DENVER, Colorado — Anthony Edwards scored 30 points, Julius Randle added 24, and the Minnesota Timberwolves rallied past the Denver Nuggets, 119-114, on Monday night to tie their Western Conference playoff series at one game apiece.
Denver had won 13 straight since losing on March 18.
Edwards turned the ball over with 31 seconds left and Christian Braun got fouled at the other end, but he missed one of two free throws, leaving Denver trailing 115-114 with 19 seconds remaining.
After a Minnesota timeout, Randle sank two free throws and Donte DiVincenzo added a breakaway dunk to cap the comeback from a 19-point first-quarter deficit.
Jamal Murray scored 30 points, and Nikola Jokic had 24 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists. But the Nuggets’ All-Star duo shot a combined 2 for 12 in the fourth quarter, managing a measly four points as the Wolves evened a best-of-seven series that shifts to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Thursday night.
Denver blew a chance to take control against its Northwest Division rival. The Nuggets are 8-0 in their history when winning the first two games of a playoff series, and the Wolves are 0-8 when dropping Games 1 and 2.
Murray sank a 51-foot three-pointer at the halftime buzzer to tie it at 64. Jokic came on strong after a quiet start, scoring 16 points in the third quarter when the Nuggets took a 93-90 lead.
Edwards looked much better than he did during his 22-point effort in Game 1, when his rust from a bum knee was apparent. This time, he drove to the basket more instead of settling for jumpers.
Minnesota, which outscored Denver, 20-3, in second-chance points, rallied from an early 19-point deficit and surged to a 64-56 lead only to watch the Nuggets score the last eight points of the first half.
Murray, who missed all eight of his three-pointers in the series opener, started things off Monday night with a 3 and was 5 for 7 from deep before halftime. In the first quarter, he had a pair of four-point plays, fouled both times by Ayo Dosunmu.
Before tip-off, Wolves coach Chris Finch complained for a third straight day about the free-throw disparity in Game 1, when the Nuggets outscored Minnesota, 30-14, from the stripe. He cracked that maybe his players need to “start flopping, too.”
Nuggets coach David Adelman pointed out that some of Murray’s 16 free throws — he made all of them — were because of flagrant and technical fouls by Minnesota in a particularly physical Game 1.
The Wolves, despite their coach’s umbrage, settled for jumpers early on in Game 2 and were whistled for 11 fouls to Denver’s four in the first quarter, when the Nuggets surged to a 44-25 lead.
Led by Edwards, they started getting to the rim and that’s what fueled their comeback.
Both teams shot 30 free throws this time, with the Wolves making 19 and Denver 23.
Hawks 107, Knicks 106
In New York, CJ McCollum scored 32 points, and the Atlanta Hawks rallied to stun the New York Knicks, tying their first-round playoff series at one game apiece.
McCollum led a late surge that was almost for naught when he missed two free throws with 5.6 seconds remaining. The Knicks rushed the ball up the court without any timeouts left, but Mikal Bridges missed a jumper as time expired.
“It’s a long game,” McCollum said. “You’ve got to play to zero.”
The Hawks had trailed the whole second half and were down 12 after three quarters. Atlanta chipped away, and a basket by McCollum gave the Hawks a 101-100 lead — their first of the series in the second half — with 2:09 to play. He made another for a three-point lead, and after Jalen Brunson tied it with a three-pointer, McCollum answered with another jumper to make it 105-103 with 33 seconds to play.
Jonathan Kuminga added 19 points off the bench and Jalen Johnson scored 17, including a basket with 10 seconds left for a four-point lead for the No. 6 seeds, who host Game 3 on Thursday.
Brunson had 29 points for the Knicks and Karl-Anthony Towns added 18.
The Knicks are trying to reach the second round for a fourth straight season, their longest stretch since the 1991–92 to 1999–2000 seasons, and seemed well on their way.
