{"id":6849,"date":"2024-05-07T12:43:47","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T12:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=6849"},"modified":"2024-05-07T12:43:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T12:43:47","slug":"nba-edwards-towns-lead-wolves-to-106-80-win-for-2-0-series-lead-over-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=6849","title":{"rendered":"NBA: Edwards, Towns lead Wolves\u2019 to 106-80 win for 2-0 series lead over Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 28 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

The\u00a0Minnesota Timberwolves, led by\u00a0Anthony Edwards\u00a0and\u00a0Karl-Anthony Towns, overpowered the\u00a0Denver Nuggets\u00a0on Monday night in a stunningly efficient 106-80 thrashing of the reigning but reeling NBA champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some really good defensive efforts this year,\u201d Wolves coach Chris Finch said after his team took a surprising 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals. \u201cThat has to be right up there with the best of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wolves held Denver to an ugly 29-of-83 shooting night, and the most impressive thing about that was the absence of their best defender, 7-foot-1 center\u00a0Rudy Gobert, who was back in Minneapolis for the birth of his son.<\/p>\n

Gobert\u2019s fingerprints were all over this masterpiece, Finch suggested.<\/p>\n

\u201cRudy\u2019s driven the defensive culture here. I think it\u2019s a testament to his impact, his presence and what he\u2019s infused into the team of how important defense is and how great it can be when we play it,\u201d Finch said. \u201cThat aside, we expect to win no matter who\u2019s with us and who\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns Photo Courtesy: AP<\/p>\n

Towns and Edwards both scored 27 points as the Wolves improved to 6-0 in the playoffs and gave themselves a chance to close out the fuming Nuggets with wins Friday night and Sunday in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

Nikola Jokic in action against Minnesota Photo Courtesy: AP<\/p>\n

So flustered were the Nuggets by the second quarter that coach Michael Malone threw a fit at an official and scuffling point guard\u00a0Jamal Murray\u00a0threw a heat pack\u00a0onto the court in frustration as Towns was about to score on a layup.<\/p>\n

Murray, who has shot 9 for 32 in this series, left Ball Arena without comment for the second straight game. He is likely to be fined by the NBA for his actions.<\/p>\n

Jamal Murray in action against Minnesota Timberwolves Photo Courtesy: ESPN<\/p>\n

Aaron Gordon\u00a0led Denver with 20 points,\u00a0Nikola Jokic\u00a0had 16 points and 16 rebounds but their third-leading scorer was sub Justin Holliday with 13 points. Murray scored eight points on 3-of-18 shooting.<\/p>\n

Jamal Murray Photo Courtesy: AP<\/p>\n

Kyle Anderson\u00a0replaced Gobert in the starting lineup and had eight assists and nine rebounds and reserves\u00a0Naz Reid\u00a0and\u00a0Nickeil Alexander-Walker\u00a0both scored 14.<\/p>\n

Now the Nuggets, who lost consecutive games just once during the season, find themselves needing to beat Edwards four times in five tries to advance to the Western Conference finals again, a seemingly impossibility given both teams\u2019 level of play at the moment.<\/p>\n

Anthony Edwards Photo Courtesy: ESPN<\/p>\n

Edwards, for one, expects to see a different Nuggets team at Target Center this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt worked in our favor tonight, man. That\u2019s all that was,\u201d he said. \u201cWe made shots. They didn\u2019t. That\u2019s the defending champs over there. So, they\u2019re not going to come out and play like that again in Game 3.\u201d<\/p>

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The\u00a0Minnesota Timberwolves, led by\u00a0Anthony Edwards\u00a0and\u00a0Karl-Anthony Towns, overpowered the\u00a0Denver Nuggets\u00a0on Monday night in a stunningly efficient 106-80 thrashing of the reigning but reeling NBA champions. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some really good defensive… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}