Text: Lao Kan Kanqiu
Editor|Lao Kan Kanqiu
On May 15, Beijing time, the second round of the NBA playoffs ushered in the battle of Tianwang Mountain, the focus of the West, and the Denver Nuggets sat at home to face the Minnesota Timberwolves. At present, the two teams are tied 2-2, and in the first two games, the Timberwolves unexpectedly won two consecutive games at Denver's home court, while the Nuggets also won two games in a row at the Timberwolves' home court and equalized the score strongly. Gobert also lost his temper in the G4 game, taunting the referee for counting money, and was fined an additional $75,000 by the league after the game. It is worth mentioning that Nuggets Murray once made an out-of-character move in the G2 battle, throwing towels and hot compress pads into the court and was fined $100,000, in this regard, Timberwolves coach Finch said in an interview: "I want to look at the league's fine bill, if a gesture is fined 75,000, then throw a towel 100,000, how can a hot compress pad get 150,000, this is what makes us puzzling!" ”
It has to be said that the NBA league has always been controversial when it comes to fines. And Jokic also received the MVP trophy of the season before the game started, and it is also his third MVP. Before the game, the American media ESPN gave a prediction of the winning rate of this game: the Nuggets have a winning rate of 56.1%, and the Timberwolves have a winning rate of 43.9%. In terms of injuries, the Nuggets' Cancal continues to be absent, and Malone continues to use the starting five from the previous game: Jokic, Murray, Gordon, Pope, Porter Jr.; On the Timberwolves side, Conley is out due to injury, and the starting lineup is: Alexander Walker, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Gobert and Karl Anthony Towns.
At the beginning of the first quarter, Pope scored a two-pointer basket to give the Nuggets the first place, and Maidan defended Porter Jr. who was suspected of being a hitter and was whistled for a three-point foul, and then the Timberwolves Finch chose to challenge and succeeded. Jokic hit Gobert with his back, turned around and shook off the defense in a row, and then hit an easy step-back jumper, and then after dribbling past half court, he suddenly accelerated to break through, and then came to a two-handed dunk, and sent a dunk for two consecutive games, which is too rare. Downs broke through and accidentally tripped over Pope and fell directly to the ground with a painful expression. Lee Kyle hit a three-step slow pull-up jump shot, Reed hated Jokic, and the two sides took the lead alternately. Jokic received the ball past Reid and threw it to make it 2+1, Lee Kyle made a mistake in the ball, Reggie scored a fast break, and the Nuggets led by 2 points at 28-26 after the first quarter.
Jokic was on fire today, scoring 12 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block on 4-of-7 shooting in the first quarter, and he really deserves to be MVP. Coming back in the second quarter, Gobert made a strong attack under the basket, overturned Holiday with one elbow, and completed a violent dunk, Malone complained angrily on the sidelines and received a technical foul. Reed was whistled for a foul on defense, and then broke through and knocked down Gordon on offense, and was whistled for an offensive foul again, and he had already committed 3 fouls, which was a bit of trouble. Murray missed the shot, Gordon took off from the free throw line to complete the glide dunk, Edwards threw it with high difficulty, but was slapped by Braun's volleyball hat, Towns broke through and was whistled for an offensive foul, and the Timberwolves were whistled for offensive fouls for three consecutive rounds, playing too impatiently. Gordon made another one-arm dunk after a steal, and Jokic countered with the ball and then helped Braun complete the dunk, and at the end of the first half, the Nuggets led the Timberwolves by six points at 50-44.
Halftime data, for the Nuggets, Jokic made 7 of 10 and scored 19 points, 2 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 1 block; Murray finished with four points, one rebound and one assist on 2-of-8 shooting. For the Timberwolves, Edwards was 1 of 8, with 5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 turnovers. Downs had 11 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal; Walker was a surprise soldier, scoring 11 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists and 2 blocks on 3-of-3 from three-point range. It is worth mentioning that the Nuggets Timberwolves had a total of 17 fouls, and the free throw ratio of the two teams was 8-8, which was balanced, while the Timberwolves had as many as 11 turnovers in the half, which still needed to be adjusted.
Yibian fought again, Towns scored 5 points in a row at the beginning, the Timberwolves completed the overtake, and then the European step broke through, passed Gobert to the basket, completed the two-handed dunk, and the Nuggets had no choice but to call a timeout. After the timeout, Gordon cut the ball and tried to force the back dunk, but Gobert's hat refused, Jokic scored four points in a row, and then made a long pass to Murray at the quarter, completing the two-handed dunk, and the Nuggets played an 11-1 counterattack. The Timberwolves offense was once again whistled for a covering foul, and coach Finch stood on one foot to communicate with the referee, which was too helpless. Murray accelerated to break through and was dragged directly by Maidan, and Gordon got into an argument on behalf of his teammates. Gordon received a pass from Jokic and took off to dunk Gobert, but the latter was viciously fouled. Edwards made a quick stop and a difficult throw to make it 2+1, Jokic turned around and broke through to a 2+1 with one against two, and after the third quarter, the Nuggets had a lead of 14 points.
In the fourth quarter, Reed accelerated his breakthrough and took off to chase 10 points with one arm, and the Nuggets immediately called a halt. After a timeout, Pope hit a three-pointer from the left and right corners, and Murray made a steal and assisted Jokic to complete a dunk, and the Nuggets had extended their lead to 18 points. There was no suspense in the game, and in the end, the Nuggets defeated the Timberwolves 112-97, with a big score of 3-2, and won the battle of Tianwang Mountain.
In terms of data, on the Nuggets side, Jokic shot 15 of 22, shot 40 points, 7 rebounds and 13 assists, successfully created an NBA miracle, 35+5+5 in the 11th playoff game of his career, and the other players in team history combined only 9 times At the same time, the 30th playoff game of his career was 30+, successfully surpassing Wei Shao, ranking 22nd in history; Murray was in a slump, with 16 points, 1 rebound and 4 assists; Gordon contributed 18 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists; Porter Jr. had six points and seven rebounds, and Pope had 16 points. On the Timberwolves' side, champion Edwards also performed sluggishly, shooting 5-of-15 from the field, scoring only 18 points, 4 rebounds and 89 assists; Towns had 23 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, Gobert had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Walker had 14 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists, Reed had 5 points, and Madan had 9 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.