Anthony Edwards’ 43 points led the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 106-99 home victory over the Denver Nuggets.
Anthony Edwards scored 43 points, Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 20 and the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves took advantage of home-field advantage over Denver with a 106-99 victory over the Nuggets in Game 1 of a Western Conference semifinal series.
Naz Reid scored 14 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, Mike Conley had 14 points and 10 assists and Rudy Gobert grabbed 13 rebounds for Minnesota, which pulled away to start the postseason 5-0.
“They are champions, they are a difficult team to beat. Great team. They have great players,” Edwards said of the Nuggets.
“They got the best player in the league in Nikola Jokic, they got the best closer in Jamal Murray, the best 3-point shooter in Michael Porter Jr. So, it’s hard to beat this team.”
Game 2 will be in Denver on Monday.
Anthony Edwards puts on a show and hits a career-high in the playoffs to lift the @Timberwolves for the win in Game 1 in Denver!
Karl-Anthony Cities: 20 PTS (8-13 FGM), 4 REB
Naz Reid: 16 PTS (14 in Q4), 4 REB
Nikola Jokic: 32 PTS, 8 REB, 9 AST, 3 STLGame 2: Monday, 10pm/TNT time pic.twitter.com/iirmYPip3j
-NBA (@NBA) May 5, 2024
Jokic had 32 points, Porter added 20 and Murray finished with 17, all in the second half, for the Nuggets, who are losing in a playoff series for the first time since losing to the Golden State Warriors in the first round in 2022.
It was a close game at the beginning of the quarter, but the Timberwolves were more evenly matched down the stretch.
Conley hit his third 3-pointer of the game to give Minnesota an 80-77 lead, but Murray responded from distance and was fouled by Towns. He then completed the four-point play.
Edwards, who had 25 points in the first half, hit a layup in traffic and an 18-foot pullup to put the Timberwolves back in front. Reid hit a pair of 3-pointers, converted a layup and connected on an Edwards miss to give Minnesota a 94-88 lead with 4:20 left.
Jokic converted a three-point play, but the Timberwolves began to close out the game. Gobert made a layup and made a 13-footer and Edwards made two free throws. Porter committed an offensive foul, and Edwards’ 14-foot fadeaway made it 102-91 with 1:36 left.
Jokic’s 3-pointer cut Denver’s deficit to 102-96 with 1:02 remaining, but the Timberwolves closed it out.
Minnesota jumped out to an 18-4 lead with 5:12 left in the first quarter, but the Nuggets turned up the defense. They forced seven turnovers and held the Timberwolves to 22 points over the final 17 minutes of the first half, leading 44-40 at halftime.
Towns and Conley each scored 11 points in the third quarter to help put Minnesota ahead 73-71 heading into the fourth quarter.
“We started out 18-4, then we got there early, fought like crazy to take the lead at halftime, then didn’t play any defense in the third,” Denver coach Michael Malone said.
“You can’t just trade baskets with this team.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
