The Brooklyn Nets have been quietly rewriting their season’s narrative, and on December 28, 2025, they punctuated this resurgence with a commanding 123-107 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. This win, their seventh in the last ten outings, sent a clear message to the rest of the NBA: Brooklyn is no longer a team to overlook.
Coming into the matchup, the Timberwolves were reeling from a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Denver Nuggets—a game that saw Anthony Edwards drop a dazzling 44 points in a losing effort against Nikola Jokic’s historic triple-double. Hopes were high in Minnesota for a bounce-back, but the Nets had other plans. Brooklyn’s relentless defensive pressure, which has become the hallmark of Jordi Fernandez’s squad in December, stifled the Timberwolves from the opening tip.
The numbers tell the story of Brooklyn’s dominance. The Nets limited Minnesota to just 37-of-83 shooting from the field, a modest 45 percent, and held them to a frigid 11-of-40 from beyond the arc. “It was a great scout. We knew everything they were going to do. I guess they were just better than us,” Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards admitted after the game. The frustration was palpable in the Minnesota locker room, as the team struggled to find answers for Brooklyn’s suffocating defense and energetic bench play.
Cam Thomas, making his much-anticipated return after nearly two months on the sidelines, electrified the Nets with a game-high 30 points on a red-hot 9-of-15 shooting in just 20 minutes off the bench. His impact was immediate and undeniable, giving Brooklyn a scoring punch that the Timberwolves simply couldn’t match. “We were just connected,” said Nic Claxton, reflecting on the team’s chemistry. “It was a really good win to come here. Minnesota is one of the best teams in the West. To come up here on their turf and get a win, we were just connected all night. Really, on both sides. We made timely shots, especially towards the end of the game. This is a great win.”
Brooklyn’s bench, led by Thomas, overwhelmed Minnesota’s reserves, outscoring them by a staggering 62-33 margin. Michael Porter Jr. anchored the starting lineup with 27 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists on 9-of-16 shooting, continuing his strong run of form. The balanced attack and defensive discipline were evident throughout, as the Nets allowed just 44 points in the second half, shutting the door on any Timberwolves comeback attempt.
Head coach Jordi Fernandez was quick to praise his entire roster after the game. “Everybody played well, everybody contributed to the win,” he said. “Starters played well, and the bench was outstanding. You look at the plus minus for what it’s worth, but you also look at the bench points. I know that CT [having] 30 in less than 20 minutes is extremely impressive. But all those guys played very well. They were connected. They support each other on the bench. And the defense in the second half, 44 points allowed. It’s very impressive. So keep being about the right things. It’s not always going to be perfect, but proud of the guys, proud of everybody.”
The defensive turnaround in Brooklyn has been nothing short of remarkable. After starting the season with a dismal 0-7 record and the league’s worst defensive rating (128.5), the Nets have gone 10-12 over their last 22 games and now boast the NBA’s best defense in December, allowing just 103.1 points per game. Over that same 22-game stretch, Brooklyn has climbed to fourth in defensive rating (111.7), a testament to their hard work and commitment on that end of the floor. “You’ve got to give a lot of the credit to the coaches. Just us talking, us figuring things out as a group, coaches and players. And then obviously we’re going out there and executing at a high level,” Claxton explained. “A lot of defense is just effort, and we’re putting in the effort. We put the time in practice, and our work is showing. And man, it’s fun guarding like this. It’s fun getting stops. I know me personally, I take a lot of pride in defense. We had some slippage, and I was like, ‘Let’s go. Let’s get back on track.’ So, we just got to keep building and see where we can take it.”
For the Timberwolves, the loss was a bitter pill to swallow. Anthony Edwards, who has been on a scoring tear—averaging 36.7 points over his past three games and 33.5 across the last four—finished with 28 points (10-of-22 FG, 2-of-7 3Pt, 6-of-9 FT), seven rebounds, two assists, and a steal in 35 minutes. He was pulled in the fourth quarter as the game slipped out of reach, a rare quiet ending for the team’s offensive catalyst. The Timberwolves have now dropped consecutive games and face a crucial four-game week ahead, starting with the Chicago Bulls, followed by tough road matchups against the Hawks, Heat, and Wizards.
Donte DiVincenzo didn’t mince words after the defeat, calling out his team’s lack of consistency and urgency. “I truly don’t know, like we can’t have these peaks and valleys, like it’s frustrating. You give them credit, no disrespect to the opponent. But it’s a team we are supposed to come in and handle business, and do what we’re supposed to do… they played with more energy, but that’s the type of team that they are, but they are that. We have spurts, that’s what we can do, but it’s not necessarily who we are, but that’s who we need to become. So we can’t get too low on this, but we have to address it… We have to hold that, we can’t just go off against OKC, then come in against Brooklyn and just get punked. So we have to look at ourselves in the mirror.”
The Timberwolves’ struggles go beyond a single loss. Since trading Karl-Anthony Towns, the team has managed to outperform expectations, but glaring weaknesses remain—particularly at the point guard position. With rumors swirling about a potential move for Ja Morant, Minnesota’s front office faces pressure to provide Anthony Edwards with the support he needs to contend for an NBA championship. If not, fans and analysts alike wonder whether Edwards might eventually seek a new chapter elsewhere, much like Kevin Garnett before him.
As the Nets continue their climb toward the Eastern Conference play-in spots—now just three games back of the Atlanta Hawks for 10th place—their newfound confidence is palpable. “When you’ve got Mike playing at the level that he’s playing out right now, then you throw a Cam Thomas in the fold, and you have us defending the way that we are, we’re gonna be an extremely tough team to beat every night,” Claxton asserted. “We’re gonna compete, because those are two extremely gifted scorers. And we’ve got shooters around [them]. We’ve got me, Day’Ron [Sharpe] at the rim. So we’ve got a lot of different options, a lot to build off of.”
With both teams facing pivotal stretches ahead, Brooklyn’s resurgence and Minnesota’s soul-searching set the stage for an intriguing second half of the NBA season. The Nets, once left for dead, now look like a squad no one wants to face, while the Timberwolves must regroup quickly if they hope to stay in the Western Conference race.
