FULL REACTION to Timberwolves’ Game 6 blowout win vs. Nuggets | SportsCenter

game six of the Western Conference semi-finals a closeout opportunity for the Denver Nuggets who jumped out to an early 92 lead and then the Hoover Dam broke Minnesota blew this game open Anthony Edwards the Steel part of a 5 nothing run a minute later Carl Anthony towns was aggressive offensively 10 points 13 rebounds and all it’s a 9 nothing run later in the quarter the extra pass Cat the Miss Edwards the make he was four of nine from behind the YK it’s now a 16 nothing Run next Minnesota possession towns the lob the stifled Tower throws it down eight points 14 rebounds for Rudy goar Minnesota wasn’t done it’s a 20 to nothing run 13-point lead the Sixth Man of the Year Nas Reed the other way Jaden McDaniels was electric an Explosive Performance the Wolves pushed the lead to 15 and they were still just getting warm next Denver possession swarming Jamal Murray and that Edwards for three wi out 14 points in the first 12 minutes and a message for his teammates after the first this what I was talking about the other day we get a lead and get comfortable keep your foot on the gas and they would do just that Midway through the second quarter Edwards step back you don’t ow me like that he had 19 in the first half Minnesota went on a 29 to five run and then Michael Malone talked about allowing 11 first half offensive rebounds mcdels the putback it was 19 points at the half it felt like 40 it would turn into 40 and in the third Edwards takes it away from joic the hesy on Michael Porter Jr and then the signature play of this 45-point blowout Minnesota in front by 24 later in the third maybe the only thing concerning in this game for the Wolves Edwards goes down hard he spent some time on the floor they looked at him during a timeout but the dudes three so he’s able to bounce back Chris I like you um he would work his way back stay in the game took the free throws Midway through the third backing his Defender down eight of 17 from the field seven of eight from the line Minnesota led by 25 after three and then they really blew it open Edwards a game high 27 he was great defensively as well the Wolves held Denver to 26 of 86 shooting in this this one a 45-point blowout new on Sports Center Ant-Man and the wolves forc in game seven and coming into this game how did you approach it like what were you thinking that you needed to do in this game coming into it me individually um just shoot at every chance I get honestly yeah um I didn’t I don’t think I shot it enough I’m looking at it I only shot 17 times but we won so I don’t care but yeah just shoot at every chance I get cuz last game they took the ball out my hands I was going to ask about the the other guys who then got a lot of shots I think between you Rudy and c I think you guys were 16 to 35 together and you got a lot of help from from everybody else how did you see that come together bro Jaden played great tonight he was he took 10 shots and had 21 yeah he was he was fantastic tonight yeah for sure big shout out to him he was he’s the exactor of the team I think every body knows it when he plays well we win the percent I don’t know the percentages but I mean I feel like when Jaden plays well we can nobody beat us so I mean him playing like that tonight was crazy and what’s the difference between you bringing the ball up and Mike or somebody else bringing the ball up and you being on the wing does your mindset change to the how how does it work um I mean it’s a big difference I mean cuz last game I was trying to get people involved and be aggressive but when Mike playing I don’t have to worry about getting people involved that’s his job so yeah tonight it was no getting people involved for me I don’t think I had that many assists tonight um yeah oh I have four so I did I did what I needed to do we laugh about first about the shots yeah he said I I only took 17 shots I need to take more he had 27 points in all third player 22 or younger to average 30 points per game through the first 10 games of a postseason the others LeBron and Kobe Jamal when they uh when they made that 272 run in the first quarter it seemed like you guys were fueling their break a little bit with some of the turnovers but also just missing shots how how much do you kind of attribute to you guys not executing your offense at the standard you needed to versus sort of just missing stuff that you feel like you can make in game Set uh yeah I mean we know we’re going to miss and make shots I felt like we generated especially in the first half we generated some some really good looks you know me even myself but um I think it’s just both ends you you know I think uh you know from speaking from experience game six it’s always the hardest um everybody that’s you know that team is gearing up to not get eliminated and they bring that right energy and um they came to play today so um you know just like how they punked Us in game two we punked them game three and four they buked us again in game six so um now all that’s behind us and it’s just come down to one game Jamal can you pinpoint can you pinpoint you know where this kind of went off the rails for you guys I mean I know you guys started 92 and then you gave up and run immediately there um but was there a certain point where it went off the rails or you know was it just one of those thing one one of those games for you guys I’m not really sure I have to go back and rewatch it man um but I think it was 9-2 for us to start the quarter you know we came out we came out right and then uh uh you know they they fired back and uh we never responded so um I would say I would say there probably in the first quarter um even though we knew that we could cut the lead uh we didn’t do anything about it or change anything in uh not game planwise but energy and discipline wise we didn’t change anything to shift the the momentum in our favor how difficult did Anthony Edwards make it for you when he was checking you I mean who for me yeah for me yeah for you I mean it was less about it was more about my my elbow at that point you know every time even some passes you know my arm uh but he it was more offensive for him it wasn’t him guarding me he was he he was scoring on the other end um and scoring at at a great rate and then on top of that you know um uh Mike connley you know uh McDaniel had a great game you know I think everybody everybody on their team