Heading into Game 3, the defending champions have just one goal in mind and that is to bring this series somehow back to Denver. The Nuggets underperformed in both home games, especially in Game 2 where they scored just 80 points. Jamal Murray’s frustrations were the talking point after he threw a heating pad at an official, for which he got fined $100k by the league. In the build up to Game 3, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic won the MVP award for the 3rd time in his career, but I’m sure he would trade that individual award for another title in a heartbeat. The Nuggets did win once at Target Center in the regular season this year, similarly to the Pacers in the East this is a must win situation for them because no team ever has come back from a 3-0 deficit in the NBA Playoffs.
Not having Rudy Gobert didn’t slow down the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2. In fact, it did just the opposite. It rallied the troops and the T’Wolves stepped it up even further on defense in what was one of their best efforts on that end all year long. The DPOY Gobert comes back tonight, it’ll be interesting to see how he reacts following a few sleepless nights after the birth of his son. Anthony Edwards will once again be the key for Minnesota here, he’s averaged 35 points per game in the series so far while shooting an impressive 61% from the field. So far the Nuggets haven’t been able to slow him down, but I expect them to center their gameplan around doing just that in Game 3.
