Timberwolves crush Nuggets to take 2-0 series lead over defending champions – Sportsnet.ca

DENVER (AP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves, led by Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, defeated the Denver Nuggets on Monday night in a surprisingly efficient 106-80 rout of the reigning but faltering NBA champions.

“We’ve made some really good defensive efforts this year,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said after his team took a surprising 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals. “That has to be up there with the best.”

The Wolves held Denver to an ugly 29-of-83 shooting night, and the most impressive part of that was the absence of their best defender, 7-foot-1 center Rudy Gobert, who was back in Minneapolis for the birth of your son. .

Gobert’s fingerprints were all over this masterpiece, Finch suggested.

“Rudy has driven the defensive culture here. I think he is a testament to the impact of him, the presence of him and what he has instilled in the team, how important defense is and how great it can be when we play it,” Finch said. “Other than that, we expect to win no matter who is with us and who is not.”

Towns and Edwards scored 27 points as the Wolves improved to 6-0 in the playoffs and gave themselves a chance to close out the furious Nuggets with wins on Friday night and Sunday in Minneapolis.

So nervous were the Nuggets in the second quarter that coach Michael Malone threw a fit at an official and point guard Jamal Murray threw an insulated bag onto the court in frustration as Towns was about to score on a layup.

Malone said he had no idea it was Murray who threw the cooler bag, saying, “I knew there was a cooler bag on the floor, but it wasn’t in my field of vision.”

Officials didn’t see him throw it either, added crew chief Marc Davis.

“We didn’t know it was coming from the bench. If we had known it was coming from the court, we could have reviewed it under the hostile act trigger. The penalty would have been a technical foul,” Davis told a pool reporter.

Finch said he only knew that the cooler bag came from the Nuggets bench.

“We tried to impress upon (officials) that there probably aren’t many fans in the building who have a thermal bag. So he probably had to come from the bench, which made sense to them,” Finch said. “But yes, it is unforgivable and dangerous.”

Murray, who is 9 for 32 in this series, left Ball Arena without comment for the second straight game. The NBA is likely to fine him for his actions.

Aaron Gordon led Denver with 20 points, Nikola Jokic had 16 points and 16 rebounds, but their third leading scorer was backup Justin Holliday with 13 points. Murray scored eight points on 3-of-18 shooting.

Kyle Anderson replaced Gobert in the starting lineup and had eight assists and nine rebounds and reserves Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 14.

During a 43-18 first-half win by the Timberwolves (Edwards was on the bench for much of the time, no less) the Nuggets became so frustrated that Malone ran onto the court and confronted Davis for a long shot. explosion during a timeout but avoided a technical.

“Although Coach Malone was visibly upset by both his team and the referees, I did not hear him say anything unsportsmanlike that would warrant a technical foul,” Davis explained.

Frustrated by their slow starts (the Nuggets have been trailing by double digits in six of their seven playoff games and by nine in the other), Malone challenged his team to get off to a good start for once.

Only Gordon heeded his coach’s call, scoring 13 quick points, including a three-pointer that brought the Nuggets within 18-17 at the end of the first quarter.

Things fell apart for Denver after that.

Trailing 61-35 at halftime, the Nuggets’ 26-point halftime deficit was Denver’s largest in a home playoff game in franchise history.

Now the Nuggets, who lost consecutive games only once during the season, find themselves needing to beat Edwards four times in five tries to advance to the Western Conference finals again, something seemingly impossible given the level of play of both teams at this time.

“The message we want to send is that we are extremely honored and blessed to have this opportunity to go home winning 2-0,” Towns said. “But we are humble in this approach.”

Edwards, for his part, hopes to see a different Nuggets team at Target Center this weekend.

“Tonight worked in our favor, man. That’s all it was,” he said. “We made shots. They didn’t do it. There are the defending champions. So they’re not going to go out and play like that again in the third game.”