Timberwolves-Nuggets Reaction: Colin Cowherd on Denver COLLAPSE, Wolves STUNNING win | Hoops Tonight

Timberwolves-Nuggets Reaction: Colin Cowherd on Denver COLLAPSE, Wolves STUNNING win | Hoops Tonight

Not only was this A Tale of Two series I mean the first two games looked like it was going to be a sweep the next two you’re like okay they’ve got it this game was nuts I thought Denver came out with a perfect Tempo it was offensive more than defensive and then the t-wolves just shut him down Jamal Murray played well joic did what he did but Porter and Gordon didn’t give you anything really Gordon nothing offensively um I mean I’m sitting watching it the western conference is so good like I feel bad if there was if you could only if you lived in the East watch Eastern Conference basketball and you couldn’t watch the West you could only watch East that would be like oh you’d buy whatever package it cost you to buy the superior basketball I guess my takeaway is a really good basketball team in Minnesota beat another really good basketball team and in the end at the beginning and end of the series defense Prevail that’s kind of my take yeah this whole series had two different faces to it and either side had the other team dominating like and if whenever Minnesota was locked in defensively it felt like Denver couldn’t score it felt like they were just underneath this oppressive wave of size and then you have game three four and five where Denver puts up a 127 offensive rating which is off the charts Boston had the best offense in the League this year and I think they were at like 122 so to give you an idea Denver had had this unbelievable do offensive stretch in the middle of the series and honestly I thought they had a really good stretch in this game in particular this game actually felt like a little microcosm of the entire Series in the sense that Denver out executed them for the first two and a half quarters and then Minnesota really locked in and they just couldn’t score Anthony Edwards just did his interview live uh uh with the TNT guys and he just mentioned something I I’m surprised at how forthright he was about it he’s like yeah I can do other things than score I can guard the other team’s best guard and I can lock up Jamal muray I felt like that’s what I did in the second half and he’s right like and I cannot remember a time where a guy had a more disastrous first half and then just found a way to turn it around and be impactful like the numbers won’t show it but him drawing double teams consistently was a huge asset to the Minnesota offense he generated a ton of Rim pressure in that second half by just saying screw it I’m putting my head down and I’m going to the rim he made a lot of really smart kickout passes to Shooters and he’s right he put Jamaal Murray in jail and that served a real issue for Denver’s offense and that’s another layer of this that like Denver was up 20 at home in the second half with a chance to go to the Western Conference Finals so I don’t want to act like they need to make some sort of dramatic change but if you were to point to a specific issue this is a team that generates Rim pressure through overwhelming size in Minnesota negated that and as soon as they negated that it revealed this other issue which is their perimeter players can’t beat people off the dribble and so all of a sudden they couldn’t get the defense in rotation and get some of the higher quality nuggets shots that we’re accustomed to seeing meanwhile for Minnesota it’s like Nas Reed is slashing Carl Anthony towns is slashing Anthony Edwards is slashing it was an athletic mismatch and they were able to take advantage of that tonight yeah we saw that in the first two games of the series I also think we just have to give Chris Finch a lot of credit this is a not only smartly constructed team um it’s a really well coached team for him to get ant ant could 440 a night in most nights when you get great players to buy into a team concept I mean they were looking they were going to go bear in the second half Nas Reed doesn’t do much for three quarters then is Sensational late everybody takes their turn it’s a it’s a patient team and I think a lot of that is Finch a lot of it’s Mike Conley um you know you’ve got guys that have been around the league all these it’s a great combination of size athleticism coaching construct Dynamic Young Star older veteran IQ player not to say aunt’s not a bright kid very self-aware it’s I said this earlier in the series The construct of both teams is Sensational you I mean usually you can look at a team like like you can look at Indiana and go they have some defensive holes they need better Wing Defenders or you can look at the Knicks and go they need another pure score even Boston sometimes I’m like God what when porzingis is out it’s like it it gets you they need threes they need something beyond that boy I I look at Minnesota and I’m like because I’ve always been kind of hot and cold on Carl Anthony towns but he hit some big baskets in this game he hit big baskets in the series I we we don’t we talk about this in the NFL we don’t talk about it in the NBA a lot a lot of times in the NFL will just go W