Initial thoughts from the Nuggets’ blowout loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals on Monday night.
The hunters are prowling and the hunted look… vulnerable: Can a championship hangover show up in the second round? Maybe not, but Minnesota’s been a pummeling migraine of a headache for Denver the past three halves and took powerful hold of this series with a Game 2 beatdown. The Nuggets are the hunted. The Wolves look in their element hunting and are leaving town with two games forcibly in hand. Conventional wisdom: Denver would find its championship form with a little adversity and knowing the cost of going down 0-2 in the series. In actuality, Minnesota looked like the team desperate to show it had more than an opening punch. The Wolves are mean. They’re rugged defensively. They don’t care when the game gets chippy. They relished it, actually, as the Nuggets complained. They rebounded more physically, they made simple tasks unpleasant and they dared Denver to match their brute force. So far, that call has gone unanswered.
As Jamal goes, so go the Nuggets: Jamal Murray lost his cool and parted with his heating pad, too. The Nuggets go as their point guard goes. For the most part, that’s been very good news in the playoffs. Now battling a pesky calf injury, though, not so much. Murray missed nine of 10 shots in the first half as Denver fell behind by 26 points. In fact, maybe his most accurate toss of the first 24 minutes was when he appeared to throw a heating pad from the bench onto the floor during play, drawing a stoppage and warning that the officiating crew seemed to think was directed toward the fans. When Murray’s at his best, he’s attacking. Downhill. Hunting, to use the metaphor of the night. Monday night, he was back to floaters and runners as he tried to navigate the injury and Minnesota’s bullying defense. The Wolves have no chill and Nuggets need to figure out how to warm up. Quickly.
No Rudy but no answers for KAT: Even a stop from Mother Nature couldn’t help the Nuggets on Monday night. Rudy Gobert, the Minnesota defensive stalwart, considered trying to get Denver for Game 2 but was eventually ruled out for “personal reasons.” The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported earlier in the season that Gobert and his partner were expecting a child. T-Wolves coach Chris Finch said pregame that the weather played a factor in Gobert not being able to get back in time. Those 80-mph wind gusts waylaid air travel and could have aided Denver in the process. Instead, the Big Bad Wolves huffed and puffed and blew the Nuggets down. In Gobert’s absence, Denver forward Aaron Gordon got off to a fast start and scored 13 first-quarter points. In the end, though, Denver still didn’t have an answer for Gobert’s front-court mate, Karl Anthony-Towns. He had 16 points in the opening 14:38 and finished with 27 points on a comfortable 10-of-15 shooting night.
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