After practice on Friday, a reporter asked Mike Conley about the upcoming rivalry night game against the Denver Nuggets.
“We don’t like seeing them,” said Conley. “They are a tough team, but we got to prepare to play them. We got to prepare for the different schemes they throw at you, and obviously, [Nikola] Jokic himself is a problem.“
Over the last week, the Minnesota Timberwolves have had something of a rivalry gauntlet. On Jan. 20, they lost to the Memphis Grizzlies 108-106, who eliminated the Wolves in 2021-22.
Forty-eight hours later, they played a nationally televised rematch of last year’s Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, which they closed out 115-114. They finish the week with a 2:00 PM afternoon showdown against the Denver Nuggets, the team that sent the Wolves home in five games in 2022-23, but Minnesota beat a thrilling semifinals last year.
Three games against former playoff matchups made for a tough week. However, none of these games were longstanding rivalries.
The NBA has had impressive rivalries built on playoff wins and losses and unadulterated animosity for the opposing teams.
Other teams in the league have more historic rivalries. Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers dominated the NBA landscape in the 1960s, ‘80s, and 2000s. The Chicago Bulls-Detroit Pistons rivalry led to the Jordan Rules takeover of the NBA dominated the early ’90s. In the 2010s, LeBron James famously joined the Miami Heat and had to beat the more established San Antonio Spurs, then LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers overcoming the Golden State Warriors.
However, the Wolves haven’t had a lot of decades-long playoff series with opposing teams. They also don’t have a lot of in-season rivalries where teams have battled and fought to get the upper hand for playoff seedings.
It is exceptionally hard to determine Minnesota’s biggest rival based on the franchise’s 36-year history. The data shows a glum picture when considering potential rivals. At the time of writing, the Wolves franchise win-loss record is 1170-1668, a 41.2% winning percentage.
Based on the number of regular season games, the Wolves have played the Nuggets 146 times, more than any other NBA team. Proximity breeds contempt, which often leads to rivalries. The Utah Jazz are second with 142 games, followed by the Mavericks at 139. So, perhaps the NBA is onto something on the historic side by matching the Timberwolves up with Dallas.
However, the win-loss results don’t indicate a rivalry. For the history of the Wolves franchise, these teams routinely beat Minnesota. Denver has won the matchup 89-57. The Jazz have a 90-52 record against the Wolves, and Dallas is up 78-61. To catch up to the Mavericks in wins, the Wolves would have to win all three games each year for six years.
Conversely, the teams the Wolves seem to win the most against also have been meandering franchises for the past 36 seasons. Most are also in the East, which means the Wolves don’t play them as often.
The Brooklyn Nets are Minnesota’s best matchup in their history. The Wolves have gone 39-28 against the Brooklyn/New Jersey Nets. The Timberwolves have had the second-most success against the Sacramento Kings, holding a 70-63 advantage.
However, the next team is somewhat more unexpected. The Timberwolves hold a 57-54 advantage over the Memphis Grizzlies.
At first glance, Minnesota’s near .500 record against the Grizzlies may seem insignificant. Since they entered the league as the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995, the Wolves are 1,044-1302 against them, a 44.5% winning percentage. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies are 1027-1328, 43.6% overall. That means the Wolves and Grizzlies have been nearly identical in team success, which likely is why the teams share a near-identical win-loss percentage.
Looking into playoff competition, Minnesota and the Grizzlies have only met once, two years ago. At least objectively, I don’t think this can mean the Wolves and Memphis are true rivals.
The Wolves also have a winning or .500 record against the Detroit Pistons (35-34) and Milwaukee Bucks (34-34).
With the Kings and the Wolves, a similar problem to the Grizzlies emerged. Sacramento has a near-identical winning percentage as Minnesota over the history of the Wolves franchise, and there is only one playoff series played between the two teams, which was a thrilling seven-game series between Kevin Garnett and Chris Webber in 2004 for a trip to the Western Conference Finals.
Regular-season winning percentages didn’t seem to yield a rival for the Timberwolves.
