‘They kicked our butt in every category’: Timberwolves thrashed by Denver in Game 1

DENVER — Chris Finch’s pregame comments Sunday proved to be prophetic. The Timberwolves coach liked that his team — which had to win its way into the playoffs via the play-in tournament after a stress-filled end-of-season run — entered the playoffs as a battle-tested squad.

But he then noted the other side of the coin — perhaps Minnesota would realize its season was no longer on the line, and could take a breath. Regardless of of Sunday’s result, the Wolves would live another day.

That ill-advised mindset would be about the best-case scenario for Minnesota as an explainer for its Game 1 debacle. The Timberwolves were run off the floor in every sense, falling 109-80 to the top-seeded Nuggets.

“Way more physical than we were,” Finch said. “They played with more speed, more force, they kicked our butt in every category you that you possibly can imagine.”

It was just Game 1 of a best-of-seven bout, but it was the type of obliteration that left onlookers wondering if the Wolves are capable of being competitive in this season.

Because they were not for the final three quarters Sunday. Denver was more physical and played with more thrust. The Nuggets ran up and down the floor, too often catching Minnesota in a jog.

The Nuggets’ defensive game plan was pristine. Denver allowed Nikola Jokic to loosely guard Rudy Gobert while serving as a roving paint defender. The Nuggets used Jokic as a helper while guarding Karl-Anthony Towns with better athletes who could press up on Towns on the perimeter.

Towns was flustered all night. He finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and four turnovers, and seven of those points came in the final frame with Minnesota down 25-plus points. Gobert was equally bad. He was unable to punish Denver for the lack of defensive attention and failed to get up and down the floor with any type of urgency. The center is still battling back spasms, but that level of performance won’t cut it in this series.

“It’s not great. Not great,” Gobert said of his back. “But I knew tonight was going to be tough because after what I did the last game. We only had one day of traveling and coming back tonight and play, so I knew it was going to be tough. Next game will be better.”

It needs to be for everyone. Outside of one second quarter burst, Anthony Edwards was relatively silent, as well. The Timberwolves shot just 37 percent from the floor and 31 percent from deep.

Despite its struggles, Minnesota trailed by just 11 at the half. But Denver delivered a knockout blow early in the third, opening the third quarter on a 9-1 run that seemed to remove all doubt in the contest’s outcome.

“I think we started that half with three or four (turnovers), almost in a row, and you can’t give this team free points or any reason to get out in transition. They’re one of the best teams in transition,” Wolves guard Mike Conley said. “Those are self inflicted things we can look at and we can get better at. We’re playing against a great team, but we can’t have self-inflicted wounds on ourself and spot them points, because they’re going to just run away with it.”

Denver shot 41 percent from deep — a logical number considering the wide-open looks the Nuggets generated, largely off Jokic’s gravity. While the two-time reigning MVP finished with just 13 points and 14 rebounds and was one of six Denver players to score in double-figures. Denver guard Jamal Murray led the charge with 24 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

The Nuggets went 7-10 over their final 17 regular season games after they’d essentially wrapped up the conference’s No. 1 seed. Denver’s starters hadn’t played in the eight days leading up to Sunday’s contest. Yet the Nuggets looked like a well-oiled machine.

Minnesota looked like anything but. Sunday’s dismantling was the polar opposite of Friday’s play-in game, where the Wolves actually led Oklahoma City 109-80 at one point in the final frame of that contest.

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“It’s the NBA. Things swing, but it’s all about how you handle that adversity and how you learn from it. Playoff series is what it’s about. A lot of really good teams lose games in the playoffs and a lot of really good teams get behind in the playoffs,” Gobert said. “But the really good teams are able to adjust and able to get better throughout the series and they’re able to raise their level throughout the series and also the way we take care of ourselves, the way we recover is definitely the key for us. As you go to Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, the team that is the most fresh is in a position to win.”