that team’s smartly constructed Minnesota’s front office they coaching this this they have everything the hustlers the wings the dynamic star the size the the ice Q distributor Conley’s like a quarterback it’s like they’re unselfish but can then go heavy into ant I it’s just it’s it’s really well done they’re like a smartly constructed pro football team I don’t see the holes really yeah you know one of the biggest issues that had me off of the Minnesota timber wolves all year was their offense yeah and they like they were they were a bad offense All Season like the Cavs were a better offense than them the Pelicans were a better offense than them the Warriors had just had Steph Curry were a better offense than them like they were a bad offense all season and it was a lot of inconsistency and honestly what kind of turned this series around after Denver had taken like complete control over it Denver had complete control after game five they weren’t even competitive in the in those middle three games like Minnesota got killed in all three of those games and what was so impressive was Carl Anthony towns guy who’s kind of known as being an inconsistent offensive player showed up in a big way here in game seven Jaden McDaniels a guy who’s known as being a bad offensive player showed up in a big way in game seven tonight hit multiple massive Corner threes little push shots in the lane obviously he’s this incredible defensive player the story for Minnesota is their defense is unbelievably good but their offense can come and go and and when Carl Anthony towns is playing well when Jen McDaniels is playing well you can’t beat him because they’re all because they’re their their defense is so oppressively good yeah and that’s that’s why they wouldn’t win you know when you have a team that you have kind of an inconsistent offensive player you’re not going to win March Madness but you can win an NBA championship because Carl can stink for three games and and by the way Minnesota defensively is consistent offensively they’re not but they can like this game they just sort of hung around and ant wasn’t delivering much and then here comes goar and then Nas Reed and then ant adds defense in Carl Anthony towns when you have a seven game series it allows you to figure stuff out it allows horrible games terrible halfs and also in a seven game series and I think Mone and Chris Fincher both great coaches this really came down this whole series came down to like eight minutes and and and in that eight minutes Minnesota was better defensively and a couple of their inconsistent offensive guys hit I mean I don’t want to over um be overly cynical with Denver I’m like like hey it’s hard to win backto backs it’s just hard it’s you know we there’s no Jordan right now in the league and even for I mean Magic Johnson got to nine finals one five lost four that was Kareem magic I mean worthy I mean this this stuff is hard I mean I love Jamal Murray he’s never been an all’s he’s never been a first team all NBA guy so it’s like you lose to good teams and ant’s just better today than he was last year it’s part of what it is yeah here’s an absolutely insane stat for you Colin so 2015 Cavs Warriors 2016 Cavs Warriors 2017 Cavs Warriors 2018 Cavs Warriors yeah not only that like it just kind of felt like the Warriors and Cavs were Head and Shoulders above their conferences yeah like it wasn’t particularly competitive right from 2019 on we’ve had six consecutive Seasons where we haven’t even had a repeat conference Champion let alone a repeat NBA champion and like a big part of that is like the league is just super good now you know like it’s like it’s like even if you happen to get through Minnesota it’s like you’ve got to get through Dallas and that Dallas team really defends their Rim protection is insane Luca and Kyrie haven’t even been playing that well and they’re still winning and then you go out east and obviously Boston is this incredible team and so like and Boston hasn’t even been able to win repeat conference championships with all the talent that they have so like it really is just a testament to How Deep The League is with talent and I think if there’s one thing to point to in terms of Minnesota it’s they their defense is reliable on a night toight basis you mentioned that earlier and the important detail there is there is no variance with a defense there’s variance with offense in the sense that like sometimes a role player is hot sometimes he’s not sometimes a ball handler misses his pull-up jumper sometimes he makes them joic for instance like last year made all of his threes this year can’t make a three to save his life like there’s variance to offense with defense it’s like if you bring the effort you’re going to impact the game like it’s just it’s it is the most reliable thing and that’s why so many uh uh NBA teams so many we look at defensive rating as like the number one indicator of whether or not you can contend for a championship Denver last year was the outlier as a team that was not a defending Champion that was not a top 10 defense that won the title that was highly unusual it had been like 40 years since that had happened like it generally speaking