Thankfully, Minnesota’s playoff games are also documented, and they sport a lackluster 30-59 record.
Most of the playoff series occurred in two distinct eras. The first lasted from the 1996-97 season to the 2003-04 season when Flip Saunders led the Wolves to eight consecutive playoff appearances. The next era was the modern Chris Finch-led team, which has made the playoffs in three straight seasons.
One outlier occurred in 2017-18 when the Jimmy Butler Wolves lost to the Houston Rockets in five games. However, like with most of that season, we can forget it happened.
Looking at Minnesota’s seven consecutive first-round exits starting in 1996-97 before the 2003-04 Western Conference run in the Flip era:
- Starting in 1996-97, the Wolves lost 3-0 to the Rockets in the first round.
- Minnesota took the Seattle Supersonics to five games before falling in the first round.
- A year later, they lost in four games to the Spurs, 3-1
- In 1999-00, the Portland Trail Blazers beat them in four games.
- The Wolves then lost to the Spurs again in four games in 2000-01
- then Dallas eliminated them in three games in 2001-02.
- 2002-03, the year before their Western Conference Finals run, the Los Angeles Lakers beat them in six games.
Finally the Wolves had their Western Conference Finals run in 2003-04, they beat the Nuggets in five games and Webber’s Kings in five. However, the Lakers beat them 4-2 to advance to the Finals.
For this article, a rivalry must have wins and losses. Therefore, it’s hard to say the Wolves developed a rival in their eight-straight playoff series under Saunders. The Spurs and Lakers dominated the Wolves in the playoffs.
However, two series stand out. The Wolves eliminated the Nuggets 4-1 in 2003-04 and fell to the Mavericks 3-0 in 2001-02. Dallas is intriguing due to their 139 total regular-season games against each other. However, the Wolves have lost both series rather convincingly.
The same can be said about the Rockets. Minnesota has played them 138 times in the regular season, but in two playoff series, Houston holds an 8-1 advantage against the Wolves. Therefore, it’s hard to justify that as a rivalry.
That means the Nuggets are the closest thing Minnesota has to a rivalry, which clarifies why they are playing in the Rivalry game on Saturday.
Denver holds the upper hand in the regular season, boasting a 98-57 record in the 146 games, a 67.1% winning percentage. However, the Wolves have flipped the script in the playoffs, sending the Nuggets packing 4-1 in the first round in 2003- 04. Denver repaid the favor nearly 20 years later, sending the Wolves home in a 4-1 series in 2022-23.
Last season, the Wolves took the upper hand in the 4-3 semifinals series win, resulting in a Minnesota’s 9-8 playoff advantage overall.
Add to this some of the drama that has occurred over the years: Taj Gibson‘s last-second defense of Nikola Jokić in Game 82 of the 2017-18 season with an eight-seed and a trip to the playoffs on the line. In the 2003-04 series.
Kevin Garnett propelled past former teammate Chauncy Billups. Edwards threw a chair into the stands after Denver eliminated them in 2022-23. Jamal Murray had a heat pack and towel-throwing incident in 2023-24.
Notable players have also switched sides. The Wolves took Isaiah Rider fifth overall in 1993, and he became their first star. However, he finished his career with the Nuggets. So did the infamous Joe Smith. Billips left the Wolves for the Pistons before finding his way to the Nuggets.
Conversely, the Wolves brought notable Nuggets to the Twin Cities, like Andre Miller and LaPhonso Ellis, to finish their careers. The two teams have also had notable trades, sending Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt to the Wolves in exchange for facilitating the Aaron Gordon trade that assisted in their 2022-23 championship run. The Wolves also stole former Denver GM Tim Connelly.
This is all to say that the Nuggets seem to be Minnesota’s rival in every sense. They’ve had key players switch teams, played each other frequently in the regular season, and had playoff battles. They’ve even had memorable moments.
For fans, the best news is that Nikola Jokić and Anthony Edwards don’t seem to be leaving their teams any time soon. That should lead to more playoff moments, more regular season antics, and with the trade deadline approaching, maybe even more players switching teams, this season or in the future.