kind of just brought the brought the brought their game today you know and um we weren’t able to defend them and and uh keep them out our pain or or get them off the line so um so yeah we just got to be better we got to be better Jamal you mentioned your elbow that happened pretty early like man first second play of the game so how I guess challenging was that and then you had it iced at the end of the game and so what’s your concern level going into Sunday uh I’m just you know we got two days off and you know I didn’t it doesn’t that it’s all behind us now you know I just got to get ready and be able to be better for Sunday you know um yeah Le’s got to be better for Sunday man Jamal you’re defending champs you were never pushed to the brink last year what is your kind of thoughts on a game terrible night for the Nuggets overall who shot just 30% from the field their worst in a playoff game all time their 70 points also an all-time low in franchise history perk Jamal Murray when asked about the job Anthony Edwards did defensively Jamal Murray said who and then he said it was more about his elbow than the job Edwards did defensively what did you hear there that ain’t what I witnessed that ain’t what I witnessed he was on his behind like back pockets and at the end of the day look he has to rise to the occasion when we talk about two when we talk about the best Duos in the game we talk about joic and Jamal Murray joic has been doing his part Jamal Murray has not elevated his game in this playoff series we have grown to know grown to know that Jamal Murray over the past years have went from a good player in the regular season to all NBA caliber player in the postseason we haven’t seen that in this series and it’s because of Anthony Edwards if you watch the film and you watching the game Anthony Edwards is guarding him Anthony Edwards is taking it personal Jamal Murray knows that now you’re going back home you have to return the favor Jamal Murray needs to help yic out like we was begging others like call Anthony towns to help Anthony El was out and now we need to see what happened who want to smoke yeah and and we can we can lay a lot of the blame at the feet of Jamal Murray and that’s fair but perk Denver missed 60 Shots tonight 60 Shots tonight how do you explain that well I mean you know some of them some some of those shots were uncontested but a lot of those shots were contested and you got to give a lot of credit to Minnesota right they didn’t hope they miss they made them Miss and that’s a good thing right you got to get a hand up that second effort that third effort they did that tonight active hands activities just getting involved in the play putting laying it out on the line and and coach fch talked about it right like you got to have that second and third effort because it’s and it’s not easy if winning the championship was easy everyone could do it I think right now we’re watching a Minnesota Timberwolves team that is learning throughout this through this process and they’re learning the right way through the highs the lows learning how to be even killed learn learning what’s at State and learning what it’s going to take to knock off the defending champ all right this could be good new UN Sports Center Nuggets head coach Michael Malone no no no opening statement Michael when when they made that 27-2 run in the first quarter it seemed like like you guys were fueling their break a little bit with some of the turnovers but also just missing shots how how much did you feel like you guys weren’t executing your offense sort of to the standard that you need to and how much is just like okay we can make these shots in a game seven we can can kind of handle this it’s it’s just a little bit of a VAR against them well yeah to your point we started off 9-2 they call a timeout they go on a 29 to5 run um and in that stretch the two things that stood out to me were one the turnovers to your point which I said pregame is you know you you can’t do that in this building with that crowd give them life give them energy and so our offense the the lack of value in the ball was problematic um and then the other thing that was really problematic in that first half 11 offensive rebounds for 15 points um I told the guys at halftime I said fellas if I would have told you before the game that they’d be shooting 42 from the field and 30 from the three-point line would you have taken it and they all said yeah I says well the reason we’re getting our ass kicked is cuz they not taking care of the ball you’re not rebounding we’re playing with no physicality and no toughness and they hit us first they hit us second they hit us third and uh so you give them credit they they did what they needed to do to to keep this series alive and to bring it back to Denver for a game seven um so disappointing loss anytime you get down by 50 in a playoff game you know that’s um you know never an enjoyable experience but you know we have to go home and get back to playing the way we did where we won three games in a and I have no doubt that we’ll be ready to do that come Sunday Michael how’ you how do you feel about your team’s offensive process once you guys did get down big in the first half felt like there were a lot of Threes going up were were you good with those looks for the most part or would you like to have been a little bit more aggressive towards the Rim Yeah I I don’t know I think at halftime we had 21 threes attempted and we only made like maybe four of them and it’s a fine line because obviously um as I predicted they would they double team the cola obviously after a 40 Point Outburst they d will team him so when they put two on the ball you’re going to generate some open looks from three you know but it’s a fine line Vinnie of okay yeah we’re generating good looks and I felt early on we didn’t make the good looks and that kind of discouraged us and kind of took away our defensive intensity we were we’ve been so much more aggressive the last three games and and decisive and assertive the last three games than we were today and I think not making shots kind of had a negative impact on just our overall disposition tonight which which can’t be the case when you are missing shots you got to dig even deeper and give greater effort um but you know that just wasn’t the case tonight so we’ll watch the film uh we’ll see what we can do better uh come Sunday and and try to you know win a win a game