The Timberwolves roared back from a 20-point deficit in the second half to eliminate the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets 98-90 in a Game 7 Minnesota masterpiece on Sunday night.
The Timberwolves overcame a 15-point halftime deficit — the largest Game 7 comeback in NBA playoff history — behind Anthony Edwards, who had just four points, no rebounds and three assists at halftime but finished with 16 points, eight boards and seven assists. .
His impact belied his 6-for-24 shooting, including a 2-for-10 three-point performance. As the seconds ticked by, Edwards dribbled the ball onto the court and took time to wave goodbye to the home Denver crowd.
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 two decades. They will take on the Dallas Mavericks at Target Center starting Wednesday night.
The Nuggets became the fifth consecutive defending champions to fail to reach the conference finals. Behind Jamal Murray’s 24 points in the first half, the Nuggets raced to a 53-38 halftime lead and Murray’s three-pointer with 10:50 left in the third pushed Denver’s lead to 58-38.
The Wolves turned to their defense, the NBA’s stingiest, to get back into the game, and they closed the quarter on a 28-9 run to get back to 67-66 heading into the fourth.
Rudy Gobert gave the Wolves their first lead since the first quarter with a bucket to start the fourth and when Towns committed his fifth foul, Naz Reid, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, was spectacular on both ends of the court to keep Minnesota. forward.
In a crucial stretch that started with Minnesota leading 85-82, Reid had two free throws and a dunk before giving Edwards a backbreaking three-pointer that put the Wolves up 92-82 with three minutes left.
Murray, who posted a 4-of-18 shooting performance in the Nuggets’ 115-70 loss in Game 6 — the largest ever in the playoffs by a reigning champion — led Denver with 35 points. Jokic added 34 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists.
This was the Timberwolves’ first Game 7 since beating Sacramento in the second round exactly twenty years earlier. That’s the only other time they reached the conference finals. The Nuggets were playing in their fifth Game 7 in the past six seasons and seeking their third trip to the conference finals in that span.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone said before tipoff that he didn’t think Game 7 would be a blowout after the games in Games 2, 3 and 6. He said it would come down to the wire, but “maybe not, because this is a of the strangest series I have ever been a part of.”
The Nuggets’ big lead only added to the oddity of the series.