The Minnesota Timberwolves erased a 20-point deficit to stun the Denver Nuggets 98-90 on Sunday, knocking the defending champions out of the NBA playoffs.
The Timberwolves followed up a 45-point game-six victory with an epic comeback to win their best-of-seven series 4-3 and book a Western Conference finals clash with the Dallas Mavericks.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 23 points and grabbed 23 rebounds, Jaden McDaniels added 23 and Anthony Edwards hit his stride late as the Timberwolves became the first team to come back from a halftime deficit of more than 11 points to win a game seven.
“I think our poise was the most (important) thing,” Edwards told broadcaster TNT. “We was very poised throughout the entire game.”
Down by 15 at halftime, they trailed by 20 early in the third. But the Nuggets went cold as Edwards and the Timberwolves built a rhythm and cut the deficit to one point going into the final quarter.
Edwards said coach Chris Finch told him at halftime to “play quicker.”
“If they’re going to continue to trap you, you got to make the right play and trust your teammates, and we was just poised throughout the entire game,” Edwards said. “We just fought, fought.
“And KAT played spectacular tonight,” Edwards added. “He carried us tonight.”
Edwards, 22, scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half and Denver regained the lead for good on Rudy Gobert’s driving layup that put them up 68-67 in the first minute of the fourth quarter.
Denver’s three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic scored 14 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter. He added 19 rebounds and seven assists and Jamal Murray scored 35 points but it just wasn’t enough.
Minnesota had led by as many as seven in a back-and-forth first quarter, but the Nuggets closed with a strong push. Aaron Gordon’s put-back dunk was followed by a pair of three-pointers from Jamal Murray that gave Denver a 24-19 lead.
Jokic shrugged off the presence of Minnesota’s Defensive Player of the Year Gobert to grab 15 rebounds in the first half, compiling a double-double by halftime when the Nuggets led 53-38.
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