Facing elimination on Thursday, the Timberwolves turned in arguably the most dominant performance of any team this postseason, holding the Nuggets to 70 points on the night and going on separate 20-0, 13-0, and 24-0 runs en route to a 45-point victory. What was the difference for Minnesota? According to Anthony Edwards, the answer was simple, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
“We got Mike Conley back,” Edwards said of his backcourt mate, who missed Game 5 due to a right soleus strain. “That was it.”
It’s a little reductive to give Conley full credit for the Wolves’ incredible performance. After all, he was also on the floor for the team’s home losses in Games 3 and 4. But Minnesota’s players and coaches have spoken all season about the outsized impact the veteran point guard – who was the team’s fifth-leading scorer during the season – has on the Wolves.
“Mike means everything for us,” head coach Chris Finch said after Game 6. “Unbelievable next to Anthony in terms of being able to set him up, play off of him, be in his ear all of the time. Smart defender. Just everything you want in an experienced, veteran point guard and just the very fact that Ant doesn’t have to handle it every single time, that alone helps us. … We desperately missed him the other night.”
Here’s more out of Minnesota:
- As Sam Amick of The Athletic details, several Timberwolves players credited a video the coaching staff showed prior to Game 6 for helping the club regain its swagger and get in the right head space heading into Thursday’s contest. “Normally we have a (film) edit, just with certain offensive possessions This edit was more of a production, one of those that show all the big dunks and highlights and the ball movement and with music behind it,” Conley said. “It was a surprise. We’ll usually see the defensive stuff and offensive stuff, but this time they plugged it up to the big speaker. We normally don’t have anything plugged into the big speakers, just the (film) and coach will be talking over it. But this was more of a change-our-mentality sort of thing.” Edwards told reporters that the team’s “energy shifted” after watching the hype video, while Karl-Anthony Towns said it reminded the Wolves of the “discipline, the execution, (and) the tenacity” that they’d been lacking in their losses.
- Edwards – who said on Thursday that he wants to be “the best player on both sides of the ball in the NBA,” per McMenamin – was the primary defender on Jamal Murray in Game 6. It was a miserable night for the Nuggets guard, who scored just 10 points on 4-of-18 shooting, though Murray suggested after the loss that a right elbow injury he suffered early in the game was more to blame for his off night. “I put some numbing cream on it just so I didn’t have to feel it every time it extended,” Murray said, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “… We got two days off. I just got to get ready and be able to be better for Sunday. Yeah, (it’s got) to be better for Sunday, man.”
- Towns scored a playoff-low 10 points on Thursday, but his fingerprints were “all over” Minnesota’s Game 6 win, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic contends. Towns grabbed 13 rebounds, handed out five assists, only turned the ball over once, and – perhaps most crucially – stayed out of foul trouble while defending Nikola Jokic. “I told him today, ‘We’re thankful that you didn’t foul because if you foul we lose,'” Edwards said. “Because you are the best matchup we’ve got for Jokic. Like, you do the best job on him.”
- After making just 2-of-12 three-pointers and scoring a total of 35 points in the first five games of the series, Jaden McDaniels hit 3-of-5 threes and scored 21 points on Thursday. Chip Scoggins of The Star Tribune takes a closer look at the impact that the Wolves’ “X-factor” had in the victory.
“going on separate 20-0, 23-0, and 24-0 runs”
Wow, that must be a first in playoffs history, right?
Typo on the second one — should’ve been 13-0. It’s been fixed.
It is not so much how great the T-wolves played but how badly the Nuggets shot the ball. You would not expect last year champs to run bad offense play after play.
So the decision by the Wolves to double Jokic nearly every time he touched the ball and close off the interior thereby forcing Murray to take jumpers which he’s been for the most part struggling with except for sporadic spots in this season’s playoffs had nothing to do with how poorly the Nuggets shot the ball?
There was a lot of missed open shots and failed lay ups if you watched the game. T-wolves wanted the game more they were getting to all of the 50/50 balls. Look at the stats the T-wolves had a good game not a great game and dominated. That should scare the Nuggets even more that the T-wolves didn’t have a freak shooting night and won by 40.
Still pretty amazing.
While Mike Conley obviously wasn’t the sole reason for the turnaround in game six, he has got to be the most underrated player in the NBA over the past 10-15 years. Who else has brought so much consistently to his teams than Mike in the 16 years that he’s been in the league? 14,3,6 and a single All-Star appearance doesn’t look overly impressive, but he’s done nothing but win in the NBA.
I’m not a Wolves fan, not am I Utah or Memphis. I have just enjoyed watching this guy play for many years.
Mike Conley is awesome, but you can’t really say “he’s done nothing but win in the NBA’ when he hasn’t won a title yet.
MIN’s trade for Conley will go down as a franchise changer. They were essentially paid (3 2nds and NAW) to swap out Dlo for Conley. He saved the Gobert trade by helping he and KAT co-exist, and has facilitated a more focused Edwards. To think, they owe it all (or at least most of it all) to UTH’s determination to tank.
Jokic can smell his 2nd Chip…
He’s to close to fail now…
It’s not the Twolves time…
Maybe their Time starts next year…let’s see..
But this year Jokic is Hunting Back to Back and he will be looking to destroy what’s in front of him Sunday Nite!!!!!