Last round, Minnesota beat Phoenix. Sunday night, Minnesota became one.
Rising from the ashes when all hope looked lost, the Timberwolves dug deep once more time, fought back, and delivered the final knockout blow to Denver's title defense once and for all.
It's the sixth straight season the defending champion hasn't advanced past the second round. And it took all seven games — and all of the seventh game — to get there.
The Nuggets led 53-38 at halftime. Minnesota couldn't score, couldn't get into any rhythm. Anthony Edwards hit the Timberwolves' second bucket, then didn't make another basket before halftime.
This had been an epic series, as good as all the experts predicted, but it hadn't been close game to game. Minnesota took Denver to the thrashing floor twice. The Nuggets won three in a row. The series saw wins by 15, 26, 27, and 45 points.
It wasn't bad basketball by either side. It was basketball at the highest level, two absolute heavyweights delivering blow after blow, and some nights the opponent was just beat.
That's what it looked like Sunday night for Minnesota, as the Nuggets expanded the lead to 58-38 a minute into the second half. The Wolves weren't hitting shots — Denver was. Twenty-point lead.
The championship mettle was coming through, and the home Game 7 crowd was roaring.
It was over.
And then it wasn't.
This inexperienced Minnesota squad simply did not know it was beaten, even down 20 on the road in the second half of a Game 7, on pace for a meager 75 points.
From that moment forward, the Timberwolves outscored the champs 6o to 32. Not a typo.
And it was a full team effort.
Anthony Edwards had a brutal shooting night at 6-of-24 (good enough for a Kobe MVP) but played tenacious defense and gritted his way to two dunks off steals and a huge 3-pointer late that put Minnesota up double digits.
After the game, Ant called Jaden McDaniels the team MVP. "No question," he told the Inside the NBA crew. McDaniels led the Timberwolves with 23 points, three 3s, and four huge offensive rebounds.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 23, too. He played a terrific first half when his teammates barely showed up, and he played the quarter of his life in the third. Then he sat on the bench and watched most of the fourth in foul trouble as Naz Reid came in and hit a flurry of buckets and a rim-shaking put-back dunk.
Rudy Gobert hit a hilarious fadeaway, made 7-of-9 free throws, most of them late, and single-handedly got the Timberwolves into the bonus early in the fourth quarter. Wily veteran Mike Conley hit 3-of-5 treys and made the little plays to win his first Game 7 ever.
The better team won Sunday night, and the better team won the series.
It's rare for the NBA MVP to win the championship that same year. Notice that Nikola Jokić won MVP three of the last four years — but didn't win it the one year he won a title.
Sometimes a player can be so valuable he's almost too valuable to a team — and teams win championships, not individuals.
That's what it felt like for Denver as Jokić put up 34 points, 19 rebounds, and seven assists, leading his team in every category. He couldn't buy a 3-pointer until late but didn't hang his head or stop shooting. He played all but one minute and ran out of gas late and couldn't get any help from his teammates.
Jamal Murray took advantage of the extra day of rest to score 35 of his own, his best game of the series.
Only four other Nuggets scored — and none of them topped seven points.
The team beat the stars, and defense beat offense.
Minnesota hit only 39% of its shots in a road Game 7. It went just 10-of-34 on 3s, making only 29%. Those sort of numbers get you blown out by 20, like the Timberwolves were for half of the game. But series don't end after 6.5 games.
The defending champs played with their food the entire first round against the Lakers, but it didn't matter. Los Angeles was Denver's plaything. The Nuggets knew they had LA beat.
Denver treated Minnesota the same flippant way this series on more than one occasion — coming out flat in a home Game 1 loss, giving up twice in massive blowouts, no-showing in a potential closeout Game 6 after three straight wins — and now the Nuggets will watch the rest of the postseason from their ponies in Serbia.
There will be plenty of time to write the Denver eulogy.
Jamal Murray had an abysmal postseason, outside of two shots against LA. Michael Porter Jr. was invisible this entire series, scoring single-digit points five times. Denver's bench was non-existent. It scored five points in 34 minutes in Game 7. Jokić was great, mostly, but not great enough.
But Sunday wasn't about Denver.
It was for a half, and then it wasn't. It was about a pack of hungry, ravenous Wolves getting the biggest win in Minnesota men's sports in two decades.
Two decades ago to the day, the Timberwolves won their only other Game 7 ever. Kevin Garnett led the way in what was previously the greatest win in franchise history as Minnesota outlasted the Kings before falling in the Western Conference Finals.
That was the only other year in franchise history this team even won a series. But this Minnesota team is playing like it's not finished.
These Wolves went in to Denver and won not once, not twice, but three times against the reigning champs, then waved them off the court in Game 7.
These Wolves fought back from three straight Ls when the series got away, rallied back from the typical Minnesota gut punch that was Denver scoring eight points in 20 seconds before halftime of Game 4, then nearly doubled up the champs in the second half on the road in Game 7 when the series was gone and columns were already being written.
"How much you want us to lose, gawd DAMN"
LMAOOOOOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/Sd9zKRus8M— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) May 20, 2024
It has been a long, dark few decades for Minnesota sports. But it's always darkest just before the dawn.
From the ashes we rise, like a phoenix, reborn,
With scars on our hearts, yet our spirit unworn.
With every setback, we find a new way,
To conquer the darkness, and seize the day.
The Timberwolves were dead, and then they were not. It was the greatest second-half comeback ever in a Game 7, and it took an entire voracious pack of Wolves to get the job done.
Minnesota has risen from the ashes, and it might not be done yet.
Eight wins down. Eight more to go.
