During a media scrum from Ball Arena on Friday, Anthony Edwards was asked what the Minnesota Timberwolves did to make it challenging for the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs last season.
“I don’t know how we made it tough on him,” Edwards responded. “They beat us 4-1.”
Ant chuckled while saying that. On the surface and without context, the Wolves weren’t a true roadblock for the Nuggets. However, Minnesota kept every game – excluding Game 1, where the Wolves lost by 29 – within at least nine points when the final buzzer sounded.
Last year, Bruce Brown was crucial to Denver’s historic postseason. Less than one month after the Nuggets beat the Miami Heat in the Finals, he appeared on the Run Your Race podcast and discussed who he believed was Denver’s most difficult matchup in the playoffs.
“Phoenix was our ‘toughest series,’” Brown said in air quotes. “But honestly, I would say our toughest series was… Minnesota. Ant and them, they just always had, I don’t know. There was just something about them. They had good players: Mike Conley, KAT, and Ant. That was our toughest series.”
Brown couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason leading him to believe the Wolves, who were without Naz Reid (broken wrist) and Jaden McDaniels (broken hand), were Denver’s greatest challenge in the postseason. However, things are different this time; Minnesota is ready for Denver, thanks to improved defense and an overall healthier team. They have a true identity.
“It’s different,” Edwards further explained before Game 1 on Friday. “We’ve got Jaden, Naz, and a healthy KAT, who was just coming back from an injury. He wasn’t really in shape. We’ve got three players who are 100% and X-factors for our team.”
Now fully healthy, the Wolves approached Game 1 in the Mile High City fresh off their first playoff sweep in franchise history. The stakes for this series are high because it seems like whoever emerges victorious will advance to the Finals — a high place Minnesota has never been.
The high stakes led Minnesota’s coaching staff to make defensive adjustments immediately. Instead of McDaniels defending Jamal Murray as he did in the regular season, Edwards took the Murray matchup while McDaniels defended the 6’10” Michael Porter Jr.
Ant tailed Murray on the first possession of Game 1. He was physical, moved his feet well, and showed his hands – everything you can ask from a defender tasked with guarding Murray. Ant logged 21.2 partial possessions defending Jamal in the regular season, 46th-most league-wide, according to NBA.com. Despite not frequently matching up against Denver’s starting guard this year, Defensive Coordinator Elston Turner and his staff made the right decision.
That intense defense suffocated the Nuggets and injected the Wolves with life.
Murray opened the game 0 of 4 from the floor, while Edwards was 4 of 4, accounting for 11 of Minnesota’s first 14 points. The Wolves offense was a buzzsaw early in the first quarter. They built a 9-0 lead, which tied Denver’s worst start to a game this season.
With 5:12 left in the first, Michael Malone had already blown his second timeout of the game, and his team was behind 18-4. Minnesota’s defense was swarming at the halfcourt line, forcing Denver to initiate its offense in a less-than-ideal spot on the floor. After forcing the Nuggets into arduous attempts, the Timberwolves came down on the other end and operated offensively without resistance.
Over the next 2:29 minutes, the Nuggets went on an 11-0 run, which featured two Minnesota turnovers. Denver’s defensive intensity picked up, and they got within three points when Micah Nori called a stop-the-bleeding timeout. Nori patrolled the sidelines because Chris Finch had suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee in Game 4 against the Phoenix Suns and was sitting behind the bench.
After Denver’s timeout 6:48 minutes into the game, the Wolves connected on one field goal, coming from Nickeil Alexander-Walker, with ten seconds left in the first quarter. It was a picture-perfect start for Minnesota until the Ball Arena crowd rose alongside their team. For the first time in the playoffs this year, Minnesota’s opponent tested their maturity.
The Nuggets trailed by as many as 14 points through the first 12 minutes but led by two points heading into the second frame. Edwards scored 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting, but the rest of his team scored only six points. After Ant’s 5 of 5 start, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Co. held him check. The Timberwolves made silly passes and struggled against Denver’s defensive pressure in the halfcourt.
Minnesota was 4 of 14 from the floor with 2:27 left until halftime, and Denver was 5 of 17 in the second quarter alone. Both teams regressed after a bipolar start. The Wolves’ lack of bench production held them back in the first half. Naz Reid was 0 of 3 from the floor, Kyle Anderson had two points, as did Alexander-Walker. Minnesota’s bench recorded a -44, while Denver was +41.
Heading into Game 1, Denver’s bench averaged 11.8 points per game in the playoffs, last amongst all postseason teams.
After forcing the Nuggets into their worst start of the season, the Wolves got punched in the mouth and looked out of sorts the rest of the first half. Edwards scored 25 points on 10 of 17 from the floor, while the rest of his team scored 15 points on 6 of 27 shooting. Minnesota committed eight turnovers, had nine personal fouls, and shot 4 of 15 from deep. Still, Denver only led by four points.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored nine points in 19 minutes in the first half. He’s been terrific in the third quarter during this postseason run, and the same was true right after the halftime intermission in Game 1.
