Luka Garza came to the Minnesota Timberwolves bench at the end of the first quarter, his body drenched in sweat, face flushed and hair going in every direction. Garza’s role is to be ready in case of emergency, and the Wolves have faced few more pressing emergencies this season than the one they had on Tuesday night.
The defending champion Denver Nuggets were in the house, fully healthy and rested. The Timberwolves were on the second night of a back-to-back and missing all three of the bigs that make their roster so uniquely confounding to match up against. And then Kyle Anderson, who started at center with Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid all sidelined, picked up three fouls in the first three minutes of the game.
Suddenly, it was Garza time. When his first shift was over, Garza looked like he had gone nine rounds against a heavyweight champ and not nine minutes against probably the best basketball player in the world.
Nikola Jokić had him running around in the first quarter as he put up 13 points and eight rebounds. Jokić made it look as easy as one would expect when he was playing against a two-way player, shooting right over the top of Garza and hitting an unstoppable turnaround jumper from the baseline to build a double-digit lead.
The Nuggets were pummeling the Timberwolves, bullying them on the glass and looking every bit the team that has surged out of the All-Star break and found its championship form. Garza huffed and puffed as he put his warmup shirt back on to catch a breather at the start of the second quarter, and assistant coach Joe Boylan was right in his ear like a cutman in the corner.
No one expected Garza to win his battle with Jokić, the two-time MVP who appears on his way to a third one this season. What they needed from him was a fight, and that’s exactly what Garza brought as the game continued.
The sweat and the passion that Garza poured onto the court and into that matchup in the face of overwhelming odds against him in some ways encapsulate this team and this Timberwolves season. They may have some deficiencies. They may be unconventional. Few may believe that they belong on the court with the best players and best teams. And yet here they are, slugging it out no matter the circumstances.
Jokić and the Nuggets prevailed on Tuesday night, but the 115-112 victory was so much closer than anyone could have reasonably expected given the circumstances. Anyone, perhaps, aside from Wolves coach Chris Finch.
“We’re tough. I don’t doubt our toughness,” Finch said. “We come in every single night and compete. No matter what the circumstances are, we expect to win and come back from a deficit. We root for each other, so I feel like we’ve got all the makings of a tough team.”
Jokić had 35 points and 16 rebounds, gargantuan numbers that are the norm for him these days. But he only had two assists, a season low and indicative of the hustle and determination from Anderson, Garza and the Wolves’ perimeter defenders to not let Jokić orchestrate the way he so often does.
The Wolves are confident in how they match up against the Nuggets. When healthy, they have Gobert and Towns to throw length at Jokić and have Reid coming off the bench with his flamethrower to exploit the one mismatch the Wolves do have with their depth and second-unit balance against the Nuggets’ shaky bench.
But none of those three players were there for the Wolves on Tuesday night. And Anderson was limited to fewer than 26 minutes because of foul trouble. So Garza went toe to toe for a season-high 22 minutes. He scored 11 points, grabbed six boards, had two steals and the Wolves were only outscored by three points in those minutes.
“He’s the best big man in the world, a guy I love watching,” Garza said of Jokić. “It’s an honor to even matchup against him.”
There were times that Jokić made it look easy against Garza. But in fairness to the young Wolves big, even the best defenders in the league are most often overmatched by Jokić’s blend of size, strength and court vision.
Pretty bucket pic.twitter.com/AGu91oEZyR
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) March 20, 2024
At halftime, Jokić had 22 points, 10 rebounds and the Nuggets rolled up a 70-55 lead on 60 percent shooting. One of the reasons the score wasn’t worse? Garza scored 10 points and hit two 3-pointers, joining Anthony Edwards as the only two Wolves in double figures.
As the Wolves often do at halftime, they regrouped. Jokić is Garza’s favorite player, the kind of crafty offensive savant who uses brains and technical proficiency to dominate rather than athleticism. That’s what Garza did on his way to winning national player of the year honors at Iowa. That is the toolbox that Garza went into to render the G League a farce in his dominant performances there.
“Everybody should want to be Luka. You’re the 15th guy and you need to come in and score,” Finch said. “That doesn’t happen much. That’s his strength. He can shoot the 3, he can score in the post, he gets offensive rebounds. He has the ultimate green light. His teammates love him and they love the way he plays.”
