After beating the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night the Minnesota Timberwolves took an early one-game-to-nothing lead. The Timberwolves battle the Nuggets tonight with the chance to take the commanding two-games-to-nothing lead. Additionally, putting the Nuggets on the brink of elimination with a victory in tonight’s game two. Here are three keys for the Timberwolves to steal another game.
3 Keys for The Timberwolves To Steal Game 2
Key 1: The Timberwolves Bench Must Dominate
On Saturday, Anthony Edwards’ scoring performance got a lot of attention. However, the reason Minnesota was able to pull ahead of the Nugget was the performance of their second unit. Notably, Naz Reid led the second unit by hitting some pivotal buckets in the fourth quarter. To keep Minnesota afloat while Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT) was dealing with foul trouble. In Game 1 Minnesota’s bench outscored Denver’s bench 23-15.
Additionally, if Minnesota’s second unit can continue to dominate Denver’s second unit, they will be able to win Game 2. If this dominance continues, they could end this series in four to five games. However, they will need to get more balanced scoring from someone other than Reid. He is the 2023-2024 Sixth Man of the Year, but someone else will need to join the scoring party off the bench. Reid scored 16 out of Minnesota’s 23 bench points. As a result, Reid will get a lot more defensive attention in Game 2 so, someone else from the bench will need to help him if the Timberwolves are going to win tonight.
Furthermore, Minnesota will need to continue to win the non-Nikola Jokic minutes as they did on Saturday. Denver’s offense is not the same without Jokic on the court. If the Timberwolves can extend their lead during that time they should be in good shape to win Game 2 tonight.
Key 2: Minnesota Will Need to Continue to Make Things Difficult for Jamal Murray
Also, another factor that helped Minnesota pull off the upset in Game 1 on Saturday was their defensive performance on Jamal Murray. He is clearly dealing with the calf injury and was significantly more hobbled by it than expected. Also, despite the injury Minnesota must be given credit for using their length to force him to take difficult shots. He could not answer the challenge, only scoring 17 points by making six/14 shots.
Additionally, Denver will need a better performance from him if they want to win Game 2 tonight and avoid being down two-games-to-none. A hungry Timberwolves squad will need to continue to throw multiple bodies at Murray and force him to work for every point. Also, if they can continue to slow him down and force the Nuggets to operate in the half-court their chances of winning the Game 2 tonight increase exponentially.
Key 3: Anthony Edwards and Karl Anthony-Towns Must Be the Best Duo in This Series
Edwards’ fourth-quarter performance really saved the Wolves from a huge letdown on Saturday. He dominated his matchup, but he will need help more from Towns in the rest of this series. Towns struggled to get into his rhythm during Game 1 because of foul trouble. Additionally, if both of these players combined for 50-70 plus points of Minnesota’s final total they should win this game tonight.
Also, KAT is an important piece to Minnesota’s defensive strategy against Jokic. He was his primary defender in Game 1 and he made things difficult for him. However, that was the reason he was in foul trouble. Additionally, KAT must play disciplined defense against Jokic to avoid foul trouble. He cannot fall for the pump fakes like he did on Saturday. Despite being out of rhythm for the majority of this game, he still scored 20 points in the contest. Now, the Timberwolves will need a higher point total from him than that.
The Timberwolves will need to make it a point to get him going early in Game 2 tonight. If he can continue to be a two-way beast in this series along with Edwards’ offensive prowess, Minnesota could win Game 2 tonight and really put Denver on their heels in this series.,
