Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Hawks suffered a historic humiliation, Philadelphia forced Game 7 and the Nuggets were eliminated

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Surprisingly, the Atlanta Hawks are not a Doc Rivers team. 

 

One could have looked at Cory Kispert playing, realizing that they had conceded, or checked the scoreboard highlighting a 47-point disparity at halftime. That was the largest lead at intermission in NBA playoff history courtesy of the Knicks sacking State Farm Arena.

 

OG Anunoby unfastened the defense with a scourge of jumpers and the others followed his lead by going to the body without restraint. 

 

A good chunk of the crowd remained seated to get as much of their money’s worth as possible, and other Hawks fans got a headstart on traffic as the team’s starters lasted between nine and 11 more minutes before yielding undignifiedly. Former top pick Zaccharie Risacher started the inconsequential second half, and Jalen Johnson wasn’t as invisible, but it didn’t matter. Former Knicks Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Allan Houston sat next to each other, satisfied with the slaughter. 

 

Philadelphia forces Game 7 

 

Joel Embiid’s presence has changed the series after a rough stretch in Game 4. His playmaking is putting tons of pressure on the Celtics, and he has picked up his scoring accuracy, particularly outside of the lane. On the other side, the Celtics have forgotten how to convert free throws and 3-pointers in their last two outings. Notably, they’ve been awful in the corners, which is the easiest shot in the NBA. 

 

Even if the Celtics, who typically take care of business at home during Game 7s, advance, they’ve been exposed a bit by losing two games at home. Keep in mind that Tyrese Maxey and Embiid went berserk in Game 5, and their combination of speed and strength are a problem for the Cs. Game 7 is on Saturday and the winner will play the New York Knicks.

Nuggets eliminated 

 

What was supposed to be a special season ended coldly in Minnesota with the team undermanned against the depleted Timberwolves, and with Jaden McDaniels, the one who said the Nuggets were all bad defenders, emerging as the best player. It should sting the Kroenke family even more that Tim Connelly, who left Denver for Minnesota almost four years ago, is responsible for two of the last three teams that have eliminated the Nuggets.

 

Imagine if ownership had paid the big bucks to keep Connelly around. 

 

It’s been a stream of shortcomings since the Nuggets won the title in 2023, and they’ve gotten further away from what the golden era of Nuggets hoops. They’re stale and now hungrier, better teams have risen.

 

Minnesota’s pressure prevented Jamal Murray from getting loose like he had in his All-Star regular season. As a result, the team couldn’t generate enough offense around Jokić, even with Cam Johnson having one of his rare high-scoring nights, and they took 19 less shots than Minnesota. 

 

Jokić is eligible for a contract extension this summer, and he says he wants to be a Nugget forever, but putting a contender around him will only get harder. He also shielded coach David Adelman as much as he could from blame, yet he notably didn’t want to make injuries the main excuse for not advancing. 

 

Still, that doesn’t change the fact that they were always at a significant disadvantage without Aaron Gordon’s two-way presence. The concerning part for the team is that injuries have compromised him the last two seasons when he’s been needed the most. Now there’s a big decision to make if he’s still a part of the team’s future, considering everything is magnified to extend Jokić’s prime. 

 

Now the Wolves, without Anthony Edwards (left knee hyperextension), Donte DiVincenzo (torn right achilles) and Ayo Dosunmu (sore right calf), will start round two against the San Antonio Spurs on Monday.



Move to 1B Working Out for Marlins’ Connor Norby

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MIAMI — Miami Marlins first baseman Connor Norby has been a jack of all trades ever since he turned pro. He was considered one of the premier second-base prospects in the Baltimore Orioles organization but also played numerous games in the outfield. 

The Marlins acquired the 25-year-old along with Kyle Stowers in a trade for Trevor Rogers in 2024 and were immediately shifted to third base, a transition he said was “not easy.”

“Learning going from second to third was extremely difficult,” Norby said. “I felt like I made a lot of good strides compared to the first month, six weeks that I had over there at the end of 2024.”

Norby posted a .924 fielding percentage during 30 games at third base in 2024 and improved to .954 through 82 games last year. He said he “worked really hard at third this spring,” knowing that he is competing for a full-time spot with a recipient of a Gold Glove as a utility fielder. He welcomed adding first base to his list of positions because the true goal is to “be in the lineup every day and putting up consistent at-bats and having my bat in the lineup.”

