The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory.
The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to Denver who posted just six steals and five blocks.
Remarkably, Minnesota’s dominance was achieved without Rudy Gobert, the Frenchman who is one of the defensive pillars of the Timberwolves lineup. Gobert skipped the game to be with his partner after the birth of the couple’s son earlier on Monday.
“When you don’t got the defensive player of the year, you got to step your game up,” Towns said afterward.
Photo: AFP
The normally unflappable Nuggets might also be without star point guard Jamal Murray for game three. Murray was caught on camera hurling a heat pack onto the court in the second quarter, raising the possibility of a suspension when the incident is reviewed by NBA disciplinary chiefs.
In Monday’s other playoff game, Jalen Brunson had a scintillating fourth quarter as the New York Knicks edged the Indiana Pacers 121-117 in their Eastern Conference opener.
Knicks talisman Brunson finished with 43 points, six rebounds and six assists to give New York the early advantage in their best-of-seven conference semi-final, but it was his ice-cool performance down the stretch that swept New York to victory in front of 19,812 fans at an electric Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks guard rattled in 21 points in the fourth quarter to complete his fourth straight playoff game with 40 points or more.
Meanwhile, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama won the NBA Rookie of the Year award, the league announced on Monday, marking the first time a Frenchman has captured the honor.
The 20-year-old center, a 2.24m prodigy who was the top pick in last year’s NBA Draft, averaged 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, a league-high 3.6 blocked shots and 1.2 steals a game in his impressive debut campaign.
Wembanyama was a unanimous selection, taking all 99 first-place votes, the first unanimous top rookie pick since Towns in 2016.
“My goals were always to have my team as best as I could and to get better as the year went on,” Wembanyama told US NBA telecaster TNT. “I knew that in order to do this I had to be individually good on the court and dominant so it was a huge thing for me, a big thing to get.”
While the Spurs struggled to a 22-60 record, the second-worst in the Western Conference, “Wemby” became an NBA sensation with amazing feats, living up to his advance billing as a once-in-a-generation talent.
Wembanyama, also a finalist for NBA Defensive Player of the Year, next figures to be selected for France’s Olympic team as the squad plays host to the world’s best in the Paris Games.
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