Despite the odds against them, the Minnesota Timberwolves defeated reigning NBA champions Denver Nuggets 98 to 90 in the Minneapolis Target court to advance to the Western Conference finals in the National Basketball Association playoffs game on Sunday, 19 May 2024. The Wolves will now face the Dallas Mavericks.
CBS Sports reports that Dominican national team member, Karl Anthony Towns made the difference in the game.
“Towns comes through in the biggest game of his career,” headlined CBS Sports in its report on the game. He scored 23 points in the game.
CBS reported: “Early on, Towns was one of the few Wolves who had his shot going, and his 13 first half points turned out to be extremely important. He added eight in the third-quarter turnaround, and while he only scored one basket in the fourth quarter due to foul trouble, it was a putback slam that essentially sealed the game.”
At one time in the game, the Wolves were trailing the Nuggets by 20 points. It was that throughout the first half and even into the third quarter, the Wolves’ offense was not happening. CBS reports that yet, Towns was one of the few Wolves who had hit shot going that night. His 13 first half points would turn out to be extremely important. CBS says that Towns’ putback slam in the fourth quarter essentially sealed the game.
CBS concludes in its report on game 7: “The momentum fully flipped in their favor a few minutes into the final frame when Rudy Gobert threw up a turnaround fadeaway at the end of the shot clock and caught nothing but net. Once shots like that start going in, it just might be your night. Indeed, it was the Timberwolves’ night, as they pulled away down the stretch to complete the biggest Game 7 comeback in NBA history.“
Game 6 had been a similar story with a happy ending for the Wolves landing a 45-point win (115-70) over the Nuggets, including a 20-point run that set the stage for what the Minnesota Star Tribune described as “one of the most successful games in the team’s history.”
The Star Tribune praised the teamwork, and the plays of Anthony Edwards and Karl Anthony Towns. The commentators observed that the crowds were stunned and how the Wolves came from behind and a 15-point deficit in the first half to clinch the game on a strong defense.
Anthony Edwards explained, as reported by ESPN: “I’m not one-dimensional. I’m not just a guy who can score. I’m a guy who — whoever their best guard is, I can go lock him down. I feel like I did that on Jamal in the fourth quarter — in the third quarter and fourth quarter — and that’s what turned the game around.”
The team now advances to the Western Conference finals for the first time in 20 years.
The Denver Nuggets vs Minnesota Timberwolves series went:
Game 1: MIN leads 106-99
Game 2: MIN leads 106-80
Game 3: DEN leads 117-90
Game 4: MIN leads 115-107
Game 5: DEN leads 112-97
Game 6: DEN leads 115-70
Game 7: MIN leads 98-90
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20 May 2024