Karl-Anthony Towns walked into the Timberwolves’ locker room after Saturday night’s victory over Utah, looked at the television and saw the final tally.

Wolves 123, Jazz 95.

“Man,” Towns said, “we just don’t let teams score over 100.”

Four times in 87 regular-season and playoff games last season, the Timberwolves held their opponents under 100 points. They’ve matched that total through in this season’s first five games this fall.

Their early defensive performance is a marvel in the modern-day game. You simply don’t contain opponents to the production level to which Minnesota is holding its opponents.

The Timberwolves are surrendering a league-best 101.2 points per 100 possessions — 2.3 points better than Orlando, which touts the second-best defensive rating. For reference, the best defensive rating in the NBA last season was 109.9.

Minnesota has been even more fearsome defensively in the half court. Removing transition from the equation, the Wolves are allowing just 82.9 points per 100 possessions, nearly four points better than second-place Toronto, per the stats site Cleaning the Glass.

“Yeah, it’s been great,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “Trying to figure some things out on the fly defensively, but our activity’s been good. For the most part, we’re trying to swallow up the paint and get out and contest and fly around.”

Frankly, this is who the Timberwolves should be. Rudy Gobert is a three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Jaden McDaniels is one of the league’s premier perimeter defenders. Anthony Edwards and Nickeil Walker-Alexander are strong on-ball defenders. Mike Conley and Kyle Anderson have always been strong on that end of the floor.

Minnesota’s personnel screams dominant defense. Gobert said “there’s no reason” the Timberwolves shouldn’t have the NBA’s top defensive unit.

“We have size. We have guys that can move their feet. We have guys that are dogs, competitors. Those three things, you put them together, who wouldn’t want us to be the best defensive team in the league with all those weapons?” Gobert said. “You’ve got to strive for that, and you add to that the offensive weapons we have and the mix between young guys, experienced guys and guys in their primes, I think it’s a really unique team that we have, and we’ll keep working every day to maximize that.”

The want to is a massive part of the equation. It’s what has been missing from past Timberwolves teams. Frankly, even now, if Edwards and Towns aren’t committed to being elite defensively throughout the course of the season, the team will max out at average on that end of the floor.

That wouldn’t be acceptable. Everyone talks about lofty goals in the locker room — being a high seed in the Western Conference playoffs and competing for championships. The path to doing that runs through the defensive end.

Defense, Finch noted, has to be the Timberwolves’ identity.

“You’re just not going to win much unless you guard. I’ve been on teams that try to outscore people, and it looks great. But oftentimes you end up on the wrong side of the scoreboard, and it’s not a lot of fun. You don’t feel like you can ever control the game, even when you’re scoring,” Finch said. “Last year, I don’t think we ever found an identity. We just never did. … But, coming into the season, we just knew, with our lineup, that it had to be defense. It had to be defense, and it had to be big. If you’re going to play big with big guys, you’ve got to do the things that big teams do. Big teams should be physical, and they should play defense.”

So far, so good. The only defensive area in which the Timberwolves have struggled is in transition. But even that has looked better in the team’s two recent victories. Denver and Utah won’t be characterized as fast teams, but there’s been an obvious emphasis on the Timberwolves getting back to defend.

Finch credited assistant coach Corliss Williamson for developing a plan to make sure the Wolves are better organized in their transition defense. But no plan can be executed without player buy-in.

“We put a highlighter on everybody not doing their part in transition, and we’ve had some guys that have bad habits,” Finch said, “and they’ve been much better.”

Naz Reid said players are intentional about being there for one another on defense. Alexander-Walker said players “want to play both ends of the court and want to be the best that they can be.”

“I think it helps when you have five guys doing it as opposed to three or two. Because all it takes is just one for things to go south,” Alexander-Walker said. “I think it’s really important and huge and has been able to help us as to why we’ve been able to do well at times defensively.”

That commitment needs to be present for the next five-plus months and beyond. If it is, the Wolves are truly dangerous. In their current state, they can win even when they are struggling offensively. And, when they’re hitting shots, they can run you off the floor. Those are the types of teams that can win a lot of games — and, yes, maybe even championships.

“I think we could be a top five if not the best defense in the league with the guys we have on this team, and the makeup that we have. And we’re striving for it,” Conley said. “We’re striving to be one of the best defenses in the league, and then couple that with an offense that can be explosive. So hopefully we can put those two together, win some games and be what we want to be.”

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