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Los Angeles: The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets 115-70 on Thursday, forcing the defending NBA champions to a seventh-game decider in the Western Conference semifinals.
Anthony Edwards shook off injuries to finish with 27 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals to help a young and hungry Timberwolves team avoid elimination against Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets, who won the previous three games to clinch the best-of-seven series.
Jaden McDaniels scored 21 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 10 points and 13 rebounds. Minnesota finished with a 62-43 rebounding advantage, and the Timberwolves bench outscored the Nuggets bench 36-9. The Nuggets will host a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday.
“I’m really excited about it,” Edwards, 22, said of the chance to knock out the Nuggets at home. But McDaniels warned that the Nuggets will be ready, too. “The game isn’t over,” McDaniels said. “We’re just going to try to keep this intensity going into the next game.”
The Timberwolves were in a desperate situation. They first suffered a fierce blow from the opponent and fell behind 2-9, but then launched a 20-0 offensive climax.
They outscored the Nuggets 31-14 in the first quarter, dominated in the paint and won the rebounding battle 19-9. Denver went almost six minutes without scoring, and the crowd at Target Center in Minneapolis grew wilder as the Timberwolves’ lead grew.
Denver launched another fierce attack to start the second quarter, but was quickly outmaneuvered by Minnesota on a 13-0 run, with Naz Reid making consecutive baskets and Edwards hitting a 3-pointer.
Every time the Nuggets looked like they had momentum, Minnesota responded — and their energy paid off again when McDaniels rebounded a missed shot by Reed on the break, earning the Timberwolves a second-chance layup that gave the Timberwolves a 59-40 halftime lead.
The right energy
Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch was pleased with his team’s strong rebound. “The team fought back twice,” Finch said. “One came back in the last three games, but the most important one came when we were down 9-2. We really focused and fought back with the right energy.”
The third quarter was much the same, with Edwards getting a steal and dunk to put Minnesota ahead 66-42.
Moments later, however, he took a tumble under the rim, fell hard, landed on his face, and pointed to his lower back. Edwards said he bruised his tailbone but would be ready Sunday.
A step-back 3-pointer by Mike Conley (returning from a fifth-game absence with a calf injury) extended the Timberwolves’ lead to 29 points late in the third quarter.
When Minnesota stretched its lead to 30 points early in the fourth quarter on a Rudy Gobert layup, Denver coach Michael Malone pulled his starters and the Nuggets trailed by as many as 50 points before the end of the game.
Denver coach Michael Malone said he told his players at halftime that “the reason we got beat up is because we didn’t take care of the ball, we didn’t rebound, we didn’t play with a lot of physicality and toughness.
“They attacked us, then they attacked us, then they attacked us again. They did what they needed to do to keep this series going,” Malone added.
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