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Timberwolves 106-80 Nuggets (May 6, 2024) Game Recap
DENVER — — The Minnesota Timberwolves, led by Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Cities, overpowered the Denver Nuggets on Monday night time in a stunningly environment friendly 106-80 thrashing of the reigning however reeling NBA champions.
“We’ve had some actually good defensive efforts this yr,” Wolves coach Chris Finch stated after his group took a shocking 2-0 lead within the Western Convention semifinals. “That must be proper up there with the perfect of them.”
The Wolves held Denver to an unpleasant 29-of-83 taking pictures night time, and essentially the most spectacular factor about that was the absence of their greatest defender, 7-foot-1 middle Rudy Gobert, who was back in Minneapolis for the birth of his son.
Gobert’s fingerprints were all over this masterpiece, Finch suggested.
“Rudy’s driven the defensive culture here. I think it’s a testament to his impact, his presence and what he’s infused into the team of how important defense is and how great it can be when we play it,” Finch said. “That aside, we expect to win no matter who’s with us and who’s not.”
Towns and Edwards both scored 27 points as the Wolves improved to 6-0 in the playoffs and gave themselves a chance to close out the fuming Nuggets with wins Friday night and Sunday in Minneapolis.
So flustered were the Nuggets by the second quarter that coach Michael Malone threw a fit at an official and scuffling point guard Jamal Murray threw a heat pack onto the courtroom in frustration as Cities was about to attain on a layup.
Malone stated he had no thought it was Murray who tossed the warmth pack, saying, “I knew a heating pack was on the ground, nevertheless it was not in my field of regard.”
Nor did the officers see him throw it, added crew chief Marc Davis.
“We weren’t conscious it had come from the bench. If we might have been conscious it got here from the bench, we may have reviewed it below the hostile act set off. The penalty would have been a technical foul,” Davis informed a pool reporter.
Finch stated he knew solely that the warmth pack had come from the Nuggets’ bench.
“We tried to impress upon (the officers) that there is most likely not many followers within the constructing which have a warmth pack. So, it most likely needed to come from the bench, which they discovered logical,” Finch stated. “However yeah, it is inexcusable and harmful.”
Murray, who has shot 9 for 32 on this collection, left Ball Area with out remark for the second straight recreation. He’s prone to be fined by the NBA for his actions.
Aaron Gordon led Denver with 20 factors, Nikola Jokic had 16 factors and 16 rebounds however their third-leading scorer was sub Justin Holliday with 13 factors. Murray scored eight factors on 3-of-18 taking pictures.
Kyle Anderson changed Gobert within the beginning lineup and had eight assists and 9 rebounds and reserves Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker each scored 14.
Throughout a 43-18 first-half flourish by the Timberwolves — Edwards was on the bench for a lot of it, no much less — the Nuggets grew so annoyed that Malone ran approach out onto the courtroom and bought in Davis’ face for an prolonged blowup throughout a timeout however averted a technical.
“Though Coach Malone was visibly upset about each his group and the officers, I didn’t hear him say something unsportsmanlike that warranted a technical foul,” Davis defined.
Pissed off by their gradual begins — the Nuggets have trailed by double digits in six of their seven playoff video games and by 9 within the different — Malone challenged his group to get off to a powerful begin for as soon as.
Solely Gordon heeded his coach’s name, scoring 13 fast factors, together with a 3-pointer that introduced the Nuggets to 18-17 late within the first quarter.
Issues unraveled for Denver after that.
Trailing 61-35 on the break, the Nuggets’ 26-point halftime deficit was Denver’s largest in a house playoff recreation in franchise historical past.
Now the Nuggets, who misplaced consecutive video games simply as soon as through the season, discover themselves needing to beat Edwards 4 instances in 5 tries to advance to the Western Convention finals once more, a seemingly impossibility given each groups’ stage of play in the intervening time.
“The message we need to ship is that we’re extraordinarily honored and blessed that we have now this chance to go house up 2-0,” Cities stated. “However we’re humble on this strategy.”
Edwards, for one, expects to see a special Nuggets group at Goal Middle this weekend.
“It labored in our favor tonight, man. That is all that was,” he stated. “We made pictures. They did not. That is the defending champs over there. So, they are not going to come back out and play like that once more in Recreation 3.”
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