Andrew LopezESPN
MINNEAPOLIS — Nearest the Denver Nuggets defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in Recreation 3 in their first-round order on Friday night time, their center of attention shifted to doing one thing that hasn’t ever been achieved in franchise historical past: a playoff sweep.
The Nuggets’ 120-111 win gave them a 3-0 order supremacy, placing them in place to complete the activity on Sunday.
“Up 3-0, our mindset right now is — no disrespect to the T-Wolves because this is about us — but we don’t want to go back to Denver,” Nuggets trainer Michael Malone mentioned.
Nuggets middle Nikola Jokic, who completed with 20 issues, 12 assists and 11 rebounds for his 7th profession triple-double, mentioned Denver didn’t wish to rush its underpinning off the gasoline then taking the primary two video games of the order at house. He scoffed on the perception that the Nuggets didn’t wish to win Recreation 3, pronouncing it didn’t form any sense to him.
“We didn’t wanna give them life,” Jokic mentioned. “We wanted to be the aggressor. We wanted to punch them first. They need to react to us. That was our plan. I think we did a good job.”
If Denver wins Recreation 4, it will be the first sweep in franchise playoff historical past in a order of any space. That is best the second one era the Nuggets had been up 3-0 in a order, going again to the 2009 convention semifinals towards the Dallas Mavericks. They dropped Recreation 4 in Dallas ahead of bouncing again and completing off the order in Recreation 5.
The Nuggets are considered one of 4 franchises with out a order sweep of their franchise historical past, becoming a member of the LA Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies and the Timberwolves — who wish to keep away from being swept for the primary era in a seven-game order.
“We know to close out a series a lot of times can be the hardest game,” Malone mentioned. “I’m hoping that we can find a way. Don’t have a mindset of ‘Hey, we can just go back and close it in Denver.’ Our mindset should be to close it in Game 4.”
Minnesota began the sport because the aggressor and fed off the power of the sold-out Goal Middle population to manufacture an early supremacy. Then again, through the tip of the quarter, Denver had attach the ranking and regulated the sport the residue of the best way.
“We knew what we had to do,” Nuggets safeguard Jamal Murray mentioned. “They came out aggressive. They come out how they were supposed to. I think we just did a good job of handling the pressure and settling down.”
Michael Porter Jr. led the Nuggets with 25 issues and added 9 rebounds. Six Nuggets scored in double figures, and the 2 who didn’t have been Christian Braun, who had 9 issues, and Jeff Green, who had 8.
Porter praised the intensity of the group so as to proceed to play games at a prime degree even if Jokic has to sit down.
“I think Aaron [Gordon] and Jeff out there give us a very versatile lineup that we didn’t see a whole lot during the regular season, but it’s working great for us because we can just switch one through five, and then we just try to get stops and run,” Porter mentioned. “The offense looks a little bit different when Jok isn’t out there, but we’ve been making it work. We just got a lot of dudes who can do a lot of different things.”
The Timberwolves create a significantly better all-around attempt than they did in Video games 1 or 2, however it wasn’t plethora.
Anthony Edwards completed with 36 issues and shot extra isolated throws himself (15) than the Nuggets tried as a group (13). Karl-Anthony Towns had 27 issues on 10-of-17 capturing.
Edwards was simply the fourth participant in NBA historical past with 30 issues in consecutive playoff video games at presen 21 or more youthful, becoming a member of LeBron James, Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant. Edwards has 77 mixed issues in his moment two playoff video games, surpassed best through James (83 and 79) through gamers presen 21 or more youthful in NBA historical past.
Veteran safeguard Mike Conley mentioned Friday’s loss used to be irritating. Minnesota made it a one-possession contest early within the fourth quarter and short the supremacy to 5 on 3 events within the ultimate six mins, however may just by no means akin the distance.
“Guys played hard,” Conley mentioned. “Had some breakdowns here and there. They really allowed them to get some space down there down the stretch. As a whole, we relied on a lot of different guys to come in the game and give us minutes, and this is one that we would love to have back.”
