The Minnesota Timberwolves eliminated the defending champions Denver Nuggets from the 2024 playoffs on Sunday night, rallying from the biggest Game 7 deficit ever to win their series.
Minnesota fell behind by 20 points, with Anthony Edwards struggling to find his shot. Ant-Man turned to his defense to help rally his team to victory with his offense failing him and eventually found his stroke in the second half. However, it was his defense on Jamal Murray that stood out in the win.
"There's more ways to win a basketball game," Ant-Man said when Vince Carter asked him about defending Murray in the fourth quarter. "When you're just not an offensive player, I'm not one-dimensional; I'm not a guy who can just score. I'm a guy who can go at whoever their best guard is; I can go lock him down. So I feel like I did that on Jamal in the fourth quarter, and that's what turned the game around."
Wolves rally from 20 points down to win
Murray looked like he was going to shoot the Nuggets back to the Western Conference Finals. The 6-4 guard scored 24 first-half points on 8-15 shooting, including 3-5 from three-point distance and 5-5 from the foul line. With Jamal scorching hot, the Nuggets took a 15-point lead at the break.
Denver also scored five in a row at the start of the third quarter to build a 20-point lead. But just as when it looked like they had taken control of the game, Edwards and the Wolves came to life, doing most of their damage on defense.
Minnesota went on a 21-3 run to cut the deficit to two. The Wolves then outscored the Nuggets 32-23 in the fourth period to win the game 98-90. On his way out of the locker room, Edwards was overheard telling reporters, "I had Jamal in handcuffs."
Edwards' defense on Murray
Anthony and Jamal had been going back and forth since Game 4, when the two had a heated exchange after the contest. Then, after Edwards was credited for limiting Murray to 10 points on 4-18 shooting in Game 6, Murray tried to discredit Ant-Man by saying his poor play was a result of injury. But in Game 7, there was so such an excuse.
With Ant-Man upping the ante on defense, Murray only scored 11 points in the second half on 5-12 from the field. He did not score after hitting a floater with 4:49 left in the game. While locking down Murray, the struggling Edwards made several big baskets, including a three-pointer, which gave the Wolves a 92-82 lead at the 3:07 mark.
Ant-Man finished with only 16 points on 6-24 shooting, including 2-10 from three in 41 minutes of action. However, the game wasn't about Edwards' offense. It was about an excellent defensive display from the best defensive team in the NBA and arguably the next face of the league.
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