seven another game seven for us Chris just kind of backs against the wall just what did you think overall of the way your team responded when you needed it most um well there was two responses you know there was a response to the last games um but the most important response was when we when we got down 9-2 you know and um we did a really good job of focusing and coming back with the right energy getting our defense in place um and uh you know they were kind of getting loose in transition was what we talked about so couldn’t happen um and we did a really good job there and once we get our defense in place um you know we like our chances so to kind of encapsulate the whole season what this team’s been about just in terms of toughness and resilience and yeah sticking with it yeah absolutely you know we talked a lot today just about getting our Edge back you know our Swagger um playing a little more free and free and easy um you know we felt like we just had we hadn’t had our our best like effort on both sides of the ball yet in this series um you know I thought we left um kind of a lot of meat on the bones offensively the other day uh guys did a good job of reacting to that um so you know U we always knew knew it was going to be a long series coming in this proven to be the case you know to win it you got to get for it and say how you got to get them so um should be fun on Sunday Chris what was working for you guys defensively against Mary after he was kind of able to get loose in games three through five yeah I mean just I think attention to detail just you know you know U not allow him have so much separation of course you know get him back in transition um where where you can actually get into to people’s bodies be be physical um just the willingness to keep pursuing it’s it’s tough you know it’s like pass Chase screen get it back flip the screen it’s you know it’s multiple things so um we had been doing that earlier in the series and we kind of let it slip um so we we found that tonight again Chris you often refer to jadeen McDaniels as a barometer yeah for for the offense were you thinking about that going into this game and and then what what stood out to you from his offensive performance I mean just confidence you know he played with confidence he hadn’t been um shooting the ball well hadn’t been scoring it uh for us um but I thought he got a lot of good looks the other day of course he was they were going to continue to give him good looks you know it was his three I think that kind of sparked us out of that time out um you know we really needed to see that thing go down and then it was just you know play off the catch make the right play stay confident everything came in the flow of the offense um and he got a bunch of buckets in a lot of different ways which is for us when that’s happening with Jaden you know we know we’re playing the right way so schematically in terms of how you guarding yic it seemed like it looked a lot like game two and bringing the doubles from from the top side there uh you had Rudy in in this game in this game and you didn’t have him in game two how how did that kind of all come together defensively well you know as as you know with a player that great you just have to give him different looks you know and um uh we know what he what the damage he can do when you leave him one leave guys oneon-one even though cat’s done a pretty good job of fighting them um you know and it was just literally how how we’re going to be able to fly around um and contest and you know we did a good job of that and you know I thought they missed some some uh kind of early open ones that if they went in maybe the the the game’s a little different out of the shoot um but they didn’t and you know we were able to kind of feed off of that it’s rare that all three of you bigs get double digit rebounds you guys were plus 19 for the game uh five out of eight pretty much on your boards uh what was it about I mean was it part of the way the defense was running no I mean they I mean they they missed 60 shots you know so there’s a lot of rebounds to be had out there we did a pretty good job of that you know um rebound I thought there there was one Spate there in the first half where we didn’t rebound particularly well um I think they got a couple sh you know couple threes out of that but mostly we were we were able to uh rebound well so getting Mike back how did that impact you guys tonight and how did he yeah I mean Mike means everything for us you know just some experience shot making um you know unbelievable next to Anthony in terms of being able to set him up play off of him you know kind of being his ear all the time um smart Defender you know just you everything you want and a experienced veteran point guard and and and just the very you know fact that a doesn’t have to handle every single time I mean that alone helps us so Mike’s invaluable it was great to see him out there we desperately missed him the other night start of the second quarter no um aunt or cat on the floor for you how did you feel like that group uh on the court handled the offensive side of the basketball I thought they did great you know that’s a that’s a lineup that we used a lot in the you know in the second half of the season to start the fourth quarter um and we found that that line that lineup really clicked uh it’s a movement lineup it’s a you know it’s a high IQ lineup um you know Kyle is a really good facilitator alongside Rudy um you know Nas and Rudy have been a really strong pairing nille and and Mike have also been really good together so um yeah have a lot of confidence in that [Music] [Applause] lineup NBA is

SportsCenter’s Kris Budden and Kevin Connors recap the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 115-70 win over the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals. Hear from Anthony Edwards and Jamal Murray as well as head coaches Michael Malone and Chris Finch before Kendrick Perkins provides his own breakdown.

0:00 Game 6
3:06 Anthony Edwards
5:02 Jamal Murray
8:22 Perk reacts to Murray
10:46 Michael Malone
13:50 Chris Finch

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26 comments

  14. I woukd be happy to see the twolves win it this year. IMO i believe the nba is an experience leauge and so the wolves are learning how to win huge games. Next year and many more after nect is wolves time.

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