DENVER — It’s hilarious to say that the Minnesota Timberwolves’ magic begins and ends with Rudy Gobert.
they are frustrated 20 He scored against the defending champion Denver Nuggets with 22 minutes remaining, and the NBA’s most controversial player sparked a turnaround in years.
History was on the Nuggets’ side, as teams that led by at least 15 points at halftime in Game 7 were up 21-0 by that point (Indiana joined that group earlier in the day against the Knicks list). So does Charles Barkley, the Hall of Famer and TNT analyst calling out Minnesota head coach Chris Finch “Take Gobert out of the game.”
But then Nikola Jokic lost Gobert on the left wing and Karl-Anthony Towns found the French big man with 9:51 left in the third quarter. Seconds later, he caught a pass for a dunk that most observers (including yourself) didn’t expect.
A quick confession about what happened at the press conference: For the first time in 20 years of covering the association, I booked flights and hotels for a follow-up series in the wrong city in advance because, well, it felt like it was done. Head to Denver on Wednesday for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against Dallas.
or not.
When the game entered the fourth quarter at 7 minutes and 43 seconds, Gobert magically completed a Jokic-style spinning fadeaway jumper from the left side. The Timberwolves had already reached a 41-17 climax. This is true of all advantages.
The Nuggets’ suffocating defense was back, as the Nuggets shot 15-for-21 from the field during that stretch (Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. combined for 1-for-8). Minnesota, meanwhile, turned the tables on the glass — the Timberwolves trailed 29-18 on the glass in the first half but led 17-7 in the period.
“It showed us who we were because the coaches believed in us even though at halftime – even in the third quarter – we were down 20 points. They said, ‘Keep running. Keep running,'” said Anthony Edwards, who scored just four points in the first half but finished with 16 points (6-of-24 shooting), eight rebounds, seven assists and 11 points. “It shows us who we are, man. Once we really lock in defensively – because offensively we’re playing pretty good – but when we really lock in defensively, man, we’re a tough team to beat. .
The Timberwolves’ offense came alive all night long because of their defense. Nearly every key player contributed in a 15-for-25 shooting performance that propelled the Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since a 98-90 win in 2004. But Gobert’s shot was a chef’s kiss, the kind of lasting image that should establish a basketball section in the Louvre.
OMG Da Ru. pic.twitter.com/S2XEQaummo
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) May 20, 2024
Hearing Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns discuss the issue afterward, as they sat side by side in the press conference and hilariously reviewed the turnaround, one can understand the cohesion of character and personnel that was just that. Cohesion plays such a big role.
“Rudy Gobert’s transformation is crazy,” Towns declared.
“When Rudy turned the tables, I thought, ‘Yeah, we might have caught them,'” Edwards said with a laugh. “I knew that would kill the whole — that would kill everything. Big Rudy Shout, man. He turned the tables on them.
“It’s the same thing on God’s day,” said Towns, who has made an impressive transition from the Timberwolves’ core player to a selfless and capable No. 2 behind Edwards. “The same goes for God’s Day.”
It’s not just the Lord’s Day, though. This is the 20th anniversary of Minnesota’s Game 7 victory over Sacramento in the Western Conference semifinals, which was the last time the team reached the Western Conference finals.Kevin Garnett, who also happens to turn 48 on Sunday, famously promised to bring all The proverbial cannon in Game 7 against the Kings.
The most important thing about this defining moment is that the Nuggets forget that there are 48 minutes in an NBA game.
Murray, who was great after a poor performance in Game 6, went 14-for-18 from the field and scored 24 of his 33 points in the first half. If he’s going to continue to play like this, if Edwards is going to continue to let all the nuggets take the ball away from him when it matters most, then the rest is a fait accompli. But then the arc of redemption emerges.
After the Gobert trade in the summer of 2022, when the Timberwolves’ salary cap became the focus of attention, many people thought Towns was an odd man, but he also did an excellent job of guarding Jokic while guarding the Wolves’ poor performance. attack.
He made 8 of 14 shots from the field, scored 23 points and 12 rebounds, and scored +10. When Edwards participated in a joint press conference with Towns, he made a bold statement that should be considered within the entire context of the Nuggets environment.
“They don’t have any answers for Carl,” Edwards said as he walked. “Cal is the baddest big man on the planet.”
In this arena, Jokic has won three of the past four MVP awards, Denver’s 2023 championship snaps the franchise’s half-century title drought, and Edwards decides to declare Towns among the best of them all. Among the children.
However, none of the Timberwolves can compare to Gobert in terms of rescue stories.His poor first half, though, reignited discussions about whether he’s a winning player – a debate that has raged for years and led to his unpopular status as the league’s most overrated player of late Competitor Player Vote – Gobert found a way to have the last laugh.
He finished with 13 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks and a +10 rating. Including when the Timberwolves swept the Phoenix Suns in the first round, Gobert now has a plus-minus of +111, the best on the team (Edwards is second at +103). But of course, Chuck, tell us again how Gobert was unable to perform when it mattered most.
“I don’t watch those guys, so I don’t know what they’re talking about, but they have to talk about something,” Gobert said when asked about Barkley’s comments. “But, yeah, I’m glad (Timberwolves) coach (Chris Finch) didn’t listen to his advice.”
Of all the people who represent the Timberwolves’ willingness to fight, Finch may be at the top of the list. He tore his patellar tendon in a collision with Mike Conley in Game 4 of the first-round series against the Suns and then sat in the second row in the second round, assistant coach Micah No Li takes on the vast majority of sideline duties.
But late in Game 7 against the Nuggets, when every possession threatened to decide the game and every play call carried equal weight, Finch suddenly stood up from his chair to make sure his voice be heard. He has been with the team since the middle of the 2020-21 season, when he resigned from his job as an assistant coach with the Toronto Raptors to replace the fired Ryan Saunders. At the time, Edwards was halfway through his first season, and the obvious connection between the 22-year-old star and Finch was closely tied to the historic events currently unfolding for the Timberwolves.
“It starts with our head coach, Coach Finch,” Edwards said afterward. “He comes to work every day and he comes in early. He’s trying to figure out how to get Ant and KAT open. He’s trying to figure out how to get Mike and Rudy open. He’s trying to figure out how to get Jaden (McDaniel) He’s trying to get Naz (Reed) involved and he’s just a great coach. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything.
“If Kat f——” gets up, he’ll be on KAT. If I messed up, he’d get on me. If Rudy has a bad game, he’s going to go after whoever screws up the whole game, and to me, I think that’s what makes him the best coach in the NBA. Because no matter who it is, no matter how high the pole is, he will press on you from beginning to end. Starting with the head of the snake, he is the head of our snake. We all look up to him and listen to him and he does a great job making sure we’re ready to go every night.
Finch, who spent the 2016-17 season in Denver as associate head coach with the Nuggets’ Michael Malone, knows exactly what this seventh win means.
“This is an important moment for our club,” Finch said. “Everyone talks about the last 30 years (in Minnesota), which means nothing to me. But it does mean a lot to a lot of people to see this team and support this team. This city. To be behind this team and beat a team like Denver at home the way we did, it certainly means a lot.
(Photos of Rudy Gobert and Nikola Jokic: AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
