Jamal Murray outduels Anthony Edwards in Denver
Anthony Edwards and Jamal Murray had massive Game 2s. Murray got a little more help from his friends.
Edwards scored 41 points and Murray had 40 as the Denver Nuggets went up 2-0 in their first-round series with the Minnesota Timberwolves, winning 122-113. It was Murray's fifth playoff game with 40+ points - more than he's registered in regular season games for his career.
It looked like another dominant Denver effort before the Timberwolves stormed back from a 15-point halftime deficit to score 40 points in the third quarter and take the lead. Minnesota shot 81 percent for the quarter, led by 13 points and two assists from Edwards, plus a huge block on Nikola Jokic.
And a buzzer-beating bank shot.
Edwards had 27 points after halftime, but Murray nearly matched him with 22 of his own. The Nuggets guard closed things out with eight points in two minutes late in the game.
It was huge for Murray to have this kind of performance in front of his home fans, after missing the last two postseasons. Murray's playoff heroics in 2020 were amazing, but they took place in the NBA bubble in Orlando.
It might not have been enough to hold off Edwards had Denver's Michael Porter Jr. not started off the fourth quarter with a personal 8-0 run, which included a four-point play.
Porter had 13 of his 16 points in the fourth, while Nikola Jokic has six points and three assists in the fourth, part of his 27-point, nine-rebound, nine-assist near-triple double.
What did Edwards get from his star teammates in crunch time? Zero points, zero rebounds and zero assists from Karl-Anthony Towns, who shot 0-4 with a turnover and two fouls. Rudy Gobert had two points and one rebound. Only Mike Conley showed up, with six points.
A scoring duel in the playoffs is always magical. But Edwards was a lone gunslinger Wednesday night.
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