The Minnesota Timberwolves authored a stunning second-half comeback to beat the Denver Nuggets 98-90 on Sunday, knocking the defending champions out of the NBA playoffs, as the Indiana Pacers ousted the New York Knicks.
The Nuggets loss marked the sixth consecutive season that the defending champions failed to make it out of the second round.
“The teams are more hungry, better, [more] talented than last year,” Denver star Nikola Jokic said of the difficulty of repeating, even in a season in which he scooped a third Most Valuable Player award. “Everybody gets better. Everybody wants to beat us, probably.”
Photo: AP
The Timberwolves followed up a 45-point victory in Game 6 with an epic comeback from 20 points down in the third quarter 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 12 rebounds, Jaden McDaniels added 23 points 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 7.
“I think our poise was the most [important] thing,” Edwards told broadcaster TNT after he shook off his early struggles to score 12 of his 16 points in the second half.
The Nuggets went cold as Edwards and the Timberwolves built a rhythm and cut the deficit to one point going into the final quarter, then took on a driving layup by Rudy Gobert early in the fourth.
Jamal Murray scored 35 points for Denver, but had just 11 in the second half.
“It’s tough when you get the looks you want and you don’t make them and they come down and score,” Murray said. “I felt like we got the shots we wanted and the opportunities were there.”
Jokic said he would not buy into the notion that defeat felt worse because the Nuggets should have won.
“I don’t believe in that,” the Serbian star said. “I think the team who wins is the better team.”
The Pacers connected on an NBA playoff record 67.1 percent of their shots — making 53 of their 79 attempts from the floor — in a 130-109 Game 7 triumph over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Indiana booked an Eastern Conference finals showdown with the top-seeded Boston Celtics.
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