On May 15, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs continued. In today's Western Conference semifinals, the Nuggets defeated the Timberwolves 112-97 at home to win the battle of Kings Mountain and lead the Timberwolves 3-2 in the series!
In this series, the Timberwolves and Nuggets each conquered each other's home courts. Today, the Nuggets returned to play on their home court, and Jokic received the MVP trophy before the game. The first quarter was very anxious for both teams, and the Nuggets only led by 2 points. Heading into the second quarter, the Nuggets began to gradually extend their lead, heading into the second half with a six-point lead. The Timberwolves took the lead early in the third quarter, but the Nuggets quickly hit another offensive surge to build a double-digit lead. The Timberwolves were unable to chase down points in the final quarter, and the Nuggets won the victory at home.
As the MVP winner of the season, Jokic played his best playoff performance of the year today. In the whole game, Jokic played a total of 41 minutes, shooting 15 of 22, including 1 of 2 three-pointers and 8 of 9 free throws, with a total of 40 points, 7 rebounds and 13 assists, with a plus/minus of +21. His scoring is a new high in this year's playoffs. On top of that, Jokic almost blew out DPOY Gobert today, scoring 16 points in the third quarter to lead the team through the difficult situation, and won MVP calls from home fans many times throughout the game.
In doing so, the Nuggets took the lead for the first time in this group series. Coming from 2-0 down at home, the Nuggets have shown their quality as defending champions, and now they have cornered the Timberwolves and only need one more win to advance to the Western Conference finals.
It is worth mentioning that in the history of the NBA, there have been a total of 33 times when they fell behind 0-2 at home, but only 5 teams have completed the reversal, with a turnaround probability of 14.3%, namely the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals in 1969, the Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals in 1994, the Mavericks (now the Mavericks) in the first round of the West in 2005, the Celtics in the first round of the East in 2017, and the Clippers in the first round of the West in 2021. The Nuggets are infinitely close to becoming the sixth team in history to complete a 0-2 comeback at home.
According to the schedule, the series G6 between the Nuggets and the Timberwolves will be played on May 17, can the Nuggets win on the road and advance to the Western Conference finals? Let's wait and see.