Northwest Notes: Conley, Malone, Murray, Jazz

The Timberwolves enter Game 4 on Sunday coming off a lopsided Game 3 loss. Point guard Mike Conley believes it might work in the team’s favor, Chris Hine of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes.

“We’ve been good all year at, when we take an L, we learn from it and adjust really quick,” the Timberwolves floor leader said. “Our guys take it personal, get angry and somehow flip a switch. Say it’s-not-going-to-happen-again type of attitude. And that’s what we need to have. We’ve got to continue to be the urgent, desperate team that we’ve played like all year.”

We have more from the Northwest Division:

• Nuggets coach Michael Malone got irritated with at least one fan during the team’s game at Minnesota on Friday night, Bennett Durando of the Denver Post reports. Two fans at Target Center were escorted away from the sideline by security during the fourth quarter, though Malone said he didn’t ask for anyone to be removed from the arena. “That happens at times in a hostile environment, and people get a little liquid courage, I guess sometimes,” he said. “And they think they can just say whatever they want to anybody. And I’m not allowing that to happen.”
• Malone took some of the ball-handling responsibilities away from Jamal Murray on Friday and that worked well, John Hollinger of The Athletic notes. “We did play better, we were more physical, we were more aggressive., (and) we played more downhill,” Malone said. “But we also tried to alleviate how much Jamal, especially had to bring the ball up. We have two very good ballhandling bigs, Nikola Jokic (and) Aaron Gordon. Let them initiate offense.”
• The Jazz had a disappointing day at the draft lottery. Their pick slid from No. 8 to No. 10 as two teams jumped past them. “Obviously (we’re) not happy about it, we’d rather stay at 8 or move up,” Bart Taylor, the Jazz’s VP of player personnel told Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake City Tribune. There had been a 92.8% chance that Utah’s pick would be No. 9 or higher.