DENVER – Anthony Edwards overcame a slow start and the Timberwolves rallied from a 20-point second-half deficit to eliminate the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets 98-90 in a Game 7 masterpiece in Minnesota on Sunday night. .
The Timberwolves overcame a 15-point halftime deficit — the biggest comeback in a Game 7 in NBA playoff history — behind Edwards, who had just four points, no rebounds and three assists at halftime but finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
His impact belied his 6-for-24 shooting, which included a 2-for-10 3-point performance.
“It was tough, man, because I couldn’t find my rhythm tonight,” Edwards said. “So I just had to trust my teammates. … I just had to make the right plays the rest of the game.” I did that and my teammates made shots. A big hug to these guys.”
When Minnesota took control late in the game, Edwards repeatedly denied Jamal Murray, who had 24 points at halftime and finished with 35.
“There are more ways to win the game of basketball when you’re just not an offensive player,” Edwards said. “I’m not one-dimensional. I’m not just a guy who can score. I’m a guy who – whoever’s the best guard, I can arrest him. I feel like I did that to Jamal in the fourth quarter – the third and fourth quarters – and that’s what changed the game.”
As the seconds ticked down, Edwards dribbled the ball up and took the opportunity to say goodbye to the stunned crowd at Ball Arena, where the Nuggets’ 33-8 record this season was second best in the league, but where the Wolves have won three times. this series.
The Wolves, who got 23 points each from Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaden McDaniels, advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in exactly 20 years. They will face the Dallas Mavericks starting Wednesday night at Target Center.
“It feels great,” Wolves center Rudy Gobert said. “Beating a team like they are, an incredible team, a champion team, with the best player in the world, is good.
Behind Murray’s fantastic start, the Nuggets took a 53-38 halftime lead and Murray’s 3-pointer with 10:50 left in the third pushed Denver’s lead to 58-38.
The Wolves turned to their stingiest defense, the NBA’s stingiest, to get back into the game, and closed the quarter on a 28-9 run to pull within 67-66 heading into the fourth.
Gobert gave the Wolves their first lead since the first quarter with a bucket to start the quarter and when Towns committed his fifth foul, NBA Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid was spectacular on both ends of the court to keep Minnesota ahead .
In a crucial stretch that began with Minnesota ahead 85-82, Reid made two free throws and a dunk before feeding Edwards for a 3-pointer that put the Wolves ahead 92-82 with three minutes remaining.
Murray, coming off a 4-of-18 shooting performance in the Nuggets’ 115-70 Game 6 loss — the most ever in the playoffs by a defending champion — hit 13-of-27 shots for 35 points. Jokic had 34 points and 19 rebounds, but the duo had little help as no other Denver player reached double figures in points.
“So much was being placed on his shoulders,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “Hopefully Jokic and Jamal keep pulling rabbits out of their hats, man, and someone needs to help.”
This marked the Timberwolves’ first Game 7 since beating Sacramento in the second round exactly 20 years earlier. That was the only time they reached the conference finals. The Nuggets were playing their fifth Game 7 in the last six seasons and were looking for their third trip to the conference finals in that span.
“That was an incredible series,” Malone said. “They gave us everything we could and ended up winning Game 7 on our home court, which is hard to swallow. But we will be back.”
The Nuggets became the fifth consecutive champion to fail to reach the conference finals. The last to do so was Golden State in 2019, when the Warriors reached the NBA Finals only to lose to Toronto.
“The one thing I keep coming back to now is I consider the San Antonio Spurs a dynasty and they’ve never won back-to-back,” Malone said. “So losing, the pain, the pain, helped us win our first championship. Can we use it this year?
Murray thinks so.
“Absolutely,” he said. “He’s back to being the hunter.”
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