DENVER — Minneapolis is going to party like it was 2004. For the first time in two decades, the Minnesota Timberwolves are back in the Western Conference finals.
The Wolves, who led by as many as 20 points in the third quarter, stormed back to complete the biggest comeback in a Game 7 in the last 25 playoff series, winning 98-90 Sunday night to dethrone the defending champion of the Denver Nuggets.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets became the fifth consecutive defending champion to fail to reach the conference finals.
While 22-year-old Minnesota star Anthony Edwards struggled on a 6-for-24 shooting night, four-time Wolves All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns had the most impressive performance of his nine-year career.
Towns, the franchise’s No. 1 pick in 2015 and the longest-tenured member of the team, scored 23 points with 12 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 blocked shot. More importantly, he delivered as effective a one-on-one defensive effort against Denver’s three-time MVP Nikola Jokic as anyone could be expected to.
Jokic finished with 34 points and 19 rebounds but shot 13 of 28 and 2 of 10 from 3-point range.
It was Towns’ fifth 20-point effort of the postseason, all five coming on the road.
“It was tough, man, because I couldn’t find my rhythm tonight,” Edwards said. “So I just had to trust my teammates. … I just had to make the right plays throughout the rest of the game. I did that and my teammates made shots. Big shout out to those guys.”
The Wolves used a 32-9 run between 10:50 of the third quarter and 11:14 of the fourth to wrest control of the game from the Nuggets. While Edwards started just 1 of 9 from the field, he found a rhythm late, scoring nine points in the third, including a step-back 3 to beat the quarter buzzer.
Four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert added an unexpected offensive punch in the fourth quarter, scoring 8 of his 13 points in the final frame — including a miraculous, arcing jump shot — after starting game 1. -for-5.
“It’s awesome,” Gobert said. “Beating a team like them, an incredible team, a champion team, with the best player in the world, it feels good.”
Minnesota took the lead up to 10 in the fourth on an Edwards corner 3 with 3:05 left, forcing the Nuggets to call a timeout as Edwards screamed and jumped for joy, hugging a fan of the field.
The two teams’ 20th meeting between the regular season and the playoffs since the start of the 2022-23 season proved to be a classic and the most compelling game of the series. Only two of the first six conference semifinal games were decided by fewer than 10 points, while three games involved a final margin of more than 25 points.
“It was a hell of a series,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. “They gave us everything we could do and they ended up winning the seventh game on our home field, which is tough to swallow. But we’ll come back.”
Minnesota improved to 2-0 in Game 7s in franchise history and is the only undefeated franchise in Game 7s in NBA history.
The Wolves will face the Dallas Mavericks for the right to represent the West in the NBA Finals. Minnesota will host the first game on Wednesday.
The Wolves open as -150 favorites to win the series against the Mavericks, who check in at +130, according to ESPN BET odds.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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