They were losing 0-2 and now they are in the lead. They were on the brink and now they are thriving. A week ago, the Denver Nuggets looked ready to abandon their bid to win a second straight NBA championship, but now another championship seems inevitable.
Anything can still happen in this intense, hard-fought emotional powder keg of the Western Conference semifinals. But after Denver's 112-97 victory in Game 5, perhaps the most important of the entire NBA season thus far, the themes of this series are starting to come into focus.
Good luck, Minnesota.
The Timberwolves, once the team that won the first two games in Denver and held all the cards in this series, lost just one game in Thursday's Game 6 and are just a few steps away from turning that idea into a scarlet letter. It became. That was the exact moment that nailed the Nuggets. Matt from Minnesota was exposed. It turns out the Timberwolves weren't ready to revolutionize the NBA.
In fact, the contours of this postseason have become very clear. Denver is the favorite to win back-to-back titles. This series appears to be over as three-time Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic remains as aggressive and unstoppable as ever. Looks like these playoffs are over.
Who else would take on the challenge that Minnesota did? Who else can trouble Jokic and disrupt Denver's offense like the Timberwolves did in the first two games?
Minnesota deserved all the praise it got for taking a 2-0 series lead home. It's not worth the arrows thrown to blow away the lead or the inevitable nit-picking of staff.
Yes, the Timberwolves' best performance of the series, a 106-80 win in Game 2, came when center Rudy Gobert was out due to the birth of his child. Yes, they were emotionally deflated in Game 3, when they could have hit the winning run at home. And yes, the situation was awkward in Game 4 as Gobert was mostly in the way offensively, Karl-Anthony Towns couldn't make jump shots, and Anthony Edwards had too much to do. became.
But the order of this series wasn't about Minnesota. In the end, it looks like the Nuggets are determined to get back on track.
Denver was one of the best teams in the NBA all season, but they weren't completely locked in. They fiddled around a bit and earned the No. 2 seed in the West instead of having home court advantage all along. They flopped in the first round, needing five games to take on the Lakers instead of last year's sweep. And when the Timberwolves opened this series with incredible energy and defensive dynamism, the Nuggets looked stunned.
Rather, it only woke them up.
The Timberwolves still have enough power to make this series happen again. They win Game 6 at home, take it back to Denver for Game 7 and hope something goes in their favor, whether it's injuries or shooting luck. It shouldn't be a big shock.
But as this series unfolds, it begins to look like a story as old as the NBA itself. A young team with a new superstar gets a taste of what it takes to win a championship, but ultimately fails on their first serious attempt. .
A few years ago, Denver was that team. The Timberwolves and Edwards will likely be next in line.
But now, this is Denver's league and Jokic's sport.
Despite his great performances in the playoffs, Game 5 looked different for Jokic. It seemed personal. It was undeniably brutal: 40 points, 15-of-22 from the field, 13 assists, and 7 rebounds.
Minnesota is a great defensive team that looks like it was created in a lab to counter Denver's staff, especially Jokic. But the business side of this series doesn't bother him at all. In retrospect, it will be remembered as a series that Minnesota lost after taking a 2-0 lead, but it will also be remembered as a series in which there wasn't much more they could have done.
I'm not against that man. Once guard Jamal Murray started recovering from a calf injury, he was no match for that team, but his confidence grew and his shots started falling.
Now that Minnesota is nearly eliminated, who's left to stop them? Dallas vs. Oklahoma City looks like a junior varsity team compared to this series. The Knicks have a bare bones roster, but they have a chance to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals anyway. The Celtics are still too shaky in the fourth quarter to be reliable as they look to win against the Cavaliers.
It would be an exaggeration to call this the de facto NBA Finals, but it wouldn't be surprising if in a month's time we look back and remember the Timberwolves series as Denver's most challenging game.
Minnesota was such a test, but the Nuggets nearly failed. But right now, the NBA postseason doesn't seem as mysterious or wide-open as it did just a few days ago. He only has one team to beat. The Nuggets are simply the best.
