T-Wolves Mangle Denver 115-70, Force Game Seven in West Semis
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 17 May 2024
The semifinals series for one of the two slots in the Western Conference Finals will go the full seven-game route.
This after the Minnesota Timberwolves mangled the Denver Nuggets, 115-70 to tie their series, 3-3 at the Target Center Arena in Minneapolis.
One day after being outplayed in game 5 in mile high Denver, the Timberwolves fielded their other tall big men in combination with the Twin Tower of Rudy Gobert and Carl Anthony Towns which seemed to give the Nuggets the feeling of being in the midst of Minnesota's many towering pine crested forests.
Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels, Kyle Anderson and even seldom used Luca Garza, all standing 6-9 or over alternately were fielded by coach Chris Finch in support of the Twin Towers creating a lot of mismatch situations.
Worse, Anthony Edwards and Mike Conley played like feisty wild dogs on both ends of the court which further discombobulated the Nuggets.
Worst, the Nuggets themselves seemed to lose the energy and the will to fight. This was very evident when they could only come up with a measly nine points in the fourth quarter after scoring a low 14 points in the opening quarter.
Nikola Jokic characterized the Nuggets anemic showing by putting a statline of just 22 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists, a far cry from the triple double he put up the other night, the night he was presented his third straight season's MVP award by Adam Silver.
The strategy and adjustments used by Finch obviously worked as McDaniels was double figure in scoring while Towns and Reid were double double in points and rebounds.
Edwards topped in scoring with 27 points followed by McDaniels with 21 points. Conley had 13 points and Towns and Reid contributed 10 points each. Gobert scored 8 points but grabbed a game high 14 boards.
Aside from Jokic, only Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray managed to score in double figure with 12 points and 10 points respectively. Michael Porter could only come up with 8 points.
The seventh and deciding game will be played in Denver this Sunday (Saturday PH time).
Dallas Mavericks will try to win the other Finals slot in the West tomorrow in their game 6 in Dallas against the back against the wall top seed Oklahoma City Thunder who trailed behind 2-3.
Let us hope Denver coach Mike Malone could come up with something to counteract Minnesota's strategy.
Or else, bye bye NBA crown.
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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