record indicates.
The Wolves have now lost two straight and are now set to embark on a four-game road trip, beginning Monday in Chicago.
Anthony Edwards scored 28 points in the loss.
Shannon out
Second-year wing Terrence Shannon Jr. will be re-evaluated in two weeks after an MRI revealed a left foot abductor hallucis strain.
Shannon exited in the third quarter of Minnesota’s game Thursday in Denver with the injury.
His absence figures to make Jaylen Clark a more consistent part of Minnesota’s rotation for the time being.
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