Timberwolves stage incredible comeback to beat Nuggets in Game 7 to reach Western Conference finals

It's the first time the Timberwolves have reached the Western Conference finals since 2004.

May 19, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) shoots / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

It's been 20 years since the Timberwolves reached the Western Conference finals.

They're finally back, and it was certainly worth the wait.

It didn't come easy. The Timberwolves had to overcome a 15-point halftime deficit. No team had ever come back from a deficit larger than 11 points in a Game 7 in NBA history. The Wolves had to battle their own offensive woes in a first half in which they looked completely out of sorts.

The Wolves had to overcome the defending champions, headlined by three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and star guard Jamal Murray, who together combined for a 69-point effort.

None of that mattered in the end as the Timberwolves rallied for a 98-90 victory over the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of their Western Conference semifinal series Sunday night in Denver.

That means the Dallas Mavericks are up next in the Western Conference finals.

It was a game of runs and rallies, but neither team was ready to go away. Karl-Anthony Towns, who delivered a truly terrific performance, picked up his fifth foul in the fourth quarter and had a brief stint on the bench. But Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid picked up right where Towns left off, making key plays on both sides of the ball in the waning minutes of Sunday night's contest.

First, Reid made a layup that put the Wolves up 85-80. Murray answered with a runner on the other end. Reid grabbed an offensive rebound after an Anthony Edwards miss on the ensuing possession and drew a foul, knocking down both free throws to make it 87-82.

Reid blocked Jokic's shot in the paint on the other end, and then cleaned up a missed 3 from Edwards, grabbing the offensive rebounds and throwing down a putback dunk.

Murray turned it over on the next possession and Edwards drilled a corner 3 to put the Wolves up 92-82 with 3 minutes, 5 seconds remaining in the contest. That was enough separation to seal the deal.

The Nuggets did cut their deficit to 93-88 with a minute remaining, but Towns grabbed a missed layup from Mike Conley and threw down a putback dunk to officially seal the game. Along with the impossible task of defending Jokic, Towns tallied 23 points and 12 rebounds.

Edwards finished with 16 points, eight boards and seven assists.

Jaden McDaniels followed up his 21-point performance in Game 6 with 23 points in Game 7. And that's in addition to the invaluable effort he provided on the defensive side of the basketball.

It all started with a third-quarter comeback. The Timberwolves were forced to dig their way out of a 15-point hole after an abysmal offensive showing in the first half that saw poor shot after poor shot and a number of shot-clock violations. They just looked out of sorts.

That didn't carry over to the third quarter, when the Timberwolves cut their 15-point deficit all the way down to one after Edwards drilled a 3 just before the third-quarter buzzer. Edwards came alive in the frame after being bottled up by Denver's double teams, which clearly frustrated him and caused a lot of the Timberwolves' offensive issues during the first half.

But the comeback allowed the Timberwolves to take their first lead since 19-18 in the first quarter when Rudy Gobert made a layup for the first bucket of the fourth quarter. The Wolves answered every Nuggets run, even as Jokic made bucket after bucket to keep Denver within striking distance.

It all added up to the Timberwolves returning to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2004. It's been a truly special season, and the Wolves have already reached heights that only one previous team in franchise history has. The sky is truly the limit for this year's Timberwolves.

And now, they're only eight wins away from a title.