“I feel pretty good over there,” Norby said. “I almost treat it pretty much like second base. I just have to cover the base, and I think that’s really helped me a lot. Obviously, we have a really good second baseman, so that helps me even more. He covers a lot of ground, and the transition has been, honestly, not as bad, not as tough as I thought it would be.”

At a new position, 2026 has shaped up to be Norby’s best with a glove, turning in a .985 fielding percentage with two errors in 18 games at first base. It’s the first year that he has a positive run value (1). Norby said it’s about “being comfortable with your feet around the base,” and “knowing how our guys throw.”

“That’s more so the thing that I’m working through the most and getting as comfortable as I can,” Norby said. “But overall, I feel great.”

 The Marlins (15-16) return home for a 10-game homestand, starting with a four-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Dealing with physicality is a problem for the Cleveland Cavaliers

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The Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t advanced to a Conference Finals and Finals since 2018, which was LeBron James’ last year with them.

 

They are tied with the Toronto Raptors and Game 5 is in Cleveland on Wednesday. The stakes couldn’t be higher for the Cavs in year four of the Donovan Mitchell experience. Coach Kenny Atkinson says his most important role is making sure his players don’t get too high or too low.

 

In this series, defense and physicality have been the story. The Raptors are a long, fast and athletic team, and while the Cavs are more talented, they are smaller at times and some of their big guys are not significantly powerful, despite their skills.

 

No team has lost at home yet. If that trend continues, the Raptors won’t make it out of the first round, but they’ve tested the Wine and Gold in ways that don’t make it encouraging for their prospects against the Orlando Magic or Detroit Pistons. They’ve had trouble guarding Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and Collin Murray-Boyles, and they are shooting between 52.3 and 65.9 percent against Cleveland. They are not a super trio but it’s a bad matchup for the Cavs. At some instances it looks like the Cavs are a team of super middleweights competing against light heavyweights. 

 

The Magic are now dealing with Franz Wagner’s calf injury, but they still have Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane, two strong, dynamic scorers. The Pistons are down 3-1 in that series and while it looks bleak, it’s not over. If they manage to beat the Magic, they’ll be affected by not having a high-level shot creator next to Cunningham, but the way he, Ausar Thompson, Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart can pressure opponents should not be underestimated.  They’ve been the biggest reasons why the Magic are shooting 38.7 percent in the series.

 

Notably, every winner of Game 1 in the first round of the 2025 playoffs won their series. The only team that won Game 1 in this year’s postseason that is behind is the Denver Nuggets, down 3-2 to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yet most importantly, since 1984, the winner of a Game 5 when a series is tied a 2-2 advances 81.5 percent of the time, per the NBA’s Facts and Figures.

 

Quick note on the San Antonio Spurs 

 

The Spurs finished off the Portland Trail Blazers in five games. Keep in mind that they missed Victor Wembanyama from early in Game 2’s loss because of a nasty concussion, and won the next one without him on the road, coming back from down 15 points with 17 minutes left in Game 3. They couldn’t be stopped when Wemby came back and now they are sitting pretty, waiting for the winners of the Denver- Minnesota series. 

 

The Nuggets have the mighty Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray, but the team struggles to defend the perimeter, and their coverages are even more compromised with Aaron Gordon’s calf injury. And the Timberwolves lost Donte DiVincenzo to a torn Achilles tendon, and it’s unclear when Anthony Edwards will be back after hyperextending his left knee. Edwards was already dealing with knee trouble on the right side. 

 

Regardless of who the Spurs see, they will have the edge.

 



Liam Hicks Emerging as Marlins Breakout Candidate

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Liam Hicks has quickly turned into the Miami Marlins’ next breakout candidate.

The second-year catcher hit his sixth home run of the season in the Marlins 5-4 road loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday. He hit six home runs through 119 games as a rookie last year.

Interestingly enough, the most home runs Hicks has hit in a season as a minor leaguer was also six.

“Liam is physically a different individual,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “He’s hitting the ball much more.”

