DENVER — Talk about a bad time for a collapse.
The Denver Nuggets blew a 20-point, second-half lead in Sunday's decisive Game 7 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, ending their season in a 98-90 loss in front of their stunned home crowd at Ball Arena.
Denver's hopes of going back-to-back as NBA champions were crushed as the Nuggets bow out of the 2024 playoffs in the second round. No team has won repeat titles since the Golden State Warriors in 2017-18.
"Fight like you're being hunted," Denver guard Jamal Murray said. "When you're the hunter, you have so much more motivation and you grasp onto anything to prove everybody wrong. You have a constant chip on your shoulder."
Things appeared to be going favorably for the Nuggets after a dominant first half, who entered halftime with a 53-38 lead.
They were containing Minnesota superstar Anthony Edwards to just 4 points in the first half. They even came out from halftime and built their biggest lead on a 3-pointer from Murray that had Denver up 20 and Ball Arena rocking.
Then it all went downhill.
"The season's over. That's what's hard," head coach Michael Malone started his postgame press conference saying. "F*** being up 20 (points). The season's over. You don't understand that. It's hard."
Their lead quickly disappeared in the third quarter during which the Timberwolves outscored the Nuggets 28-14. The momentum significantly shifted when Edwards hit a 3-pointer with one second left to pull Minnesota within a point, 67-66.
It was only a matter of time at that point.
"You never want to be a 'coulda, woulda, shoulda'," forward Aaron Gordon said. "We gave ourselves good opportunities to repeat...that's a really good Timberwolves team over there. I have no doubt they're going to be competing for a championship."
Minnesota took the lead early in the fourth quarter and held it until the final buzzer sounded on Denver's season. The Timberwolves will face the Dallas Mavericks in their first Western Conference Finals appearance in 20 years.
Malone referred to the second-round series as one of the strangest he's ever been a part of, multiple times.
The Timberwolves kicked things off by stealing the first two games on Denver's home court before the Nuggets rattled off three consecutive wins to revive their playoff hopes. A blowout in Game 6 forced the winner-take-all matchup Sunday.
The Nuggets lost three of the four games played on their home court.
"This feeling sucks," Malone said. "You go from training camp all the way through, then it comes to an abrupt halt. And that hurts...We won it last year and teams got better. You have to tip your caps."
Murray finished with a game-high 35 points. Newly-crowned three-time MVP Nikola Jokic flirted with another playoff triple-double with 34 points, 19 rebounds (15 in the first half), and 7 assists.
The Western Conference Finals begin Wednesday night in the Target Center in Minneapolis.
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