During Friday night’s NBA playoff action, the Denver Nuggets used a 120-111 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves to take a commanding 3-0 series lead. No team has ever recovered in a series from the circumstances the Timberwolves now face.
“I thought we needed to win this,” Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. said. “I think we came into this game feeling a sense of urgency. We have had that sense of urgency about this series. We’ve had that about these playoffs as a whole.”
Led by Nikola Jokic’s 20 points, 12 assists, and 11 assists, he wanted to set the tone not to allow the Timberwolves ‘any life’ to take full control of the series. Denver led by as many as 13 points while checking every box imaginable as an offense. They recorded 32 assists after finishing with 60 points in the paint and shot 13-32 (40.6 percent) from deep.
“We didn’t wanna give them life,” Jokic said. “We wanted to be the aggressor. We wanted to punch them first. They need to react to us. That was our plan. I think we did a good job.”
The Nuggets got just about whatever they wanted throughout the game. Michael Porter Jr. led Denver with 25 points and added nine rebounds. The whole starting lineup, along with Bruce Brown, scored in double-figures, with Jamal Murray recording 18 points, six rebounds, and nine assists despite making just one of his six perimeter attempts.
NBA NEWS & PLAYOFFS: Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets & Minnesota Timberwolves Updates
There wasn’t much of a comparison between the Nuggets’ impressive half-court execution and how the Timberwolves stacked up. Denver produced 1.179 points per possession to Minnesota’s 0.978 points per possession. The Nuggets often thrived out of ball screens and handoffs, taking advantage of drop coverage.
The continuity the Nuggets have is something the Timberwolves struggled to overcome. They did not have much of the regular season to play their frontcourt pairing of Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns together after Towns’ injury. Minnesota later swapped out D’Angelo Russell for Mike Conley ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline.
NBA NEWS & PLAYOFFS: Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets & Minnesota Timberwolves Updates
“Denver has been together a while,” Timberwolves forward Kyle Anderson said. “At the end of quarters, at the end of games, whenever we made a run to cut it to four or five, they made a good play, whether it was a backdoor layup, a Jokic bucket or a Jamal Murray 3, whatever it is, they stayed calm through the storms and were able to convert. It just showed they’ve been together for a long time and are a really good team.
“They’re the best team in the West.”
The likeliest of outcomes at this point for the Nuggets will be to face the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference Semifinals. The Los Angeles Clippers are majorly disadvantaged with injuries to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and falling down 3-1 in the series.
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