After dropping three straight games to watch their 2-0 series lead turn into a 3-2 series deficit, the Minnesota Timberwolves entered Thursday night’s Game 6 against the Denver Nuggets prepared to battle for their season. And battle they did.
From the first-quarter run to the fourth-quarter bloodbath, Game 6 quickly turned into a one-sided affair, with the Timberwolves running away with a lopsided 115-70 victory.
Anthony Edwards posted a game-high 27 points and was one of five Minnesota players to score in double figures, a crew that included Jaden McDaniels dropping 21 points.
The Timberwolves’ big man trio of Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid were dominant on the boards, combining for 38 rebounds, but more importantly were effective in slowing down three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. The Nuggets star finished with 22 points, nine rebounds and two assists.
It was his first game with fewer than seven assists all playoffs. Much of that stemmed from the Denver’s complete inability to hit shots from outside. No player made more than two 3-pointers, and the team shot 7 of 33 from deep as a whole.
Jamal Murray particularly struggled, knocking down only 4 of 18 shots from the field, finishing with 10 points — struggles that mirrored his Game 2 performance, which the Nuggets also lost in one-sided fashion.
Game 7 of what has been the most entertaining series of the playoffs thus far will take place Sunday.
This is what these Timberwolves have been all season long. Tough. Resilient. Together.
Anytime the Wolves even wobbled this season, they banded together, bowed their backs and got back in the fight. With the ridicule falling on their heads after three straight losses in the series, Minnesota dug deep and delivered an emphatic bounce back, just when you least expected it.
The desperation was there from the start, from Mike Conley, who shook off a sore calf, scored 13 points and even blocked a shot at the rim by Christian Braun. It was there from Gobert, lampooned over the previous 36 hours after getting torched by Jokic. He grabbed 14 rebounds and helped revive the Timberwolves’ suffocating defense.
It was there from Towns, who did not shoot well but played terrific defense against Jokic, holding him to 22 points on 19 shots. It was there from McDaniels, who had struggled with his shot all playoffs but responded with 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting with three 3s.
Facing elimination, they played their best game of the season, and benefited from a cold shooting night from Murray (4-for-18) and Michael Porter Jr. (3-for-9).
In front of a delirious home crowd, the Wolves gave their fans a reason to believe. Now they go to Game 7 in Denver, where they have already won twice. It will be a mountain to climb, but for the first time in 20 years, Minnesota can at least see the summit.
Murray deserves a lot of credit for even being on the floor with a calf strain. That’s one of the most dangerous injuries you can have, without it being a catastrophic one.
But the longer this series goes, the more games the Nuggets play, the more Murray’s inability to be the true Jamal Murray shows up for Denver. He first injured the calf against the Los Angeles Lakers, and he’s struggled with it since. It’s fair to ask how much Murray can give in Sunday’s deciding Game 7.
In that scenario, Denver needs a Murray that’s playing well, or the Nuggets will need another historic performance from Jokic.
