On May 13, Beijing time, the semifinals of the NBA playoffs continued to play. The Minnesota Timberwolves host the Denver Nuggets.
The G3 Nuggets caught the Timberwolves off guard with their change of moves, giving their opponents a crushing defeat while bringing the score to 1-2.
In the last game, the Nuggets were perfect at blocking Edwards and Conley's mid-lane breakaways, cutting off their comfort zone. In this game, the Nuggets knew that Edwards would definitely recover, and once again offered a trick.
The Nuggets insisted today on "letting Edwards single, sever the connection, let Towns play with his back, and pull the twin towers out of the restricted area." And the Timberwolves are in the Nuggets trap, and when Edwards is caught up in a never-ending heads-up, he will ignore his teammates.
The Nuggets' idea is simple, and the Timberwolves' offensive point with the ball is only Edwards. Since he can't necessarily prevent Edwards, let him score alone and let four teammates watch him play. According to statistics, Edwards made less than five of his 15 passes per spurt.
It's not that Edwards won't break through, it's that he's easy to get up to in certain situations. He's not a rhythm master and reader like Doncic, but an unstoppable beast that rushes up, and that's Edwards' label.
When teammates can't touch the ball in consecutive rounds, their competitive form will be weakened. The Nuggets are betting that Edwards won't be able to pull off a combination of breakaways and ball-splitting as he wants.
Edwards, who rushed up, was indeed like a wild horse that had escaped, and he scored 44 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals on 16-of-25 shooting. He hit all the balls he should have hit, but Conley, his teammate's top scorer, scored just 15 points.
As the team's second scorer with strong independent offensive ability, Downs was also pinched to death by Ma Long. Everyone knows that Towns is not a traditional interior player, and his offensive methods are mainly face-frame singles and mid-to-long-range shooting.
The veteran Nuggets have long seen that the face frame is not easy to defend against Downs' breakthrough, and the high-bay shooting is not easy to block. So, they forced the best shooting big man in history to play with his back by switching defenses.
This trick worked wonders again, no one could stop a big man with fast speed and soft touch in the face frame movement, but the slow pace with his back to the basket was different. Any defender with a stable lower handicap can withstand Downs, because he is a notoriously soft forward, and he was made into a meme when he played Cousins in the back.
Leaving his comfort zone, Towns made just 5 of 18 shots from the field, contributing 13 points and 12 rebounds, and did not become Edwards' right-hand man. These two moves basically isolated the Timberwolves' offense, but they were still afraid of Gobert's defense in the restricted area.
In order to pull Gobert out of the box, Jokic made a change, attacking more from the high post to open up space. Instead of hand-to-hand combat with Towns, Gobert, and Reed in the low post like the first two games, which were laborious and inefficient.
If the three big men of the Timberwolves shrink inside, whoever dares to break through unscrupulously and break through will tremble if they break in. Pulling the Patronus out is tantamount to tearing the Timberwolves' barrier, and both Jokic and his teammates can get some extra opportunities.
Based on this environment, the Nuggets played very comfortably on the offensive end today. Before halftime, the Nuggets created a famous 2.05 minute record.
After Mr. Yoo steals a long pass and Porter Jr. dunks and scores, the Timberwolves send a long pass and is stealed by Murray. Murray squeezed defenders away from defenders in the backcourt with the ball, and hit a long-range three-pointer that spanned most of the court in seconds, igniting teammates and on-field commentary.
From the Timberwolves' point of view, they actually have the ability to fight the Nuggets. But the Timberwolves coach is too young after all, and he can't fight "Zhuge Malone" tactically.
Moreover, the Timberwolves treated Gordon a little irony on the defensive end, insisting on letting Gordon shoot. Then Gordon made them pay the price today, he contributed 27 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists on 11-of-12 shooting, and his offensive efficiency was unmatched.
In the end, the Nuggets defeated the Timberwolves 115-107 to rewrite the big score to 2-2. If it weren't for Edwards' excellent touch, the Timberwolves would have lost more today.
In addition to Edwards and Towns, Gobert contributed 11 points and 14 boards, Conley had 15 points and 9 assists, and Reed had 11 points.
In addition to Gordon, Jokic contributed 35 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, Murray 19 points, 5 boards, 8 assists and 2 steals, Braun 11 points, and Holiday 10 points.
These two teams have very different styles, one relies on brains and the other relies on blood, and each has won two games on the opponent's home stadium. It's time to come, and now that the two sides are back on the same starting line, what will be left for the fans will be the wonderful battle of Tianwang Mountain. Brothers, are you ready?