Hicks has collected base hits in 11 of his last 13 games. With a .311 batting average so far this season (28-for-90), Hicks is tied with Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin for the highest average among qualified catchers in baseball.

With 27 RBI this season, Hicks leads the Marlins in the category and is second in the big leagues, behind only Cincinnati Reds rookie first baseman and Miami native Sal Stewart (29).

“Liam’s a good hitter,” McCullough said. “He has all the ingredients, the ability to control the strike zone, make a ton of contact, and use the whole field.”

Hicks entered Monday leading MLB in whiff percentage (6.4), in addition to ranking second in strikeout percentage (6.3), and third in squared-up swing percentage (40.3), per Baseball Savant.

Hicks was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the ninth round out of Arkansas State in 2021. He was part of a 2024 midseason trade with the Detroit Tigers for veteran catcher Carson Kelly. He was selected by the Marlins in the Rule 5 Draft that year and made the Opening Day Roster last year for his MLB Debut.

“Getting hits in the big leagues is hard,” McCullough said. “It’s probably never been harder just to get a base hit than it is right now. For us, it’s an important thing. You make a lot of contact.”

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Orlando Magic are close to making history as they have the Detroit Pistons on the ropes

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The Orlando Magic are on the verge of becoming the seventh team in NBA history to beat the first seed as the eighth. Game 4 easily became one of the most important in franchise history considering the stakes and how they handled the rough times that could have flipped the edge like a light switch. 

 

Both defenses were implacable, and as a result, 3-point makes dropped few and far between, and each felt like body shots. 

 

It was obvious the game was headed for classic territory when the Pistons shook off five straight turnovers and quickly climbed out of a 12-point ditch. Franz Wagner and Desmond Bane carried the Magic to a two-point lead at halftime, but the former only played close to seven more minutes because of a calf issue. The third period was also like a mud-wrestling match with bodies bumping and coverages yielding close to nothing. 

 

Wagner’s absence forced Jamal Cain, who had his contract converted to a standard from a two-way on March 20, to step up big-time by playing 17 second-half minutes. He jammed the dunk of the playoffs (so far) by coming up court, viciously baptizing Jalen Duren, and had a mean putback late in the game that were emotional plays that lifted the team.

 

His pressure on-ball and as a helper made him more reliable than Anthony Black and Tristan da Silva, who are not bad defenders but lack Cain’s extra level of physicality. 

 

 Bane had missed his first four shots of the fourth quarter, but redeemed himself and rescued the team, dropping a 29-foot bank-triple on a screen-roll over Isaiah Stewart. Only 76 seconds remained and the Magic held on to their six-point lead to take a gripping 3-1 advantage.

 

The series now returns to Detroit. Keep in mind that the Pistons won 15 more regular-season games yet they tied 2-2 against each other before the playoffs. Notably, Banchero missed one win and Wagner missed the other, but the Pistons did not have Cade Cunningham for the April 6 game because he was recovering from a collapsed lung.

 

The Magic had a turbulent regular season, but turned into the team they were expected to be at the right time. They had belief in themselves and a lot credit goes to coach Jamahl Mosley, whose seat has been boiling since November. He texted a friend of his before Game 1 that they were going to take it, not steal it, and that’s exactly what they did. They then atoned for getting smacked around in the second half of Game 2 by delivering the two most important wins of the season.

 

The Pistons haven’t been able to rattle the Magic because the latter can match their brutishness. That should terrify Detroit that it was true even with Wagner out. His status is in question for the remainder of the series, but the other side has a glaring issue, too: There is not enough shot creation next to Cunningham, forcing him to do too much. Eight of his team’s 20 turnovers were his.

 

The other eighth seeds to upstage the first were the 1994 Denver Nuggets, 1999 New York Knicks, 2007 Golden State Warriors, 2011 Memphis Grizzlies, 2012 Philadelphia 76ers and 2023 Miami Heat. Notably, the Magic are doing it without the favorites facing a significant injury to their best player. 

 

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Nuggets got humbled on tour and are close to flatlining

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The Nuggets’ road trip to Minnesota was a failure, and they fell 3-1, on the verge of an early vacation, at the fangs of the Timberwolves. Keep in mind that Donte DiVicenzo tore his Achilles tendon a few minutes into the game, and Anthony Edwards couldn’t proceed in the second half after grotesquely hyperextending his left knee.

