NBA Betting Odds for Decisive Game 6 Nuggets vs Twolves

The defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets lost the first two games of their Western Conference semifinal series at home against Minnesota but have won the past three and can close the series Thursday night as it returns to the Twin Cities.

Interesting that the defending NBA champion Nuggets are underdogs here considering they have won three straight in the series fairly definitively and won both games in Minneapolis thus far. In Denver on Tuesday night in Game 5, the Nuggets won 112-97. It was the first home win of the series.

Jokic scored 20 of his points against Gobert, going 8-for-9 against him by scoring on finger rolls, up-and-unders, hook shots, bank shots and outside jumpers. It was the 10th time in Jokic’s career that he has scored that many points without a teammate going for at least 20 points. In each of the three playoff games when that phenomenon occurred before Tuesday, the Nuggets lost.

Since Jokic was named this season’s MVP last Wednesday, the Nuggets have won three straight games to take control of the series.

“He played amazing. The three-time MVP just dominated the entire game, in every aspect of it. Astounding. That was ridiculous.”

Jamal Murray was fairly quiet with 16 points in 41 minutes. Murray has been considerably better since he scored 25 points on 9-of-32 shooting in the first two games of this series. While Tuesday’s point total was modest, he shot 50% from the field and did most of his damage in the paint.

Denver won despite just six points from Michael Porter on 2-for-10 from the field. He has scored fewer than 10 points in three of the past four games, a very different story when compared to how he opened the playoffs. Getting consistent performances up and down the lineup has helped Denver post stellar offensive ratings the last three games, posting 126 points per 100 possessions in Game 3, 123 in Game 4 and 122 in Game 5.

“I just didn’t think we, collectively, were playing like the reigning champs (after two games),” Denver coach Michael Malone said. “(We) didn’t have a swagger, weren’t playing with confidence, weren’t playing with aggression. Give them credit: They had something to do with that. That Game 2 served as a great reminder of who we need to get back to being both offensively and defensively.”

Minnesota Timberwolves Moneyline -137

The Timberwolves were without starting guard Mike Conley in the Game 5 loss due to a sore right Achilles and he likely will be questionable Thursday. Conley suffered the injury on the Timberwolves’ final offensive possession of Game 4, when he missed a 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining of a 115-107 loss.

He was averaging 32.1 points per game on 56% shooting this postseason before Tuesday. He racked up nine assists without Conley, but Denver played him to pass. He frequently saw a second defender when he tried to navigate screens. His jump shot finally cooled off mainly against Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The Nuggets were able to blanket Edwards with extra attention and multiple defenders all game in part because they didn’t have to worry about Conley.

“This was crazy,” Edwards said of the Nuggets’ schemes centered on stopping him. “Today was crazy, for sure. Yeah, today was wild.”

He appeared to bang his knee on the leg of Denver’s Caldwell-Pope. Towns did have to exit the game, but only briefly, as he returned after spending a few minutes on the exercise bike. The 23 points are the most KAT has scored in a game since Game 2 (27 points). However, his minus-17 rating was the worst among the Timberwolves who saw action on Tuesday.

Fellow big man Rudy Gobert shot 7-of-7 from the field and 4-of-7 from the foul line in Tuesday’s loss to the Nuggets, accounting for 18 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocks in 40 minutes. Gobert recorded a solid overall stat line in Tuesday’s Game 5. But the conversations will be dominated by the fact that he was Nikola Jokic’s primary defender for most of the night.

“It comes down to Game 6 at home and that’s exactly where we want to be,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “A lot of game, a lot of series left, we’ve got to force it into a Game 7, but most importantly, we’ve got to regroup, get guys focusing on what we need to do and they’ve been good at that all season. So, we’ll be ready.”

Nuggets at Timberwolves Info

Where: Target Center
TV: ESPN
Stream: ESPN+
Radio: Tunein.com

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Jokic speaks on revealing his dunk package against the Timberwolves 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/iqK4Q8eZsz
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