Everything points to a win for the Denver Nuggets. But then the defending champion loses everything. The Minnesota Timberwolves now play against the Mavericks.
Even a 20-point lead was not enough for the defending champion Denver Nuggets to advance to the next round of the NBA playoffs. Last season’s champions lost 90:98 to the Minnesota Timberwolves and missed out on a place in the Western Conference finals. Nikola Jokic’s team was still ahead 58:38 in the third quarter, but then Denver lost control of the home game and no longer had a real chance of winning in the final minutes. The season is now over for the Serbian who was voted MVP of the main round; the Timberwolves will meet the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals. The series begins on Thursday night in Germany.
“The effort was there. Our offense just didn’t work in the first half. We simplified everything a bit after that,” said Timberwolves coach Chris Finch. “We didn’t throw very well, but even when we were behind, our defense was always there. And then in the third quarter we just came out hot.” In the third quarter the guests had a 28:9 run. At halftime the team was still behind by 15 points; according to US media, there has never been a bigger comeback in a seventh game in the NBA playoffs.
Jokic scored 34 points, Jamal Murray scored 35 points, but the Nuggets seemed helpless at the end of the game and were no longer able to assert themselves in the decisive scenes. On the Timberwolves side, young star Anthony Edwards didn’t have his best night with just 16 points, but he received enough support from his teammates. Jaden McDaniels and Karl-Anthony Towns each scored 23 points. The Timberwolves were too good for the defending champions in the final quarter, especially on defense. Jokic played 47 of 48 minutes and was noticeably exhausted.
In a maximum of seven games it’s all about getting into the NBA Finals. The first two games of the series between the Mavericks and the Timberwolves will be played in Minneapolis. In the Eastern Conference the Indiana Pacers meet the Boston Celtics. The first game takes place on Wednesday night in Boston in Germany. In their seventh game, the Pacers prevailed 130:109 against the New York Knicks led by Isaiah Hartenstein from Lower Saxony.
Source: Stern
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