In the first five minutes, he scored 12 points on 5 of 5 shooting. He immediately drilled a left-wing triple, leading Towns to be more aggressive and decisive. Aaron Gordon‘s physicality gave KAT fits in the first half, so it was nice to see the former Kentucky Wildcat star settle into a groove when his team desperately needed consistent scoring.
Karl’s hot start to the third was a sparkplug for the rest of the frame.
With 4:21 left in the third quarter, the Wolves were a ridiculous 10 of 11 from the floor. They had 24 points on 3 of 4 from deep, 5 of 5 from the restricted area, and 6 of 6 from the paint. Towns and Conley, whose scoring total jumped to 11 points, were responsible for every make.
At that point, Minnesota’s coaching staff replaced Conley with Alexander-Walker and closed the third with the lineup of Monte Morris, NAW, Edwards, Anderson, and Reid. I initially disagreed with that decision, but it paid off for the Wolves. They went on a 9-5 run the rest of the way and took a 73-71 lead into the fourth quarter.
“I thought we just settled down a little bit,” Conley said when Michael Grady asked him about the successful third quarter. “That second quarter and end of first quarter, we started turning the ball over and getting ISO-ball going. When we move the ball and make the right decisions on time, our offense is much better and leads to some pretty good defense.”
We were in for a heart-pumping finish in the first game of the most exciting playoff series this season.
Naz Reid was 0 of 3 from the floor with zero points in the first half. It looked like he was playing rushed and could not settle into a groove. However, that all changed in the fourth. With 3:31 left, Reid had 14 points in the fourth quarter on 6 of 7 from the floor. He finished with 16, a new playoff career-high.
We haven’t seen Reid put his patented mark on a playoff game this season, so he was past due to take over. His individual stats were excellent, and he gave his team a seven-point lead with 2:54 left in the game. All of that happened with Towns, who picked up his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter, on the bench.
“In the 3rd quarter, I came to him and said, ‘F— what’s happening, f— what happened if you miss a shot, if you get fouled or anything. Just free your mind and just be you and just embrace the moment, enjoy the moment, and I promise you [that] you’re gonna make some plays,’” Rudy Gobert told Reid at halftime. “And he did.”
The Wolves had built a sizable lead and were closing in on winning their first Round 1, Game 1 in franchise history. All they needed to do was finish strong. However, Denver was close in the rearview mirror and wouldn’t take a second-half beating in front of their home crowd.
Over the final 2:54 minutes, the Nuggets rattled off back-to-back threes. However, Edwards hung six points on the board to keep Denver an arms-length away as Minnesota walked out of Ball Arena with a 106-99 victory. The Wolves stole homecourt advantage and became favorites to win the series.
“It’s not about me personally. It’s about my team,” Edwards told the media postgame. “They give me confidence, also. The third quarter, I didn’t do anything. I was just out there running up and down. And Mike and KAT came out big for us, so that gave me confidence to try to find myself.”
Edwards recorded a new playoff career-high with his 43 points, joining Jalen Brunson as the only current players in the NBA with at least two straight 40-point or more-point games. Still, he quickly credited his teammates postgame, which is standard. Ant usually credits his teammates even if he single-handedly wills the Wolves to victory. However, that wasn’t the case in Game 1, despite what the final box score says.
Ant’s scoring per quarter:
- First: 16 points on 6/10 FG in 12 minutes
- Second: 9 points on 4/7 FG in 9 minutes
- Third: 6 points on 3/7 FG in 12 minutes
- Fourth: 12 points on 4/5 FG in 9 minutes
Edwards stepped up when it mattered most, immediately injecting a spark into his team and circling back to finish off what he had started. However, as Ant mentions above, he was relatively quiet in the second and third quarters. Minnesota’s historic Game 1 win was a complete team effort, particularly in the second half, when the Wolves took control of the game.
Towns and Conley combined for 21 of Minnesota’s 33 points in the third quarter. Early in the fourth, when KAT was on the bench due to foul trouble, Reid tacked on 14 points.
“A lot of guts,” Conely responded when asked what it took to win Game 1. “From Naz to Jaden defensively to Ant taking over to KAT – everybody had moments. This is a team where you are going to have to fight a full four quarters every game. It was a tough one tonight, but we are happy to get a win.”
You must have resilience to steal homecourt advantage, go up 1-0 in a series where you were the underdog, and beat a team that lost only eight times at home this season. You also have to receive productive play up and down the roster. The Wolves didn’t possess either in the first half, but they did in the second.
The Timberwolves remain undefeated in the postseason and head into Game 2 on Monday with momentum. The job through the first two games is technically finished because Minnesota guarantees itself a split on the road. Still, the Wolves will be even hungrier to go up 2-0 against the reigning champs and head back to Target Center on Friday, greeting their rumpus home crowd, which will surely reach decibel levels capable of permanent hearing damage.
