Last season the Nuggets went on a historic run in the playoffs with Denver winning all but three of their games including games on the road. Denver lost game four of their first series with the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime after winning game three in Minneapolis to take a three game lead over the Timberwolves.
This season the Timberwolves look to put critics to rest after last seasons early departure by defeating the defending champs, the Denver Nuggets in their first two games that were played at Ball Arena.
Monday night’s game was a lot of what happened in game one on Saturday night. The Timberwolves had answers for Jamal Murray who’s frustration got the best of him when he tossed both a towel and heating pack on the court during Denver’s loss Monday night.
Murray’s antics will likely lead to a suspension, something the Nuggets do not need at this point in the series. It seems like Minnesota has figured out Denver by smothering them on defense, which led to one of Nikola Jokic’s lowest scoring games in weeks. Jamal Murray had just eight points in Monday’s loss, 11 points less than game one against Minnesota.
With Denver’s back against the wall, they will have one of their biggest feats ahead of them in turning this series around. While most think Denver is done it’s hard to dismiss last seasons champs with how well they played leading up to the post season.
Murray’s struggles haven’t all been part of Denver’s most recent series, in fact, Murray appeared to be having shooting troubles against the Lakers in the first half of the games in that series with most ignoring his shooting troubles because of his second half performances.
Whatever issues the Nuggets are having right now, need to be addressed quickly with game three hanging in the balance. Denver will be in Minnesota this Friday to face the Timberwolves at 7:30 p.m. mst.
In other sports the Colorado Avalanche are ready and primed for their matchup with the Dallas Stars this week in Dallas (Game one results not available at the time of this writing).
Dallas just wrapped up a seven game series with the Las Vegas Golden Knights in Dallas on Sunday night. Both Dallas and Las Vegas fought out a great series with both teams winning their first two games on the road. Dallas edged out the Golden Knights in game 7, 2-1 to advance to their second round bout with the Avalanche.
The Avs on the other hand are coming off of a 4 games to 1 win over the Winnipeg Jets last week, a team many critics believed would move on past Colorado in the first round.
This week is the start of the Denver Broncos Rookie Camp (May 10-11) a week and a half before OTA’s (Off Season Workouts) start (May 20 – June 6) at Dove Valley. Mandatory Mini Camp will kick off on June 11 and last through the 13th.
