Thursday's NBA playoff takeaways: Timberwolves blow out Nuggets (2024)

After dropping three straight games to watch their 2-0 series lead turn into a 3-2 series deficit, the Minnesota Timberwolves entered Thursday night’s Game 6 against the Denver Nuggets prepared to battle for their season. And battle they did.

From the first-quarter run to the fourth-quarter bloodbath, Game 6 quickly turned into a one-sided affair, with the Timberwolves running away with a lopsided 115-70 victory.

Anthony Edwards posted a game-high 27 points and was one of five Minnesota players to score in double figures, a crew that included Jaden McDaniels dropping 21 points.

27 POINTS AND COUNTING… 🐜 pic.twitter.com/nHGyolsUhD

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) May 17, 2024

The Timberwolves big man trio of Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid were dominant on the boards, combining for 38 rebounds, but more importantly, were effective in slowing down three-time MVP Nikola Jokić. The Nuggets star finished with 22 points, nine rebounds and two assists.

It was his first game with fewer than seven assists all playoffs. Much of that stemmed from Denver’s inability to hit shots from outside. No player made more than two 3-pointers, and the team shot 7 of 33 from deep.

Jamal Murray particularly struggled, knocking down only 4 of 18 shots from the field, finishing with 10 points — struggles that mirrored his Game 2 performance, which the Nuggets also lost in one-sided fashion.

Game 7 of the most entertaining series of the playoffs thus far will take place Sunday.

ANT WANTS GAME 7 pic.twitter.com/lZLgWzIh3w

— NBA (@NBA) May 17, 2024

Timberwolves 115, Nuggets 70

Series: Tied 3-3

Game 7:Sunday in Denver

These are the Timberwolves we know

This is what these Timberwolves have been all season long. Tough. Resilient. Together.

Anytime the Wolves even wobbled this season, they banded together, bowed their backs and got back in the fight. With the ridicule falling on their heads after three straight losses in the series, Minnesota dug deep and delivered an emphatic bounce back, just when you least expected it.

The desperation was there from the start, from Mike Conley, who shook off a sore calf, scored 13 points and even blocked a shot at the rim by Christian Braun. It was there from Gobert, lampooned over the previous 36 hours after getting torched by Jokić. He grabbed 14 rebounds and helped revive the Timberwolves’ suffocating defense.

It was there from Towns, who did not shoot well but played terrific defense against Jokić, holding him to those 22 points on 19 shots. It was there from McDaniels, who had struggled with his shot all playoffs but responded with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting with three 3s.

Facing elimination, they played their best game of the season and benefited from a cold shooting night from Murray and Michael Porter Jr. (3 for 9).

In front of a delirious home crowd, the Wolves gave their fans a reason to believe. Now they go to Game 7 in Denver, where they have won twice. It will be a mountain to climb, but for the first time in 20 years, Minnesota can at least see the summit.

They have Edwards. They have a great defense. They have a chance. And that’s all they can ask for. — Jon Krawczynski, Timberwolves beat writer

Nuggets struggle with ineffective Murray

Murray deserves much credit for even being on the floor with a calf strain. That’s one of the most dangerous injuries you can have without it being catastrophic.

But the longer this series goes, the more games the Nuggets play and the more Murray’s inability to be the true Jamal Murray shows up for Denver. He first injured the calf against the Los Angeles Lakers, and he’s struggled with it since. It’s fair to ask how much Murray can give in Sunday’s deciding Game 7.

The good news, if there is any on this front, is that Murray and the Nuggets will have two days off before Game 7 at Ball Arena. That’s an extra day off than this series has normally had. It’s not a coincidence that Murray’s last solid game was Game 3, and there were three days off between Games 2 and 3.

On Thursday night, Murray didn’t have any lift off the ground, any ability to explode past his defenders and he didn’t have any explosion off the dribble. Not that any other Denver Nugget played well, but Murray is so important to what the Nuggets are trying to do and right now he’s playing hurt.

In Game 5, Jokić was able to mask it with what was an all-time 40-point performance. But the balance that the Nuggets rely on wasn’t there on this night.— Tony Jones, NBA writer

Friday’s NBA schedule

• New York Knicks at Indiana Pacers, 8:30 p.m. ET

Required reading

• Inside the Nuggets team dinner — minus one uninvited player — that might save their season
• Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards has a message for the Nuggets: This series is not over

(Photo: David Berding / Getty Images)