MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Anthony Edwards flashed seven fingers at the roaring crowd as he walked away to call a timeout in the fourth quarter during a blowout by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He had that tenacious look of a superstar player who refuses to give in to the defending champions all night.
Edwards scored 27 points to lift the Timberwolves out of their mid-series slump and cruise to a flawless 115-70 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday to force a Game 7 in this rollercoaster matchup.
Jaden McDaniels pitched 21 points and tight defense, and Mike Conley scored 13 points in his return from injury. Bigs Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid combined for 38 rebounds and a tireless effort to hold NBA MVP Nikola Jokic to a relatively quiet 22 points.
The Wolves recorded the largest margin of victory in a postseason game since 2015, when Chicago beat Milwaukee by 54 points in the deciding game of their first-round series, according to Sportradar.
“The guys just believe in themselves,” Edwards said. “I think in the last three games we were all depressed.”
The deciding game for a spot in the Western Conference finals will be Sunday night in Denver. Just as Edwards promised the Ball Arena locker room staff after the Wolves lost in Game 5.
Jamal Murray struggled again with 10 points and went 4-for-18 while battling elbow soreness for the Nuggets, whose bench was outscored 36-9, with seven of those points coming in the final five minutes. The Wolves’ reserves led a 24-0 run in the fourth quarter en route to a staggering 50-point lead, a fitting continuation of the 20-0 surge the starters led in the first quarter.
“We talked a lot today about getting our edge back, our swagger, playing a little freer and calmer,” coach Chris Finch said. “I felt like we still hadn’t done our best on both sides of the ball.”
No defending NBA champion had ever lost in the playoffs by more than 36 points until this failure by the Nuggets, who were outrebounded 62-43.
“To me, that says a lot about the game and our approach,” Denver coach Mike Malone said.
Aaron Gordon had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Nuggets, who finished just 7 of 36 from 3-point range and trailed by at least 17 points over the final 31 minutes of the game.
For the Wolves, McDaniels’ offense is usually an advantage, but he can’t be as calm as he was during the first five games with a total of 35 points. This time he was all over the court, going 3-for-5 from deep and mixing in some well-timed dunks to ignite the crowd.
Source: NBA
2024-05-17 16:12:47
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