 

The Nuggets had Aaron Gordon, who missed Game 3, back wounded with a calf injury. He played 23 minutes and it was 23 minutes too long because he rarely showed any burst to pressure the ball or had lift on his legs to attack. 

 

Ayo Dosunmu gutted the Nuggets with 43 bench points on 76.5 percent shooting and was the main story of the game, and Rudy Gobert did another fine job of slowing down Nikola Jokić.

 

Yet, late-game foolishness is partially overshadowing the outcome: Jokić didn’t like that their gracious hosts were going to run up the score, so he charged at Jaden McDaniels by the sideline, getting in his personal space and forcing him to put his hands up to shove. Naturally, the Timberwolves’ bench being steps away was not pleased, coming forward, which is a violation that causes a suspension. Yet the NBA has not always enforced it.

 

Complaining about the score is soft, especially when the king of drop coverage hurts his team, being such a poor and unwilling pick-and-roll defender. Keep in mind that he’s also been way below standards on offense, too, making only 39.1 percent of attempts, being uncareful and not the same volume of playmaker, in part because of how hounding the Wolves have been on his teammates.

 

It’s unclear how the new head of NBA discipline James Jones will rule, but he should suspend Jokić. If someone did what he did to another on the sidewalk or in another public place in front of law-enforcement, good chance they’re getting booked with battery.  Athletes shouldn’t get away with doing things normal people can’t for the sake of entertainment or somehow them being special. 

 

One could even interpret the situation as him trying to be a martyr by causing a reaction from Minnesota’s bench. Still, the potential for making things worse in that regard should be weighted against him in the verdict. 

 

Jokić’s behavior was unbecoming of a champion, especially one of his status. 

 

Coach David Adelman thinks “it’s hilarious that the narrative is offense doesn’t matter. If you shoot 24 percent in the second half, it’s hard to win.” Of course it matters, but he should more worried about how his team knew they couldn’t hang with the Wolves.

 

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: First round notes of the West playoffs

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Pity those who are missing the action because the playoffs have been terrific, as usual. And respect to those who are sacrificing sleep to not miss a moment.

The playoffs reveal who teams really are, and for many fans, it’s a gratifying or humbling experience.

Let’s review what has stood out on the West side.

Thunder v. Suns

 

Oklahoma City has enough horsepower to get by the Phoenix Suns, but they’ll sweat a bit more in the upcoming games now that Jalen Williams is out with a left hamstring injury. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will take on more playmaking duties, but they’ll need to find some relief ball-handling in Alex Caruso or Ajax Mitchell by the time next round starts.

The Thunder have averaged 24 more points per game than Phoenix through the first two outings.

 

The Spurs’ depth is being tested without Wembanyama

 

Victor Wembanyama crash-landed through the lane with his face absorbing the worst of the contact in the Spurs’ Game 2 loss at home to the Portland Trail Blazers. Aside from it being a surprise the fall didn’t knock him out, he somehow kept his teeth. He was concussed and his status going forward is unclear.

 

The game developed into a track meet, and the Spurs dropped a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter because of an inability to cover the 3-point line. Without Wemby, the Trail Blazers have no fear of going into the lane for the bucket or kick-out pass. Luke Kornet and rookie Carter Bryant will have to survive big minutes as the big men when they are less potent than whoever Portland deploys.

 

And Wemby’s absence creates a need for more scoring. De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle will be expected to carry most of the load.

 

Keep in mind that former Spur, Tiago Splitter, is the coach on the other side. And Scoot Henderson, the third pick in the 2023 draft is turning into the player many expected him to be. He averaged 14.2 points on 41.8 percent shooting in 30 regular-season games and those numbers have jumped to 24.5 points per game on 64.3 percent accuracy as the series is tied at 1-1. Of course, maintaining that level is not possible, but no player has raised their stock more than him so far in the early action.

 

Nuggets are in danger against the Timberwolves

 

Calf and hamstring injuries have plagued Aaron Gordon over the last two years, and the former is bothering him again, which caused him to miss Game 3 in Minnesota. The team was soft on the inside without him because they got ravaged by drive-bys. It doesn’t help them that the Wolves can target Nikola Jokić when they want through screen rolls, either.

