The Minnesota Timberwolves completed a historic 20-point comeback to defeat the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 on Sunday. This sends the Wolves to their first Western Conference Finals in 20 years.
Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves have played a role this season and in the playoffs, sweeping the Phoenix Suns in the first round and defeating the defending champions in seven games.
The Timberwolves, who were down as many as 20 points in the third quarter, came back and completed the largest comeback in a Game 7 in the past 25 postseasons.
The Nuggets became the fifth consecutive defending NBA champions to fail to reach the Conference finals the year after their win. It’s been a tough and amazing run for the Denver Nuggets.
Anthony “Ant” Edwards had an amazing series, dropping 43 points in Game 1 and 44 points in Game 4. It wasn’t just Edwards putting in the work: Timberwolves four-time All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns also led the way. KAT was franchise No. 1 in 2015 and has played for the Wolves his whole career. He scored 23 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block shot in Game 7. KAT had to be a major factor in this series if they wanted to win. He stepped up and importantly he gave the Denver Nuggets three time MVP, Nikola Jokic some trouble.
Jokic did finish the game with 34 points and 19 rebounds but shot 13-for-28 from the field and 2-for-10 behind the arc. Murray scored 35 on 13-for-27 shooting with 3 assists. Although the Nuggets duo showed up on Sunday, it wasn’t enough to put away the Timberwolves.
Rudy Gilbert, Minnesota’s four-time Defensive Player of the Year, had an unexpected fourth quarter, scoring 8 of his 13 points. He even had a turnaround fadeaway midrange, which gave the whole momentum to the Wolves in the final stretches of the game.
This was the 20th time these big houses (Nuggets & Wolves) faced each other since the start of the 2022–23 season started. The Nuggets defeated the Wolves in five games during last season’s Nuggets championship run. But this year’s series was a little different, as the Wolves defeated the Nuggets in 7 games.
This series was the most entertaining we’ve seen in a while. The Wolves are the only NBA franchise to be undefeated in Game 7. They would go on to face Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals.
