Recap from Denver: Timberwolves pull away late to run past Nuggets 106-99 in Game 1

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The Timberwolves and Nuggets are meeting tonight in Game 1 of their playoff series. The Star Tribune’s Wolves beat reporter Chris Hine has live reports from Ball Arena in Denver.

Coming into the series, the Timberwolves heard all about how Denver was perhaps the best team in the league in clutch time.

But in Game 1, in that time of the game, in the Denver’s building, the Wolves were the ones executing what they wanted to do on both ends of the floor in a 106-99 victory.

Anthony Edwards, who saved the Wolves as they struggled to score in the first half, hit the dagger shot, a fadeaway midrange jumper, to put the Wolves ahead 102-91.

Edwards was again magnificent in the biggest of moments. He finished with 43 points, and he scored 25 of the Wolves’ 40 first-half points.

Karl-Anthony Towns had a big third quarter for the Wolves and finished with 20.

The Wolves got a huge lift from Naz Reid, as he scored 14 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, including a banked-in three that seemed to settle him down after a tough first half in which he had no points and two turnovers. Rudy Gobert even chipped in with a pair of buckets down the stretch as the Wolves were able to fluster Nikola Jokic just enough in the final minutes.

Jokic finished with 32 points, eight rebounds and nine assists.

Edwards hit a tough fadeaway against Aaron Gordon to put the Wolves ahead 84-81 with 7:23 to play.

Then Reid, who struggled in the first half, had seven big points for the Wolves to put them ahead 91-86. Reid banked in a three late in the shot clock, then had a monster putback slam that he followed with a layup. This came with Towns on the bench with five fouls.

Reid had 14 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter. He finished the run by nailing a three to put the Wolves ahead 94-88.

The Wolves then got fourth-quarter offense from an unlikely place — Gobert, who put back his own miss, then hit a push shot as the shot-clock was winding down.

The Wolves’ offense opened up in the third quarter, and they held a 73-71 lead headed into the fourth.

Karl-Anthony Towns came out on fire for the Wolves as he had 11 of Minnesota’s first 14 points of the quarter and upped his total to 20 for the game.

Mike Conley got his shot with 11 points in the third after he didn’t score in the first half.

The Wolves went with a small lineup to end the quarter that featured Naz Reid at the five, and they were able to make it pay off.

Anthony Edwards picked up a technical foul late in the quarter after staring down Reggie Jackson following a layup.

Jamal Murray, scoreless in the first half, got on the board for Denver with seven points in the quarter.

The Timberwolves offense was non-existent — except for Anthony Edwards — and they trail the Nuggets 44-40 at halftime.

Edwards had 25 of Minnesota’s 40 points on 10-for-17 shooting, while the rest of the Wolves were just 6-for-27. Karl-Anthony Towns had three of those field goals for nine points.

The Wolves defense has done a commendable job limiting the efficient Denver offense — the Nuggets are just 16-for-40 from the floor — but the Wolves have failed to take advantage of that on the other end.

The Wolves have shut down Jamal Murray, who finished the half 0-for-5 and didn’t score, as Edwards handled a lot of one-on-one duties against Murray. Murray was the hero of Denver’s first round victory over the Lakers, hitting winning shots in Games 2 and 5.

Nikola Jokic has 15 points, four rebounds and five assists for Denver while Michael Porter Jr. has 13.

The Wolves couldn’t have started the first quarter and better – and they couldn’t have ended it any worse.

After they went up 18-4 to begin the game, Denver closed the quarter on a 21-5 run to take a 25-23 lead after one.

Anthony Edwards had 16 points for the Wolves, who shut Denver down when the teams had their starters on the floor. They held Jamal Murray to 0-for-3 from the field and held Denver to just four points over the first 7:10 of the game.

But Denver is never more than one run away from getting back in a game.

The Wolves’ bench minutes, one of their prospective strengths coming into the series, were a disaster in the first quarter. Naz Reid tried too hard at times to make things happen and missed an easy shot and had a costly turnover. The Wolves had trouble scoring outside of Edwards.

Nikola Jokic, likely the NBA MVP this season for the third time, had nine in the first for the Nuggets.

The question about how Chris Finch would coach the Wolves tonight was answered pretty quickly and comfortably.

Finch sat to the right of lead assistant coach Micah Nori, a row behind Nori. A radio broadcast table is protecting Finch from oncoming traffic.

Finch is able to get up and talk with players during timeouts.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch left his crutches with a member of the team’s public relations staff and climbed the press conference podium before the game.

”That was easy,” Finch joked before giving his first public comments since having surgery Wednesday on a torn right patellar tendon.

Finch suffered the injury Sunday in the closeout game of a first-round series in Phoenix and there were questions as to just what his role would be in this series.

He will be in the bench area for Game helping assistant Micah Nori, who will be handling game interaction and game flow duties as the standing coach on the sideline.

”I feel pretty good, all things considered. The plan was to try and be here all along,” Finch said. “Just see how I felt day by day. And then kind of figure out logistically how it might work being on the bench and with the other coaches.”

Finch has been using crutches to get around at Wolves practice the last few days and before the game. Finch said the goal since he suffered the injury was to make it to Denver and help any way he could following Wednesday’s surgery.

”I was wide open on everything,” Finch said. “They told me that they really wanted me to just rest. I’ve been trying to do that. But I also wanted to be here, if I could be here in any capacity. That was the most important thing for me. Just literally taking it day by day and see how I felt.”