 

The Nuggets started Spencer Jones in Gordon’s place, but he lacks the two-way punch. Meanwhile, the team isn’t getting enough from Christian Braun and Cam Johnson, placing more weight on Jamal Murray and Jokić’s shoulders.

 

The Timberwolves’ defense reaches a higher level, and when their ball movement is working like it has over the last two games, they are the superior team.

 

Lakers v. Rockets

 

For those who enjoy fine wine, this is the series for them because LeBron James is averaging nearly a triple-double, in his 23rd season, as the Los Angeles Lakers have taken a 2-0 lead over the Houston Rockets. Luka Dončić (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (strained oblique), the team’s first and third best players, haven’t played since April 2. Reaves is questionable to return for Game 3 in Houston on Friday.

 

One wonders how potent the Lakers can be if they manage to get Dončić, Reaves and James all together for this postseason.

 

Kevin Durant missed the series opener for the Rockets with a knee injury, and is questionable for Game 3 with an ankle sprain.

 

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Jaden McDaniels sends a message to the Nuggets after Minnesota’s Game 2 win

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Remember when Michael Jordan, via propagandadized Last Dance tapes, said the sign of a good man is when he can talk trash when they are tied or down?

 

Well, Jaden McDaniels coldly taunted the Nuggets after the Minnesota Timberwolves’ epic road comeback that tied round one (1-1). He has no respect for their defense, and he called players out by name when answering questions in the locker room.

 

“Go at  [Nikola] Jokić, Jamal [Murray], all the bad defenders. Tim Hardaway [Jr.], Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, their whole team.”

 

Woah — if that’s not the wake up call the Nuggets need, then they’ll find themselves as a pile of bones in the Wolves’ den.

 

Jokić was hunted, and the team didn’t pressure enough catches behind the 3-point line. It would be one thing if McDaniels’ comments came from someone who didn’t have too much experience playing Denver in the playoffs. But he was already a big factor on a team that beat them in 2024. He didn’t play in their first-round series in 2023, which Denver won, because he foolishly broke his hand by punching a wall before the playoffs started. Rest assured he knows exactly what the Nuggets are made of.

 

So far, McDaniels has been Minnesota’s fourth best player in the series plus third-leading scorer (15 points on 44.8 percent shooting), and he’s been better than every opponent not named Jokić and Murray. It doesn’t help Denver either that Peyton Watson, who hasn’t played since April 1 after re-triggering his hamstring injury, hasn’t been available to chase McDaniels around or make him backpedal.

 

Circumstances like Watson’s, Jonas Valančiūnas not being a dependable backup, and Spencer Jones being caught in too many mismatches, have turned coach David Adelman into Michael Malone since he doesn’t trust the bench. As a result, Murray and Jokić are leading the series in minutes at 41.1 and 40.2. 

 

 

As the series shifts to Minnesota, the Nuggets need more scoring out of Gordon, even if it means he’s a release valve, waiting for the kick-out pass. On top of that, Jokić has only made 18.8 percent of attempts outside of the lane through two games. Plenty of those are great looks, and he needs to be sharper if he wants to lead this team to the next round because they can’t afford for his offense to be below standard with how much of a liability he is on the other side.

 

Keep in mind that Anthony Edwards is also shooting 21.4 percent on shots outside of the paint for Minnesota. The Nuggets will be in even bigger trouble if he snaps out of it before Jokić.



Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards Emerging as Marlins Next Great Middle Infield Duo

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It’s ironic that while the Miami Marlins are bringing back the uniforms and colors of a glorified past, they are sporting the next iconic middle infield duo.

Like Luis Castillo-Alex Gonzalez and Dan Uggla-Hanley Ramirez before them, Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards are emerging from low-key acquisitions as key parts of the Marlins lineup.

Lopez came to the Marlins in 2024 as a waiver claim. Just as the Marlins were slowly trading away pieces of their most recent playoff team, Lopez emerged as an intriguing rookie with a .270 batting average, 20 stolen bases, and elite defense at second base.

His bat has taken the next step this year, batting .337 with a .945 OPS through 22 games. He was a double shy of a cycle last Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Marlins manager Clayton McCullough says Lopez is taking “less empty at-bats,” which is leading to better results.