What Garza realized in the halftime locker room is that he was probably revering Jokić a little too much in the heat of the moment. He was giving him too much room to work on offense, allowing him to use the gap between him and Garza as a fulcrum to get where he wanted. Garza knew that if the Wolves were going to make a game of it in the second half, he had to eschew all the offensive tricks and skills and just get out there and wrestle the bear.
The Nuggets outrebounded the diminutive Timberwolves 29-15 in the first half, including six offensive rebounds from Aaron Gordon that helped them rack up 14 second-chance points.
In the second half, the Wolves sharpened their elbows and just fought their way back into the game. Edwards scored 14 of his 30 points in the third quarter and the entire team attacked the glass. Garza grabbed four boards, outworking Jokić for a couple of them, Jaden McDaniels had five of his six rebounds in the second half. Conley grabbed five as well. All in all, the Wolves outrebounded Denver 22-20 in the second half and limited the Nuggets to five second-chance points.
All that sweat equity sent a ripple through Target Center. With Garza’s work ethic fully on display, the crowd got rowdy, spurring the Wolves on. A 29-17 third quarter pulled them within three going into the fourth.
“Luka knows I love him,” Edwards said. “He loves to compete.”
For a team that was tired and short-handed, the energy from Garza was everything. His free throw with seven minutes to play in the fourth gave the Wolves a 93-89 lead, and for a moment it looked like the improbable was possible. Conley scored all 13 of his points in the fourth quarter and McDaniels, who had his best game of the season with 26 points, six rebounds and two blocks, scored 13 as well.
Garza only had one point in the second half, but it was his grit and his determination on defense that resonated afterward. He and Anderson “held” Jokic to 13 points and six boards in the second half, terrific numbers for most players but rather benign for him playing against such a small front line.
“Who knows when he’s gonna play, but when he does, you know what you’re gonna get from him,” Conley said. “He lifts everybody’s energy up as a group. Tonight we needed him more than anybody, with our bigs being out, and he battled hard.”
Michael Porter Jr. went on a solo 7-0 run to give the Nuggets the lead, and the champs held on the rest of the way. The win moved the Nuggets (48-21) into a virtual tie with Oklahoma City (47-20) atop the West. The Wolves (47-22) are one game back of both teams and four games up on the fourth-seeded Clippers.
After the game, Garza lamented some of the shots that didn’t go down. He was just 4 of 11 from the field and 2 of 8 from 3-point range, certainly below his expectations. A lot of the looks were clean, and the roof was ready to blow right off the arena had he made the one he missed with 6 minutes, 24 seconds to play.
“A lot of great looks. Wish they would’ve went down, but I trust my shot and my teammates trust me,” Garza said. “I’m going to keep firing. I left a lot on the table tonight, it feels like, but I still feel good about it.”
This is the opportunity he has been waiting for all season long. He had only appeared in garbage time in 14 games before this recent run as the Wolves bigs have gone down. He has played at least 10 minutes in four of the last five games. The Wolves are 2-2 in those games, doing the best they can to hold court while they wait to get healthy again.
Garza admitted this season has been a challenge for him. He was hoping to see more action on his two-way deal as he tries to prove he belongs in this league. But he is a center on the team with the most depth at that position in the league, so the chances have been sparse.
Garza is in his third season in the league and understands that the chance is almost always going to come at some point in the season. It just so happens that his time is coming now with the Wolves jockeying for homecourt advantage in the Western Conference playoffs.
“I never lost faith,” Garza said. “I continue to work as hard as I could.”
All of that work almost allowed the Wolves to steal a game they had no business winning. Almost. Finch was not interested in silver linings after the game. He knew that game was there to be had.
“Luka played great in terms of fighting and fighting,” Finch said. “Kind of needed him to make a couple more open shots. But he got good looks, took them with confidence, just didn’t go in for him tonight.”
The Wolves have two days off before hosting Cleveland on Friday night. It is not clear if Gobert (ribs) and Reid (head injury) will be available. Gobert worked out before the game but wasn’t quite ready to go, so a return on Friday night would seem possible.
If he cannot go, Garza will be ready.
(Photo of Nikola Jokić: Bruce Kluckhohn / USA Today)
