MINNEAPOLIS (AP) โ The Denver Nuggets were far from done after losing the first two games of the Western Conference semifinals at home in humiliating fashion.
Nikola Jokic scored 16 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, and Aaron Gordon led the way with 27 points on 11-of-12 shooting. nugget They won the series 115-107. Timberwolves Game 4 on Sunday night.
“It's like a laser-sharp focus, it's like a surgical procedure,” Gordon said.
Jamal Murray carried the momentum, scoring 12 of the defending champion Nuggets' 19 points in the third quarter. A buzzer-sounding swish from behind half courtand the Wolves only trailed by less than double digits in the second half for a total of 3:19.
Anthony Edwards had another great performance for Minnesota, scoring 44 points and setting a franchise postseason record on 16-of-25 shooting. However, despite leading 42-31 in rebounds, the Wolves suffered their second consecutive loss at home.
“Game 2 definitely woke us up,” Murray said. “We realized we couldn't contain ourselves.”
The series returns to Denver for Game 5 on Tuesday night.
“This is a series. We won two games, but I didn't think it was going to be easy,” Edwards said.
Mike Conley had 15 points, Karl-Anthony Towns had 13 points and 12 rebounds on just 5 of 18 from the field, and Rudy Gobert had 11 points and 14 rebounds in the final minutes. Still, the Wolves trailed for the second consecutive home game.
The Nuggets ended the first half scoring eight straight points in 20 seconds, highlighted by Murray's impossible heave.
Gordon didn't miss until 3:39 left. Most importantly, he took the lead in trying to corner Towns and even slow down Edwards.
“A lot is being asked of him right now, the shot-making, the play-making, the physicality, the defense of two All-Stars,” coach Mike Malone said. “What you love about Aaron Gordon from the first day he put on a Nuggets uniform has always been about the Nuggets first. He's a truly selfless person.”
The three days off between Games 2 and 3 wasn't great for the Timberwolves, and the result was Lost by 27 points Afterward, coach Chris Finch declared that they felt “fat and lazy” after being flattered all over for their performance in Denver. They needed to reintroduce their edge quickly to keep the crowd excited, and Edwards dutifully led that response.
The 2020 No. 1 overall draft pick was 9-9 in the first four-plus minutes before Murray touched the ball, with Gordon and Jokic splitting point guard duties to alleviate a muscle strain in Murray's left calf muscle. Recorded the score.
After a quiet Game 3, Edwards was tasked with helping the Timberwolves win, as the Nuggets fully expected. Loading him in the lane wasn't enough, as he took hits from everywhere on the court, but the rest of the Timberwolves often couldn't make the Nuggets pay for leaving them open. .
They not only missed corner 3s, but also missed chip-ins at the rim. Towns missed his first seven shots, and while his effort and defense were fine, he failed to get the ball to the basket and almost never drew the foul he claimed.
“It's a shame to have a shooting performance like this on Mother's Day,” Towns said. “But that's how the game goes. Sometimes it's not a fun game.”
While the Timberwolves flashed the league's best defense and enviable depth in the first two games, the Nuggets went into the game copy-pasting that formula. When secondary scorers and bench players are hitting jumpers, they are very difficult to beat.
Gordon, Justin Holiday (10 points), Christian Braun (11 points) and Reggie Jackson (6 points) combined to make 8 of 11 3-pointers. They powered off a 26-4 run that spanned the first and second quarters, with all but five points of that surge coming from four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Gobert, who was on the bench. It was something that was done.
“They do all the dirty little things that no one notices,” Jokic said.
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