Minnesota T-wolves Are For Real, Beat Denver Nuggets in Game 1
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 05 May 2024
As one of the two fringe hopefuls that were dismissed early in the playoffs last season (the other was Oklahoma City), the Minnesota Timberwolves have a lot of proving to do this year.
This season, the Timberwolves proved they are for real as their third seeding, beating the Denver Nuggets in the game one of their semifinals series, 106-99 today.
The Nuggets are the NBA defending champions.
Getting the win right at the Nuggets Ball Arena home floor, Minnesota in effect neutralized Denver's homecourt advantage in their best of seven series which is under the 2-2-1-1 format.
In scoring the win, the Timberwolves limited the output of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Muray to below their usual averages while getting a big lift from its shooting star Anthony Edwards who banged in 43 points.
Minnesota's Twin Tower of Karl Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert certainly also did their damage by way of Towns scoring, tossing 20 points and Gobert's rim protection and rebounding where he had 13 boards. Another big man Naz Reid came off the bench to score 16 points compounding the Nuggets' woes.
Though Jokic still topscored for Denver with 32 points, his 11 of 25 field goal shooting including 2 of 11 from the three-point range put to fore the effect of T-Wolves resolute defense, especially Gobert's.
Murray did no better although he was 2 out of 4 from the trifecta area. He finished with "only" 17 points.
Michael Porter Jnr was more consistent with his point production with 20 points but partner Aaron Gordon was good for just 9 points.
The second game will still be played in Denver before the series shifts to Minnesota for the next two games.
It is the turn of Oklahoma to prove their top seeding in the West as they take on the giant killing Dallas Mavericks in their semifinal round.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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