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Uhm Young Mi-sook, ESPN staff writer
DENVER — With about 30 seconds left, reality began to set in and Nikola Jokic began congratulating his Minnesota Timberwolves players.
In the span of 22 minutes, the Denver Nuggets' bid to repeat as champions collapsed in stunning fashion. The Nuggets blew a 20-point lead in the third quarter on their home floor and lost 98-90 in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.
The reigning champions were shocked and incredibly frustrated by the way they lost, trailing 58-38 at the 10:50 mark of the third quarter. This was the largest lead in Game 7 in 25 years.
“The season is over,” a frustrated Michael Malone told reporters as Wolves players could be heard shouting celebrations through the wall in the adjacent locker room.
The abruptness of the Nuggets' repeat ending had not yet subsided.
When asked what went wrong, Malone said, “That's the hard part.” “Huh, I'm already 20 years old. The season is over. It's tough.”
After dropping the first two games of the series at home, Denver won the next three games and appeared to be back in the championship. But the Nuggets squandered two chances to reach the Western Conference Finals for the third time in five postseasons — both in shocking fashion. In Game 6 against Minnesota, they lost by 45 points.
Then came the second half of Sunday. Jamal Murray sank a 3 for a 20-point lead, and the Nuggets watched the Timberwolves take a 54-24 lead. By the end of this game, Minnesota had a 92-82 lead with 3:07 left and the noisy Ball He arena fell silent.
Jokic, a three-time MVP, had 34 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists, but missed 8 of 10 from behind the basket. Murray scored 24 of his 35 points in the first half, but was just 4 of 12 from 3-point range.
The Nuggets' two biggest stars couldn't help much. Michael Porter Jr. missed 9 of 12 shots and scored 7 points, while Aaron Gordon, who was outstanding in the Nuggets' three-game winning streak in this series, had 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists.
Nuggets like Murray and Christian Braun believed Denver should win and advance, but Jokic said the Timberwolves were designed to beat the Nuggets.
As the team's president of basketball operations for many years, Tim Connelly built the Nuggets into a championship contender. Minnesota hired Connelly in 2022 and moved forward with trades for players like Rudy Gobert to put together a group that appears to be perfect to stop Denver.
In the second half, Jokic had to battle Minnesota's big man trio of Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid, while the Nuggets had to contain Anthony Edwards defensively.
“So I think they're built to beat us,” Jokic said. “Look at their roster. They basically have two All-Stars, probably two first-team defensive players. Mike Conley is probably the most underrated player in the NBA.”
“They're getting Sixth Man of the Year off the bench… [They are] This is a team that can literally do anything. They can be large or small. ”
When asked about Connelly's blueprint for eliminating the champions in the hallway near the Nuggets' locker room, the Timberwolves' director of basketball operations answered humbly.
“That's called luck,” Connelly said.
Before entering the offseason much earlier than expected, the Nuggets reflected on how difficult it will be to defend a championship.
“It just summons up the energy, mentally and physically, to fight like you're being chased,” Murray said. “I think it’s the emotion, when you’re a hunter you’re much more motivated and you’re grabbing anything to prove everyone wrong and you’re always going to have a chip on your shoulder.
“I don't know. … I feel like we should have won tonight. That's the hard part. They beat us, but we had a lot of great chances, myself included, so it's just tough.”
Jokic said that because today's NBA is full of talented players, the team “basically needs to be perfect to win a championship.”
Malone knows how difficult it will be for the Nuggets to repeat last season after playing through June and keeping key players playing until the final regular-season game this season to secure the No. 2 seed in the West. said.
“This is just a temporary delay,” Malone said. “This is a failure, but not fatal. We'll be back.
“I'm not taking anything away from Minnesota because the better team won… but mentally, emotionally, physically, I think the players feel the gas. They feel the gas. They gave me everything I asked for and that's why I'm walking out of this building tonight with my head held high, no matter how much it hurts. ”
