MINNEAPOLIS — Randy Foye has been gone from the Minnesota Timberwolves for 6½ years. He made sure Tuesday night they remembered him.
The Nuggets reserve guard, who began his NBA career with a 2006-09 stint with Minnesota, scored a season-high 19 points against his former team in a 112-100 win at the Target Center.
“This is a shooter’s gym,” Foye said. “It’s just how the court is set up and usually how the seats are set up. That’s what it is for me. I felt good from pregame warm-ups, and it just carried over to the game.”
Foye had 17 points in the second quarter while making all five of his 3-point attempts. That enabled the Nuggets to outscore the Timberwolves 36-25 for a 63-49 halftime lead.
Denver forward Kenneth Faried also had 19 points while adding 10 rebounds in 28 minutes. His energy was another factor in the Nuggets (11-14) winning their third straight game and both games of a back-to-back set for the first time this season in six tries.
“It’s very easy to come in here on a back-to-back and play with low energy, but as a team we had great energy and our bench gave us much-needed energy in the first half,” said coach Michael Malone.
Denver’s bench outscored Minnesota’s 40-17 in the first half and 53-38 for the game. Reserve guard Will Barton added 14 points.
Foye’s performance was surprising, considering he came in averaging just five points and his previous season high had been 13. In 25 minutes, he shot 7-of-9, including 5-of-6 on 3-pointers.
“We knew at some point he’d break out (of his slump),” Malone said. “It couldn’t have happened on a better night. Obviously, he played here for three years. For him to get going like that and to see how excited his teammates were for him was really fun.”
Foye entered the game shooting a miserable 19.7 percent from 3-point range. He said he has spent a lot of extra time lately in the gym.
“I’ve been continuing to work every day after practice and before practice,” he said. “It’s starting to pay off.”
The Nuggets broke the game open with a 21-6 run in the second quarter to extend the lead from 37-35 to 58-41. The Timberwolves, who got a game-high 23 points from forward Andrew Wiggins, never got closer than nine points in the second half.
Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari scored 15 points. But he shot just 8-of-11 from the foul line, dropping his season percentage from 90.3 to 89.2.
Faried had the 100th double-double of his five-year career, and the Nuggets are 67-33 in those games. However, Faried seemed to have his most fun watching Foye drain 3-pointers.
“For him to get on fire like that was magnificent,” Faried said. “It was a wonder to watch.”
