The Minnesota Timberwolves have officially put the NBA on notice. The squad beat the defending champion Denver Nuggets 106-80 on Monday night, taking a 2-0 series lead with two games in Minnesota coming up.
Nuggets star Jamal Murray was so frustrated that he threw a heat pack on the floor, causing Wolves coach Chris Finch to denounce him postgame, via SneakerReporter.
“It's inexcusable and dangerous,” Finch said. “I'm sure it was just a mistake and an oversight. I'm sure there was nothing intentional by the officiating at all. But certainly can't allow that to happen.”
Murray threw the heat pack on the floor with 4:45 left in the second quarter. The Kentucky alum was on the bench with Denver trailing 37-20 and proceeded to throw it on the floor out of frustration. A TNT camera captured the incident, via Awful Announcing.
The officials didn't notice, but this could've led to an injury if it hit a player.
“I didn't actually see it happen,” Finch mentioned. “And the way it was explained to me, the referees didn't see it either. So they're not able to issue a technical unless they see it. We tried to impress upon them there probably aren't many fans in the building who have a heat pack, so it probably had to come from the bench. Which they found logical.”
It's a testament to the Timberwolves that they were able to frustrate the Nuggets to this degree. Denver appears to have finally met their match for the first time in two years, as the team had rolled through their previous four playoff series relatively easily.
Will Minnesota continue to embarrass them, or will the Nuggets rise from the ashes?
The Timberwolves have the Nuggets on the ropes
Denver has failed to score triple-digits in both games this series, after reaching the century mark in all five games against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Wolves also held the Phoenix Suns under 100 points in the first two games of the last round.
Monday's Game 2 was particularly egregious. Murray had reasons to be frustrated, as he scored just eight points on 3-of-18 shooting. The Nuggets as a whole shot just 34.9% from the floor, and 30% from deep. Additionally, this was without Minnesota's top defender in Rudy Gobert, who was injured.
The Wolves, who led the NBA with a 108.4 defensive rating in the regular season, have shown that they can defend the league's best team when the lights get bright. Now, they get to return home with a 2-0 lead. The odds are heavily in their favor to move on, as 92.7% of teams with a 2-0 series lead have gone on to win it, via Land of Basketball.
While Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic boasted that “winning is a lifestyle” for the club during the first round, it may be in for a rude awakening. In addition to Minnesota's stout defense, star guard Anthony Edwards has been on a tear, scoring at least 30 points in four of the six playoff games thus far. This may be a lethal combination for the rest of the league to deal with, making the Wolves a legitimate contender to win the Finals.
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