MINNEAPOLIS — Aaron Gordon made the Timberwolves respect him, Jamal Murray made them fear him, and the Nuggets made them realize mowing through the Western Conference isn’t meant to be easy.
The Nuggets have made this a series, for now at least. They still must win Sunday at Target Center to avoid facing three consecutive elimination games, but a clinical 117-90 victory Friday over the Timberwolves closed the gap to 2-1 in the second round of the playoffs. The road team has won all three games so far.
Murray, who avoided a suspension this week when the NBA penalized him for throwing objects in the direction of an official, scored 24 points on 11-of-21 shooting, adding five assists and three steals. He and his teammates got Jaden McDaniels in early foul trouble to keep the elite perimeter defender off the floor, and Murray finally looked like himself despite his left calf injury — getting separation, making difficult jumpers, rubbing his hands together in delight at the delectable thought of silencing the crowd amid his villain turn.
And in spite of another slow start offensively, newly minted three-time MVP Nikola Jokic amassed 24 points, 14 rebounds, nine assists, three blocks and three steals. His scoring didn’t come along until the second half. His defense stamped both halves. Late in the third quarter, he stripped Anthony Edwards and turned the stop into a transition alley-oop to Gordon. Denver led by as many as 29 late in the frame.
Gordon was essential in that definitive run after the lead was 15 at halftime. The Timberwolves sagged off the 29% 3-point shooter and dared him to attempt jumpers. He sizzled them for it, sinking a trio of 3s to couple with his two steals in the third quarter. He also brought the ball up frequently as a safety valve to protect Murray from Minnesota’s carnivorous 94-foot ball pressure. He finished with 13 points and two steals.
The Nuggets shot 54% from the floor and 48% from 3-point range, also buoyed by 21 points from Michael Porter Jr. They held Minnesota to 44% and 30%.
Edwards was limited to a minus-32 on the floor with a pedestrian (for him) 19 points. He turned it over five times. Nuggets sixth man Christian Braun — his playoff minutes have firmly confirmed that title — matched up against Edwards successfully for key stints, part of a lineup configuration that involved wings (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Justin Holiday) guarding Karl-Anthony Towns and daring him to post up. Towns’ 14 points were generated largely on 3-pointers.
The Nuggets, mercifully for their own sake, played a competitive first quarter and emerged with an eight-point lead after three days off to think about their agonizing trend of lethargic starts. Michael Malone’s entire pregame news conference transpired like a plea to his team’s mental fortitude, rather than much of any tactical.
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“There’s no excuses,” he said when asked about Denver’s list of injuries. “If you can play, you’ve gotta go out there and play. Everybody across the playoffs is hurt. … Jamal is banged up. KCP is banged up. Nikola is banged up. So what? Go out there and do your job. And if you’re not able to do your job, then we’ll have to throw somebody out there who can try to help bring something to the table.”
Practically every player in the lineup brought something to the table. And the game was called much more tightly than Game 2, when Murray and the Nuggets lost composure when they didn’t get foul calls. This time, the time-tested “ref you (stink)” chant was handed off to Minnesota’s fanbase. Naz Reid received a technical foul in the third quarter. Kyle Anderson did in the fourth. So did Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who ran into a hard screen and seemed to injure himself. It was a complete officiating reversal from the previous game.
The Timberwolves waved the white flag and subbed in their reserves down by 32 — their biggest lead in Game 2 — with 5:54 remaining.
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