Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Karl-Anthony Towns had 32 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists and hit the go-ahead shot with 42.5 seconds to play to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 111-108 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night.
Towns hit 13 of 19 shots and also had four blocks and Andrew Wiggins scored 24 points in Minnesota's fourth straight home win. Shabazz Muhammad scored 20 points off the bench and the Wolves rallied from nine points down midway through the fourth quarter for the win.
Gary Harris scored 22 points and Nikola Jokić had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Nuggets on the second night of a back-to-back. Wilson Chandler and Jamal Murray added 17 points each for Denver, which played without Emmanuel Mudiay because of a sore back.
Kris Dunn had 10 points and nine assists for the Wolves while starting for Ricky Rubio, who missed the game to attend his grandmother's funeral.
The Wolves were down 100-91 midway through the fourth quarter when Towns and Muhammad keyed a 12-2 run. Muhammad finished the spurt with a layup for a 103-102 lead, Wiggins hit a 3-pointer and Towns knocked down a jumper from the baseline to put the Wolves up for good in a thriller.
Towns 32 points carries Timberwolves past Nuggets.
The game featured two of the best young big men in the game in Towns and Jokić. Both are considered the new breed of NBA center, able to shoot the ball like a shooting guard, pass it like a point guard and run the break like a small forward.
Denver coach Mike Malone said the Nuggets offense took off when he inserted Jokić into the starting lineup, and the Serbian gave his coach the luxury of being able to weather Mudiay's absence by running the offense through him. Rookie Jamal Murray saw extended minutes at point guard, running the pick-and-roll with Jokić to perfection.
Towns knows there is a segment of the NBA analytics community that believe Jokić should have won rookie of the year honors last year, and he went right at Jokić every time he had the chance on Sunday night. Towns dunked on Jokić twice and had another blow-by for a dunk in the second quarter that got the crowd on its feet.