Experience tends to win out in the NBA Playoffs.
That maxim appears to be bearing out in Nuggets-Timberwolves, as Denver seems to have figured out this Anthony Edwards-led Minnesota team.
After falling in a 2-0 series hole on their home court, the Nuggets took it right back to the Wolves, winning two straight at the Target Center in convincing fashion before returning to Denver with a third straight convincing win.
Nuggets vs. Timberwolves Game 6 pick
(8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Minnesota’s defense looked all-world through two games, but Nikola Jokic and Co. have scored at least 112 points – a solid number in the new, lower-scoring NBA – in each of their past three wins, including a masterful 40-point, 13-assist, zero-turnover game from the Joker in Game 5.
The Wolves have struggled on the offensive end over that stretch, which was the side of the floor they rated as merely average throughout the regular season.
Edwards and Karl Anthony Towns have provided the bulk of the scoring for Minnesota, but they’ve yet to go off in the same game, combining for just two 20-plus point games over the last three games.
And with floor general Mike Conley hobbled with an Achilles injury, the Wolves just don’t have enough offensive firepower to keep up with the freight train that is Jokic.
So the question is: Can the Wolves return to their 2004 Pistons-esque defensive ways, with just a little bit of offense, and turn this series around?
Or will the Nuggets continue their march to the NBA Finals, as many basketball forecasters had assumed before the series?
Betting on the NBA?
I’m betting on the latter, treating those first two games in Denver as a mirage that the battle-tested Nuggets have adjusted from.
In a series that has shown no home-court advantage, don’t be afraid to back the Nuggets in a hostile road environment once again.
The pick: Nuggets moneyline (+112, FanDuel Sportsbook)
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