The Wolves smothered, frustrated, and downright crushed the Nuggets in their most impressive performance of the season by a longshot, paired with perhaps one of the best defensive halves of basketball ever.
Anthony Edwards stepped up to the line in the fourth quarter to MVP chants in the defending champion Denver Nuggets’ arena, shortly before both benches were emptied and the team that faced the Minnesota Timberwolves in this year’s playoffs was run out of the gym yet again.
It’s become robotic, a similar game script every time that has yet to bore a single Minnesota fan; perhaps the most tortured group of people, and the a particular sect of them that’s been tortured most in meticulously following this team for the last 20 years.
It’s time for Timberwolves fan to let go of 20 years without playoff success…
WE ARE MOVING ON TO THE 2ND ROUND!!! pic.twitter.com/nkCWMGqTIN
— Leo S (@Y0Leo) April 29, 2024
Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 27 points and 12 rebounds; pretty good for a soft center who can’t perform in the playoffs.
“You soft as baby sh*t… you a loser. I already punked you once.”
Jimmy Butler to KAT
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) May 8, 2021
(**Editor’s note: Butler watched from Cancun this evening on the same day his President of Basketball Operations told him to be quiet and hesitated to commit to re-signing him)
Anthony Edwards actually finished below his career playoff average of 33 points per game with a matching 27 to Towns; pretty solid for an inefficient football player who doesn’t care about winning.
The Warriors reportedly are unlikely to draft Anthony Edwards because of concerns about his “drive and enthusiasm for winning.” https://t.co/JudcYNITSL pic.twitter.com/zirbQmBbRH
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) September 28, 2020
Nickeil Alexander-Walker picked up Jamal Murray 94 feet all evening and nearly doubled his point total on 4-7 from beyond the arc on the other end; not bad for a trade deadline throw-in that wasn’t even initially announced in the news-breaking tweets of said trade.
Lakers, Jazz and Timberwolves are finalizing trade sending D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt to Los Angeles, Russell Westbrook and first-round pick to Utah and Mike Conley Jr. and second-round pick compensation to Minnesota, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 9, 2023
I say all of these things not to fly a victory flag or call the series over; we still have games three and four guaranteed and the team on the other end won the whole thing last year, after all.
I say them because any prior labels even up until the playoffs started against a Phoenix Suns team many (including myself) were skeptical in being matched up against need to be lit on fire and thrown out the window. This team feels entirely different than at any point during the regular season. More focused than they ever have been, and a team that gives everyone no choice but to lock in with them.
Don’t listen to the internal voice of pessimism, or the outside ones either. Even without Rudy Gobert, there’s still plenty of them.
This game is going to make it very awkward when Rudy Gobert accepts his DPOY award
— Doug Kezirian (@DougKezirian) May 7, 2024
They just held the defending NBA champion to 80 points during the playoffs in their own building and cleared it out. The effort was historic on defense.
The Minnesota sports complex has to go. It’s time to be completely in; this team has earned it. Just in case that wasn’t clear already.
Over from the Start
As soon as Towns picked up his first foul as the primary defender on Nikola Jokić with 8:32 left in the first quarter, any semblance of their normal game that Denver likes to play went out the window and immediately went towards attempting to bait Towns into his second foul.
Towns was aggressive early, and scored nine of the Wolves’ first 13 points. It would have been beneficial for Denver to get him out of a rhythm early and off the floor.
Except KAT played vertical and didn’t get himself in precarious positions. Towns nearly got whistled for an offensive foul early on in the game, but the lack of whistle for his second foul got everyone in Denver to lose their composure and fly off the rails, starting with their head coach, and that set the tone for the rest of the half.
Mike Malone screaming at Marc Davis while guys from both teams yelled at Marc Davis was peak Marc Davis. pic.twitter.com/VEjcQp7ahQ
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 7, 2024
Jamal Murray was a specific domino that fell in this category after Malone lost his cool. He was leaning forward into his jumper to draw contact, driving into multiple people in the paint and hitting the floor, and finished the first half 1-10 from the field. He handled things very similar to myself, as well.
Jamal Murray throws a heat pack pic.twitter.com/JDADMojQgp
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) May 7, 2024
We’ll see if the league office deals out any punishment for it, but no technicals were assessed to either him or Malone for what went down.
As many Wolves fans could attest to during the regular season, when games get emotional and you feel like you’re getting the short end of the stick, it’s hard to get back into the game and close the gap. Especially when the other team has their offense rolling. Every no-call feels like it should be a foul. Every call that goes the other team’s way feels soft.
When the other team shoots 52% in the first quarter, it’s enough to break the spirit early. When they scramble as well as they did without new dad Rudy Gobert in the lineup, that also frustrates a team pretty easily.
(Editor’s Note: If you are reading this on Apple News, please click here so you can view embedded videos important to the analysis, and enjoy the best overall reading experience.)
And from that point on, the game would be over.
Two Words? Naz Reid. Go Burr. Big Purr.
In trying not to appropriate Naz Reid culture in the headline, it’s important to acknowledge just how amazing Towns was in this game, and how important going into Monday it would be for him to have a big game.
Not only did he score 11 of the team’s 28 first quarter points and get them off to the fast start that was desperately needed, he more importantly didn’t pick up his second foul until the second half.
Towns went into the locker room at half with 20 points on 72% shooting. Edwards was the only other player on the roster who finished the half scoring in double digits (16 points). His ability to get early switches onto Jamal Murray and dominate them set a tone early on that perhaps frustrated Murray and got KAT rolling, which turned out to be the biggest win-win of the night.
With Edwards’ name rightfully taking up the space on the marquee, Towns has quietly put together three very good playoff games in a row. He’s averaging 25 points, almost nine rebounds, and is shooting 64 percent from the field and 60 percent from three.
If he can continue to string these games together in supplement of Edwards, we could very well see the Wolves playing basketball into the next month…
Enjoy this one. We deserve it.
Towns scored 27 points on 10/15 shooting (3/5 from deep and 4/4 from the free throw line) to go along with 12 points and three stocks. Edwards matched that total with 27 points of his own on 11/17 shooting (1/4 from 3 and 4/7 from the charity stripe) and added seven assists and two steals. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Naz Reid became the first pair of teammates to ever each make three 3-pointers and block three shots off the bench; they both 14 points on four made triples, and added combined 11 rebounds and seven blocks. Kyle Anderson, starting for Gobert, had a banger of a night, scoring six points, but adding nine rebounds (seven offensive!) and a team-high eight assists to just two turnovers, while also recording three stocks.
Aaron Gordon led the Nuggets with 20 points (and a team-worst -33!), while Jokić mustered up 16 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists (with four turnovers), and Porter Jr. scoured just nine on 4/12 shooting, also with four giveaways. Jamal Murray scored just eight points on 3/18 shooting and had more turnovers (four) than makes (three). Justin Holiday provided 13 off the bench as the only Nugget reserve to log more than 11 minutes.
Up Next
The series now shifts to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday, where the underdog Timberwolves will look to essentially end this fight and take a 3-0 lead for the second straight best-of-seven series against a favored opponent. Fans can watch on ESPN for an 8:30 PM CST tip.