(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Tuesday morning brought a question that few NBA fans were expecting: Are the Denver Nuggets on the verge of being pushed out of the playoffs?
The reigning champions took a major step toward elimination on Monday evening, losing, 106-80, to the Minnesota Timberwolves and falling into a devastating 0-2 hole in the Western Conference semifinals.
While it isn’t technically impossible for the Nuggets to come back from being down 0-2, it is very hard, which has some people saying this series is done.
“Yeah, the series is over,” Craig Carton said on Tuesday’s “The Carton Show.”
“Yeah, the series is over.”
— @craigcartonlive reacts to the Timberwolves 2-0 lead over the Nuggets pic.twitter.com/MNmpsbiFuE
— The Carton Show (@TheCartonShow) May 7, 2024
He listed the reasons why: he said that the Nuggets have lived a charmed life for the last few years as the most feared team in the league, especially when they are playing at home.
Indeed, they have found great success while in Denver and they were counting on that during these first two games of the series.
Unfortunately for them, even their mile-high elevation and devoted fans couldn’t give them the home-court advantage.
Carton and others have said that the Nuggets looked lazy during Game 2, playing without a sense of urgency.
But the truth is, Minnesota just found ways to limit them again and again.
Denver’s two biggest stars, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, were totally minimized because of the Timberwolves’ defense and they weren’t threatening at all.
The team will need to shake off whatever is slowing them down and play in a completely different way for the upcoming games.
They have a few days to rework their plans and figure out a new approach to the Timberwolves.
If they can’t, this series really will be over, and the reigning champions will lose their chance at back-to-back titles.
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