On May 5, 2024, Beijing time, in today's NBA playoffs, the Nuggets ushered in the second round of G1 battle with the Timberwolves at home. Timberwolves starters: Towns + Gobert + Edwards + Conley + McDaniels.
In the first quarter of the game, at the beginning of the game, the Timberwolves played a wave of 14-2 perfect start under the leadership of Edwards, and Porter Jr. immediately stopped the decline with a backlash, and the score was 4-14; In turn, the Timberwolves hit two consecutive counterattacks to stop the Nuggets again, and the score of the two sides came to 18-4; After the timeout, the Nuggets had an immediate effect, with a wave of 21-3 attacks reversing the score, and the difference between the two sides came to 25-21; Alexander Walker breaks through and hits a throw to stop the bleeding in time; At the end of the first quarter, the Nuggets took a temporary lead at 25-23.
In the second quarter of the game, the Timberwolves continued to attack the inside, Towns broke through the toss and scored, and Li Kyle hit the inside dunk, and the score was 27-25; Porter Jr. responded with a three-pointer, Braun countered with a dunk, Towns drew a foul and made 1 of 2 free throws, and Jokic singled Gobert inside, giving the Nuggets a five-point lead over the Timberwolves at 33-28.
In the middle of the quarter, Edwards hit a mid-range jumper, Braun hit an empty dunk, Edwards hit a pull-back jumper, and Pope responded with a three-pointer to give the Nuggets a six-point lead over the Timberwolves 38-32.
At the end of the quarter, Edwards had a three-pointer, and then a counterattack layup scored five points in a row, Jokic broke through and hit a throw, Towns shot outside the three-point line, Gordon hit an empty layup, Jokic hit a throw in the box, and the Nuggets led the Timberwolves by four points at 44-40 at halftime.
At the end of the first half, the stats of both players
In the third quarter of the game, Towns hit a shot from the three-point line, Gordon also colored the aerial relay dunk, Porter hit a strong shot outside the three-point line, Towns broke through the throw and scored, Murray drifted a three-point shot, and the Nuggets led the Timberwolves by 7 points at 52-45.
In the middle of the quarter, Conley hit a three-point shot, Reed counterattacked and dunked, Murray broke through to stop the bleeding, Conley broke through the pick-and-roll to respond, and Holiday received a three-point shot from Jokic's assist, and the Nuggets led the opponent by 3 points at 67-64.
At the end of the quarter, Edwards hit a layup, and Jokic scored an inside hook shot, and the Timberwolves overtook the Nuggets by two points at 73-71 at the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter of the game, Reed scored a series of strong attacks inside, Conley hit a three-point shot from the outside, Murray played a strong 3+1 and colored, and Edwards scored 4 points in a row to help the Timberwolves lead 84-81.
In the middle of the quarter, Reed made another effort, scored consecutive points on the inside and outside, Jokic hit a strong basket to stop the bleeding in time, Murray hit a mid-range shot, Jokic made a 2+1 inside force, and the Nuggets closed the score to 91-94.
Late in the quarter, Gobert made back-to-back baskets and Edwards made back-to-back free throws to stop the Nuggets, and the Timberwolves extended their lead to double digits at 102-91.
In the last 1 and a half minutes of the game, Jokic first scored with an inside hook, and then scored 5 points in a row to force a continuation of his life, Porter hit a three-point shot, and Edwards counterattacked to kill the game, and finally the Timberwolves defeated the Nuggets 106-99 away and won the second round of the series.
The player stats for both teams at full time are as follows
Player of the Match
There is no doubt that the award for the best player of the game is none other than Edwards!
Edwards played 42 minutes in the game, shooting 17-of-29 from the field, including 3-of-7 from three-point range and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, and finished with 43 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks.
It also saw Edwards set a number of personal records:
1. This is the second consecutive game in which Edwards has scored 40+, becoming the first player since Kobe Bryant in 2001 to score 40+ points in two consecutive playoff games at the age of 22 or younger.
2. This is the third consecutive game in which Edwards has scored 35+, becoming the fourth player in NBA history to score 35+ points in three consecutive playoff games before the age of 23, the first three are: Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant and James.
3. This is the third time that Edwards has scored 40+ points in a single game in the playoffs in his career, surpassing Sam Cassel (2) to hold the first place in team history.
4. In the first 16 playoff games of his career, he averaged at least 26 points per game and shot at least 60% from the field, and Edwards was the only player to do so.
Edwards averaged 29.8 points per game in the first 16 playoff games of his career, shooting 62.1 percent from the field
5. This is the third time Edwards has scored 40+ points in a single game in his career playoffs before the age of 23, which is tied with James and Stoudemire for second in history in this statistic, behind Doncic's five.
6. Edwards scored 43 points in his debut in the divisional semifinals to rank third all-time, the top two are: Doncic (2022) with 45 points and Curry (2013) with 44 points
It is worth mentioning that Doncic, Curry, and Huazi all got such data in the fourth season of their careers.