When defending NBA champion Denver arrived in Minnesota trailing the Timberwolves 2-0 in their Western Conference semifinal series, Nuggets coach Mike Malone showed his players a two-minute clip featuring several pundits nationwide who said his team was done and the series was a wrap. He also asked each player whether he believed.
The Nuggets flew home Sunday night with the best-of-seven series radically changed after they tied it with two resounding victories on the Wolves’ home court. Game 5 is Tuesday night in Denver.
Somebody somewhere must have forgotten something.
“Rudy T. is right, never underestimate the heart of a champion,” Malone said, referencing two-time NBA champion coach Rudy Tomjanovich. “They were quick to write us off. But these guys, they won a championship a year ago. You know what I mean? Went into Miami [in last year’s NBA Finals] and won two games in a row. This team has been tested time and time again and found a way to solve whatever was thrown at us.”
Last season, Denver won Games 3 and 4 in Miami to take a 3-1 series lead, then finished off the Heat in Game 5 at Denver.
“It’s just like a laser-sharp focus,” Nuggets power forward Aaron Gordon said about his team’s championship-level play, “and a surgical execution.”
Now it’s a best-of-three series after the Wolves won the first two games in Denver with a crushing Game 2 victory. But the Nuggets have the home-court advantage back.
“This series is a long ways from being over,” Malone said. “We’re not celebrating. It’s 2-2. Now you have to find a way to win Game 5. But what I’ve found about our group is they do believe. They believe in themselves, and more importantly, they believe in the man next to them. We have a group that is acting the way you’d hope a champion would act. They had a bad game, we owned it, and we moved past it and played better.”