It shouldn’t have come as a stunning surprise to see Minnesota rally back to beat the favored Nuggets in Game 2 on Monday in Denver and even their first-round Western Conference playoff series.
That’s how it has long worked with these two teams. It seems whoever’s back is more firmly pressed against the wall is the team that rises up, sets the tone and sends the next message. A rebuttal is then offered, until only one remains standing at the end of the back and forth.
Just look at the 2024 conference semifinals, when Minnesota blitzed the Nuggets twice in Denver to open the series. Coming back to the Twin Cities, a sweep was a logical assumption. Instead, the Nuggets handled the Timberwolves twice at Target Center.
Another Denver win in Game 5 seemed to give the Nuggets firm control of the series, only to have Minnesota rally from a 20-point second half deficit in Game 7.
No lead, whether it be points in a game or games in a series, is safe between these two teams. The Wolves wiped out Denver’s 19-point advantage in Game 2 in mere minutes, as was the case with Denver overcoming Minnesota’s 12-point first-half lead in Game 1.
It’s why this specific series is so demanding. The ultimate winner of the tightly-matched duel will be the team that remains the most committed to the small details required to edge the other over the course of two weeks.
It’s easy to have that sharp focus when you’re down and know there’s only one path to redemption. The moment you start to feel good about yourself and loosen that grip on the rope, you’ve lost the next game. That certainly seemed to be the case after the Wolves went up 2-0 in 2024.
“We probably did let up,” Wolves forward Naz Reid acknowledged while adding the exact details of the series are a little fuzzy at this point. “But that’s also a great team, (a) championship mindset team — been there, done that. So, I’m pretty sure they know how to rally back into situations like that, as well.”
So, Minnesota has to bring the same commitment to its winning game plan — aggressive on-ball defense, playing fast, attacking the rim offensively — that allowed it to rally and ultimately win Game 2. Because as much as it seemed as though the Wolves “figured out” the Nuggets on Monday night, any letup will produce a far different result.
It’s why, as comical as some of the comments were following Minnesota’s Game 2 victory — i.e. Jaden McDaniels calling effectively every Nuggets rotational player a “bad defender” — they were also a slight cause for concern. Such jabs are frequently reserved for a series clinching because, well, the job is done at that point.
If the Wolves believe they’ve cracked some type of code one win into a series against a perceived title contender, then they’re in trouble.
“This is an outstanding team, still a championship-DNA team with the greatest player on the planet (in Nikola Jocic),” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “We have the utmost respect for these guys and we know how hard it is to play these guys all the time and what these games look like. And there’s no coincidence that they’re always kind of wild games, just because of what both teams are putting into it.
“Our guys respect those guys immensely. But it’s something that they were ready for, the challenge of this series.”
Bones Hyland noted the Wolves are a group of guys who, “when you get beat down, you get back up and keep fighting.”
“Who want to keep fighting, keep fighting,” Hyland added, “never had things handed to them growing up.”
But now that they’ve won a game, proven they still belong on the same footing as Denver and have reclaimed home-court advantage in the series, can the Wolves maintain that readiness, the underdog mentality, the desperation that seems to bring the best out of them?
“You’ve gotta stay even keeled, regardless — having success, might be down, whatever the case may be. You’ve gotta have the same … killer mindset,” Reid said. “That’s how you get through any situation possible. That’s something that we’ve had a challenge with … in the past.
“But I think moving forward, I think we all have the same goal, same mindset, and kind of have the same equal thought process to go out there and just know we’re here for one thing right now.”
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