On Saturday night, the Timberwolves shell-shocked the reigning NBA champions, the Denver Nuggets, with a 106-99 win. While Anthony Edwards ran riot in the first half, Karl-Anthony Towns, Naz Reid and Mike Conley clinched the win in the second half. After a complete team game by the Minnesota side, former player turned analyst Kenny Smith marveled over the performance.
While discussing the game on the set of NBA On TNT, Kenny pointed out the defensive play by Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reid. Praising their continuous pressure on Nikola Jokic, Smith said, “Great defensive effort by Rudy Gobert and Karl Anthony-Towns, even if at the end, even though he was in foul trouble, and Naz Reid. Those three guys sped The Joker up for the first time that I’ve ever seen, ever in basketball.”
Nikola Jokic again put up the numbers with his 32 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists, but his FG came down to 44% from 59.1% in the Lakers series. The credit indeed goes to the three big men of the Timberwolves, and renowned big man Dirk Nowitzki also had the same take as Kenny Smith.
Dirk Nowitzki Provides Assessment of Timberwolves’ Defense Against Nikola Jokic
Shaquille O’Neal is the usual face sitting in the NBA on TNT’s analyst panel, but on Saturday, he was replaced by Dirk Nowitzki. The legendary German followed the opening game of the Timberwolves vs. Nuggets series and pointed out how the visitors choked Nikola Jokic.
After hearing Kenny Smith’s assessment, Dirk Nowitzki said, “It’s almost like he[Jokic] was trying to do a little too much. They got three seven-footers to throw at him and he had to do a lot.” Liking the depth of the Timberwolves, the NBA Hall of Famer added that he believes Minnesota will be a hard side to beat, and the series will be a fun and long one.
Nikola Jokic had 7 turnovers in the game, and it is a testament to the Wolves defensive shape that suffocated the Serbian. After the game, Jokic jokingly said that he would be needing a clone to find a way through the close attentions of the likes of Gobert, KAT and Reid.
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Clone or not, Jokic and Co. will need to turn the corners in the next game on Monday or the Nuggets just might be on the receiving end of the same punishment the Timberwolves dished out to the Suns.