it is defense that is the most reliable trait that a basketball team can have at this phase and for the record Denver last year was a really good defense in the playoffs and so yeah it to me it’s it’s timely contributions from role players like cat tonight Nas Reed tonight Anthony Edwards coming into tonight was averaging 36-6 on over 50% from the field over 40% from three over 80% from the line he’s been playing at a Bonafide top tier super duper Star level and then you have this all World defense it’s a really really good basketball team really difficult to beat four times out of seven the NBA playoffs are heating up and so is the action at draftking Sportsbook an official sports betting partner of the NBA with same game parlays live betting odds boosts and so much more don’t miss out as the NBA postseason winds down so lots of great odds for the second round if you still think the nuggets are going to come back and beat the Timberwolves you can get them right now at plus 105 Thunder Mavs starts here shortly and if you like the Mavs to win that series you can get them at minus 105 and if you’re new to DraftKings you got to check this out new customers bet five bucks to get 150 in bonus bets instantly download dra King Sportsbook app now and use code Hoops that’s ho o o PS that’s code Hoops for new customers to get 150 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings the crown is yours so Minnesota will face Dallas I was at a restaurant I I wanted to watch the game so I have this restaurant I go to with a TV I was called a reserve the final Corner Bar SE I can watch Dallas OKC people um it was that that was one of the best games of the year in the NBA the OKC Dallas game and and we’ll get to Dallas in a bit but but Minnesota Dallas as we wrap up here Minnesota Dallas your first thoughts on what we’ll get so obviously it’s going to be very much about the perimeter defense element in terms of Kyrie and Luca because as we know that that’s very much a spread ISO pick and roll attack we play your turn my turn between Kyrie and Luca and just kind of have a lot of play like Dallas is Dallas has a lot of play finishers whereas Min whereas Denver is much more of like a five out Motion in player ball and player movement type of offense right so like it’s going to come down to Jayden McDaniels on Luca and a lot of Anthony Edwards on Kyrie and how well they can hold up in those matchups and how well they can protect guys like uh like uh Mike connley and Carl Anthony towns because we know Luca likes to pick on matchups the bottom line is though is I think I think ant right now because of especially underneath the injury that Luca is dealing with with his knee and it’s probably going to be the best player in that series going in and they they they have the size they have the uh the ability to really drag Dallas’s offense down into the mud I think I’ll probably end up picking picking Minnesota I’m going to need to look into some film but they feel like the safe bet right now what about you Al I first of all I think they’re healthier second I think they’re deeper in terms of it’s just I like the construction of it I think sometimes Dallas can be a bit lopsided um ant I really do think to your point I think ant will be the player of the series there are so many advantages to having Minnesota’s size on the front line you can be more aggressive on a Kyrie and Luca you can just you can take more chances ants aggressive anyway and my feeling is Minnesota the construct of the I mean I think Minnesota physically size aggressiveness an ant I also think we have to remember ant this was such a great series for ant even though he wasn’t great every game this was the the first series he was in that felt like a final like this this this felt like Jordan getting past Detroit Jordan getting past Boston forget the championship getting through these just Western Conference heavyweight Ali Frasier fights you move I mean you you it’s it’s you beat you know it’s like you you you beat a Brady or a momes in the playoffs it is as big as the Super Bowl it feel it’s the same thing the same Arc and I feel like this is a really memorable moment in ant’s career we’ll go back and go God remember the Nugget series remember that fight I kind of feel like ant will put the cape on he’ll he’ll sleep on this gonna be a great flight home to Minnesota you celebrate you get off night’s sleep then you start gearing in but I do feel like and we saw you see this with great players they take steps and I think this is the first step of ant likee that’s the first round of his career the first big heavyweight fight uh and I I I I think Minnesota and ant will prevail [Music]

Jason Timpf is joined by Colin Cowherd to react to Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ stunning 98-90 win over Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of their second round matchup of the NBA Playoffs. The guys break down Minnesota’s shocking comeback, what went wrong for Denver, and who they like in the Western Conference Finals matchup between the Timberwolves and Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks.

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