The Brooklyn Nets visited Target Center on Friday to face the Minnesota Timberwolves and won 124-123. Brooklyn leads the regular-season series 1-0.
For the Nets, Mikal Bridges had 34 points and six rebounds while Spencer Dinwiddie had 29 points and 11 assists. Cameron Johnson had 15 points and Royce O’Neale had 12 points off the bench.
For the Timberwolves, Anthony Edwards had 32 points and six rebounds while Rudy Gobert had 26 points and 13 rebounds. Jaden McDaniels had 15 points and Kyle Anderson had 15 points.
In the first half, Minnesota started the game strong thanks to a strong Rudy Gobert. While Bridges and Curry were playing well for Brooklyn, no other Net came along to help with the scoring. Brooklyn also had trouble defending Edwards and Gobert.
In the second half, Brooklyn outplayed Minnesota on both ends of the floor until the end when the Timberwolves hit some timely buckets. Unfortunately, Nic Claxton fouled out in the fourth quarter, but it may have been a good thing for Brooklyn as Claxton didn’t look like himself for much of the night. Dinwiddie took over in the second half for the Nets and his play allowed Brooklyn to stay in the game until Minnesota’s Naz Reid hit a three to beat the buzzer and send the game into overtime.
In overtime, it was back and forth as expected as neither team gained an edge in the period. Dinwiddie continued his superb play by using his dribble to break down his defender to either score or find Mikal Bridges and Dorian Finney-Smith for clutch three-pointers. In a high-scoring game, Brooklyn made a great defensive play when it mattered.
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