Wolves demolish Nuggets, head home up 2-0
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds,
Anthony Edwards also had 27 points and the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets 106-80 on Monday to take a 2-0 lead in a Western Conference semifinal series.
Minnesota won without center Rudy Gobert, who was away from the team for the birth of his first child. The Timberwolves, holding a decisive edge on the reigning NBA champions, head back to Minneapolis for Game 3 of the best-of-7 series on Friday.
Even without Gobert, a three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, the Timberwolves held Denver to a season low in points. Jamal Murray scored eight points on 3-for-18 shooting but had a career-high 13 rebounds, and Nikola Jokic finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds.
Aaron Gordon led the Nuggets with 20 points, and Justin Holiday had 13 off the bench. Reggie Jackson left the game in the fourth quarter due to an apparent injury.
Elsewhere: Jalen Brunson continued his postseason magic with 43 points for his fourth straight 40-point effort as the New York Knicks recorded a 121-117 victory over the visiting Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference second-round series on Monday night. Donte DiVincenzo scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half and Josh Hart added 24 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists for New York, which erased a nine-point, fourth-quarter deficit.
Isaiah Hartenstein had 13 points and OG Anunoby added 13 points and nine rebounds for the Knicks. Game 2 is Wednesday night in New York . ... San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama was voted NBA Rookie of the Year in a unanimous decision on Monday. The French star received all 99 first-place votes from a media panel voting on the award, joining Ralph Sampson, David Robinson, Blake Griffin, Damian Lillard and Karl-Anthony Towns as unanimous winners of the award. Oklahoma City Thunder center Chet Holmgren was a strong runner-up by receiving 98 of a possible 99 second-place votes. Wembanyama lived up to the hype surrounding him as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft. He averaged 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.6 blocked shots and 1.2 steals in 71 games. Wembanyama became the first player in NBA history to tally 1,500 points, 700 rebounds, 250 assists, 250 blocked shots and 100 3-pointers in a season. Charlotte’s Brandon Miller (86 total points, including one secondplace vote), Miami’s
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (10 points), Golden State’s
Brandin Podziemski (four points) and Dallas’
Dereck Lively II (one point) also received votes.
ETC.
Blues: St. Louis removed the interim tag from coach Drew Bannister and signed him to a two-year contract on Tuesday. Bannister, 50, took over behind the bench on Dec. 14 after Craig Berube was fired following a 13-14-1 start. The Blues went 30-19-5 under Bannister’s leadership but missed the playoffs for a second straight season.