SI:AM | Timberwolves’ Game 7 Comeback Was One for the Ages

Down 20. On the road. Against the defending champs. No big deal.

Minnesota’s swarming defense keyed its Game 7 comeback. / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I thought for sure after Xander Schauffele’s tee shot on 18 found the rough that we were going to get a three-hole playoff. But give him credit for making a very impressive birdie to win it.

In today’s SI:AM:

🐺 Minnesota’s stunning comeback
❌ Xander’s first major
🥊 Boxing’s undisputed heavyweight champ

Can anyone beat them?

With two Games 7s on the docket, Sunday was shaping up to an NBA fan’s dream. But after the Indiana Pacers blew out the remnants of the New York Knicks and the Denver Nuggets took a 20-point second-half lead over the Minnesota Timberwolves, the day looked like it’d be a total dud.

But not so fast! Minnesota proceeded to mount the largest Game 7 comeback on record (since the NBA began keeping play-by-play data in 1998) to eliminate the defending champions on their home court.

The Nuggets’ lead stretched to as many as 20 early in the third quarter when a Jamal Murray three-pointer made it 58–38. But from that point forward, the Timberwolves out-scored the Nuggets 60–32. It was an incredible performance for any team, but especially one so short on playoff experience.

The most improbable aspect of the comeback was that Minnesota was able to pull it off despite an off shooting night from its leading scorer, Anthony Edwards. His struggles in the first half (four points on 1-of-7 shooting) were a big reason why the T-Wolves found themselves trailing in the first place. And he wasn’t much better in the second half, scoring 12 points on 5-of-17 shooting. He made just one of the eight shots he took in the fourth quarter.

Actually, the most improbable aspect of the comeback might have been that Rudy Gobert played a major role offensively. Gobert, who averaged 14 points per game in the regular season, scored 10 in the second half, including an extremely uncharacteristic fadeaway jumper while being smothered by Nikola Jokić to beat the shot clock.

RUDY GOBERT... THE FALLAWAY J!

Wolves up 4 in the 4Q on TNT 👀 pic.twitter.com/QzLMxiRh3d

— NBA (@NBA) May 20, 2024

Gobert simply does not hit shots like that. He’s rarely a factor offensively, and when he is, it’s only in the immediate vicinity of the basket. In the regular season, 75.7% of his shots were taken from within three feet of the hoop. That includes 44.1% of his attempts being dunks. Only 4.7% of his shots were from outside 10 feet. And yet, at one of the most important junctures of the game, he briefly turned into Dirk Nowitzki.

“Yeah, I think when Rudy hit the turnaround I was like, ‘Yeah, we probably got ‘em,’” Edwards said after the game.

It wasn’t the offense that was the key to the comeback, though. It was the defense. The T-Wolves had the best defense in the NBA this season, and it was the reason they won this series. In the four games that Minnesota won, Denver scored just 84.8 points per game.

In Game 7, Minnesota’s defense forced Jokić and Murray to try to win the game by themselves. Together they accounted for 69 of Denver’s 90 points, and 32 of the team’s 37 second-half points. The Nuggets’ secondary scoring options, like Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr., were non-factors.

“I mean, I think they’re built to beat us,” Jokić told reporters. “Just look at their roster. They have basically two All-Stars, two probably first-team defensive players. Mike Conley is the most underrated player in the NBA, probably.

“From the bench, they have a Sixth Man of the Year [Naz Reid]. ... [They are] one team that they can do literally everything. They can be big, small.”

Jokić may be right that this Timberwolves team is designed perfectly to beat the Nuggets. But it’s also time to start considering that they’re designed perfectly to beat everyone and lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy next month.

Schauffele won his first major Sunday. / Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY

The best of Sports Illustrated

• After many close calls, Xander Schauffele finally captured the first major championship of his career with a birdie on the last hole of the PGA Championship. Bob Harig has more on Schauffele’s difficult final round and his gutsy birdie on 18.

• Harig also wrote about the end of Scottie Scheffler’s bizarre week.

• Schauffele’s birdie avoided a playoff with runner-up Bryson DeChambeau. But with seven birdies—and one very lucky bounce off a tree—DeChambeau put on a memorable show, Pat Forde writes.

• Jeff Ritter and John Schwarb compiled a list of intriguing stats and facts from the final round.

• Chris Mannix was in Saudi Arabia this weekend, where Oleksandr Usyk won a very close fight against Tyson Fury to claim boxing’s undisputed heavyweight championship.

• Clare Brennan was in Brooklyn for the Liberty-Fever game and saw Caitlin Clark have the best game of her brief career, even though New York stomped Indiana and reinforced its standing as a title contender.

• An NCAA study found that one-third of high-profile college athletes have faced threats from gamblers.

The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Gunnar Henderson’s 15th homer of the season. He’s tied for the MLB lead.
4. Henderson is tied with the Astros’ Kyle Tucker, who hit not one but two home runs yesterday.
3. Will Brennan’s walk-off homer to complete the Guardians’ sweep over the Twins. Cleveland remains in first place in the AL Central.
2. The fight between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Busch after NASCAR’s All-Star Race.
1. This straight-up disrespectful tackle in a South African rugby game.