Jokic, Gordon help Nuggets tie series, beat Timberwolves 115-107
Mike Conley had 15 points, Karl-Anthony Towns went just 5 for 18 from the field for 13 points and 12 rebounds, and Rudy Gobert came alive late to score 11 points and grab 14 rebounds. Still, the Wolves were on their heels at home for a second straight game.
Gordon didn’t miss until there was 3:39 to go. The Nuggets scored eight points in 20 seconds to close the first half, highlighted by Murray’s improbable heave.
The three off days between Games 2 and 3 did the Wolves no good, yielding a 27-point defeat after which coach Chris Finch declared them feeling “fat and lazy” after all the fawning near and far for their performance in Denver. They needed to reintroduce their edge right away to keep the crowd consistently roaring, and Edwards dutifully led that response.
The 2020 first overall draft pick scored nine points in the first four-plus minutes before Murray even touched the ball, with Gordon and Jokic sharing the point guard duties to reduce the burden on Murray and his strained left calf muscle.
After a quiet Game 3, Edwards was on a mission to will the Wolves to win, as the Nuggets fully expected. Their loading up on him in the lane wasn’t enough, as he hit from everywhere on the court, but the rest of the Wolves frequently failed to make the Nuggets pay for leaving them open.
They missed tip-ins at the rim, not just corner 3s. Towns missed his first seven shots, and while his effort and defence never suffered, he was a mess trying to get the ball to the basket, rarely drawing the fouls he argued for.
The Wolves showed off their league-best defence and their enviable depth in the first two games, but the Nuggets copied and pasted that formula on the road. When their secondary scorers and bench players are hitting their jumpers, they’re awfully tough to beat.
Gordon, Justin Holiday (10 points), Christian Braun (11 points) and Reggie Jackson (six points) went a combined 8 for 11 from 3-point range. They fuelled a 26-4 run that bridged the first and second quarters, and all but five points on that surge came with the four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Gobert resting on the bench.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Dave Campbell, The Associated Press