“He’s a physically strong guy,” McCullough said of Lopez. “Maybe it doesn’t appear that way. It’s a really compact body. He’s strong. He’s got strong hands. There’s speed in his bat. So I think it’s not, to me, that completely shocking, that we’re seeing some of this.”

Around the same time, Edwards was also emerging alongside Lopez, batting .328 with 31 stolen bases in 70 games. Edwards didn’t replicate those numbers through the course of a full season in 2025 but his start to this season (.341/.423/.482) is signaling a return to his breakout season.

Edwards said during an interview with Five Reasons contributor Tyler Boronski that he has “been swinging at good pitches for the most part” and doesn’t feel the need to enter new seasons with statistical goals.

“I did that in years past and it’s kind of put pressure on myself to feel like I need to hit certain numbers,” Edwards said. “My goal this year is to play my game do my best every day and at the end of the year, I’ll look up and be happy with what I got.”

Unlike middle infield duos of the Marlins’ past, Edwards and Lopez switched positions and benefited from the adjustment.

“Otto has a bigger arm than me,” Edwards said. “We’re both really good defenders and pretty athletic so it’s a treat to play infield with him for parts of three years.”

Edwards came to Miami in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays leading up to the 2023 season. He was part of the Marlins’ fourth postseason appearance in franchise history (second since 2020) but became a key part of the rapid rebuild.

“We had a bit of an older team in 23 and now we’re one of the younger teams in the league,” Edwards said. “We made the playoffs that year and we got a good team this year, so looking to do the same this year. It’s been a lot of turnover but it’s a great group that we have here. It’s been a treat to come to the field with these guys and to suit up with them and spend time in the clubhouse. We got a great group.”

Mateo’s Hoop Diary: The Nuggets dropped Game 2 as Jokić and Murray went cold in the fourth quarter

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It didn’t take long for Nuggets versus Timberwolves to become a special series. This is the third meeting in the last four years, which has built up animosity and on-court respect, and Game 2 should be remembered as a classic.

 

The Wolves took a bit longer to join the party at Ball Arena, going down 19 points in the first half as Jamal Murray pieced them up from short, middle and long range, plus they fouled three 3-point shots. They followed up cranking up their pressure and ball movement, which put snipers in rhythm, while Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle broke past defenders to the cup. 

 

It was a stalemate at intermission, and Nikola Jokić, who had a dormant first half, was the Terminator in the third quarter, making hooks, layups and a 3-pointer while carving up schemes with his passing. Such activities usually avert a crisis, but the Wolves kept hanging around because that was the Nuggets’ best shot of the game. 

 

Jokić and Murray subsequently went colder than blizzard as the outcome hung in the balance. Rudy Gobert, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year, deserves tons of props for slowing down Jokić to one of eight attempts, and he jammed a mean putback over him with two minutes left. On top of that, Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels and Donte DiVincenzo’s offensive labor crushed Denver’s spirit. 

 

It gets worse. The Nuggets were down three points after Randle buried two freebies with 19 seconds left. Murray then ran a screen-roll with Jokić, but the Wolves were well prepared covering the arc, and he pulled up inside it, bricking it, which turned into DiVincenzo’s fastbreak dunk to close the curtains. 

 

The Nuggets lost 119-114 after seven ties and 15 lead changes. They got massacred in the trenches, as the Wolves scored 20 second-chance points to their three. Additionally, it didn’t help them that they stopped trusting Aaron Gordon. He’s one of the NBA’s most macho players, being irrepressible at close range so he should have got more touches. 

 

There’s no doubt, either, the epic comeback brought back memories to Nuggets players and supporters of when the Timberwolves came back from down 20 points to eliminate them in Game 7 two years ago in round two. One wonders how psychologically damaging it’ll be for the Nuggets that this team stays on them like a shadow. 

 

They now find themselves in the danger zone with home court flipping to Minnesota since Edwards can be much better from 3-point range, and the Wolves are not typically bad enough to blank 11 free throws, too (63.3 percent). Since coach David Adelman is not relying on the bench outside of Tim Hardaway Jr., and Bruce Brown, more weight is on the shoulders of the team’s top three to deliver.