MINNEAPOLIS — The 21st meeting between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets over the past three seasons lived up to the billing on Friday night for a national TV audience, with the Wolves pulling out a thriller, 119-116, at Target Center.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker breathed life back into the Wolves by scoring eight fourth-quarter points and forcing a pair of turnovers to help them erase a 10-point deficit. Anthony Edwards took over from there, hitting a three and a runner in the lane to put the Wolves ahead 117-116 with 25.7 seconds to play.

Christian Braun missed a runner for Denver as Rudy Gobert secured the rebound for the Wolves and went to the line with 10.1 seconds to play. He hit both for a 119-116 lead. Nikola Jokic airballed Denver’s last three-point attempt and the Wolves won.

Edwards finished with 29. Aaron Gordon led Denver with 31.

How it happened

Denver hit its first four shots of the night as the Wolves had trouble matching up after misses and in transition early. But their defense buckled down from there as they held the Nuggets to 9-for-25 the rest of the quarter. Jaden McDaniels provided an early offensive boost with eight points before Randle and Edwards got going with nine each in the first. The Wolves closed the first 10-4 as Denver went into its shallow bench and rested Jokic the final two minutes.

The Wolves did a lot of damage to the Nuggets bench; Russell Westbrook was a minus-18 in the first half, and the Wolves took a 16-point lead. DiVincenzo had six points, five rebounds, five assists in the first half.

There was a stark contrast between Denver’s bench and starting units in the second quarter. The starters cycled back in and erased that Wolves lead with a 22-7 run. Gordon had 19 points in the first half on 7-for-9 shooting while Jokic had nine points, eight assists and five boards. Edwards had 18 by the half as the Wolves led 64-61.

The Wolves continued finding Gobert on lobs throughout the night. Both Edwards and DiVincenzo hit him on a couple in the third as the Wolves built an 86-78 lead. Jamal Murray (six points) left the game in the third quarter in concussion protocol after he made contact with Edwards during a possession in the third. Without Murray, the Nuggets still kept it close, 91-85, entering the fourth. The Wolves couldn’t take advantage of the minutes Jokic rested to begin the fourth and led by just four after he checked back in. The Nuggets took a 106-102 lead on a 7-0 run after Gobert committed a flagrant foul one against Jokic for making contact with an elbow in Jokic’s face. A Jokic three and a Porter putback forced a timeout from Chris Finch with 6:14 to play. The Wolves went 3:43 without a point as Denver took a 10-point lead, its largest of the night.

Player of the game

Alexander-Walker gets the nod after the Wolves looked lifeless in the fourth. He brought them back with eight points, five assists.

Stat of the game

31-13 Wolves edge in bench points.

Weird moment of the game

In the fourth quarter, Braun dunked over Gobert, yelled in Gobert’s face and then Gobert grabbed Braun and threw him to the side, causing tempers to flare. Officials and security did a good job preventing the situation from escalating and officials called double technicals on Braun and Gobert, but there were no ejections.

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