NBA playoffs: Murray’s halfcourt buzzer beater helps Denver even Minnesota series
Nikola Jokic scored 16 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, and Aaron Gordon had 27 points on 11-for-12 shooting to propel the Denver Nuggets to a seriestying 115-107 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday night in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Jamal Murray had 12 of his 19 points in the third quarter for the Nuggets in a momentum carryover from his buzzerbeating swish from behind half court as time expired in the second quarter. The basket came at a crucial time for the defending champions: they scored eight points over the last 20 seconds of the second quarter to fend off a resurgence by the home team after the deficit had been whittled to seven points on a three-pointer by Anthony Edwards.
Edwards scored 44 points in another spectacular performance for Minnesota, shooting 16 for 25 from the floor. But despite a 42-31 rebounding edge, the Wolves were beaten at their own game for the second straight time at home by Denver, who were fired up after dropping the first two games of the series on their home court. The series goes back to Denver for Game 5 on Tuesday night.
Mike Conley had 15 points, Karl-Anthony Towns went just 5 for 18 from the field for 13 points and 12 rebounds, and Rudy Gobert came alive late to score 11 points and grab 14 rebounds. Still, the Wolves were on their heels at home for a second straight game.
The three off days between Games 2 and 3 did the Wolves no good, yielding a 27-point defeat after which coach Chris Finch declared them feeling “fat and lazy” after the praise for their performances in Denver. They needed to reintroduce their edge right away to keep the crowd consistently roaring, and Edwards dutifully led that response.
The 2020 first overall draft pick scored nine points in the first four-plus minutes before Murray even touched the ball, with Gordon and Jokic sharing the point guard duties to reduce the burden on Murray and his strained left calf muscle.
After a quiet Game 3, Edwards was on a mission to will the Wolves to win, as the Nuggets fully expected. Their loading up on him in the lane wasn’t enough, as he hit from everywhere on the court, but the rest of the Wolves frequently failed to make the Nuggets pay for leaving them open.
They missed tip-ins at the rim, not just corner threes. Towns missed his first seven shots, and while his effort and defense never suffered, he was a mess trying to get the ball to the basket, rarely drawing the fouls he argued for.
The Wolves showed off their leaguebest defense and their enviable depth in the first two games, but the Nuggets copied and pasted that formula on the road. When their secondary scorers and bench players are hitting their jumpers, they’re awfully tough to beat.
Gordon, Justin Holiday (10 points), Christian Braun (11 points) and Reggie Jackson (six points) went a combined 8 for 11 from three-point range. They
fueled a 26-4 run that bridged the first and second quarters, and all but five points on that surge came with the four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Gobert resting on the bench.
In Sunday’s other game, Tyrese Haliburton scored 20 points, TJ McConnell added 15 points and 10 assists and the Indiana Pacers rolled to their thirdbiggest postseason victory ever, beating the New York Knicks 121-89 to even the Eastern Conference semifinal series at 2-2. Haliburton also had six rebounds, five assists and four three-pointers as the Pacers completed a start-to-finish romp. They fell just short of their most lopsided playoff victory, when they beat Cleveland by 34 points in April 2018. Game 5 of the series will be played Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks, who again played without four key players because of injuries, looked fatigued.
“We can talk about fresher legs and you can give us all the pity we want,” said Knicks guard Jalen Brunson. “Yeah, we’re short-handed, but that doesn’t matter right now. We have what we have. So there’s no we’re short-handed, there’s no excuse. We lose, we lose. That’s what that was.”