Wolves dethrone Nuggets; Pacers boot Knicks out

KARL-ANTHONY Towns had 23 points and 12 rebounds and the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves overcame a 20-point, third-quarter deficit to beat the Denver Nuggets 98-90 on Sunday night in Game 7 of a Western Conference semifinal series.

Minnesota is headed to the Western Conference finals for the first time in 20 years after winning in Denver for the third time in the series. The Timberwolves won Game 7 against the Sacramento Kings in a second-round playoff series in 2004 to reach the conference finals.

Minnesota, the No. 3 seed, faces the fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 on Wednesday night in Minneapolis.

Jaden McDaniels also scored 23 points and Anthony Edwards was 6-for-24 shooting but finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists to end the Nuggets’ bid for a second straight NBA title. Rudy Gobert was big down the stretch, scoring eight of his 13 points in the fourth quarter.

Nikola Jokic had 34 points and 19 rebounds and Jamal Murray scored 35 points for Denver. It is the second time in six seasons the Nuggets have lost a Game 7 at home.

In New York, Tyrese Haliburton scored 26 points for the visiting Indiana Pacers, who rode a historic shooting performance to a 130-109 win over the New York Knicks in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series Sunday afternoon.

Indiana shot 67.1 percent (53-of-79) from the field — the highest shooting percentage ever in an NBA playoff game. They broke the previous record held by the 1990 Boston Celtics, who shot 67 percent (63-of-94) in a 157-128 win over the Knicks in a first-round game.

The Pacers, who overcame series deficits of 2-0 and 3-2, will face the Boston Celtics in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals, scheduled to begin Tuesday night. This is the first trip to the conference finals for Indiana since 2014.

The Knicks, who played short-handed throughout the series and lost star point guard Jalen Brunson to a fractured left hand in the third quarter Sunday, fell short in their bid to appear in the conference finals for the first time since 2000.

Minnesota took its first lead since the first quarter on Mr. Gobert’s floater 12 seconds into the fourth, and it later found itself up 77-72 after two Gobert free throws with 8:23 to go. Mr. Jokic missed his first seven three-pointers of the game but hit two shots from deep to keep the Nuggets close, pulling them within 81-78 with 6:46 remaining.

Naz Reid, who scored 11 points, hit two free throws, blocked Mr. Jokic’s fadeaway and had a put-back dunk later in the fourth. Mr. Edwards drained a three-pointer off a Murray turnover to put the Timberwolves ahead 92-82 with 3:07 left.

Denver closed within 93-88 with 1:02 left, but Towns’ dunk sealed Minnesota’s trip to the conference finals.

The Nuggets staged a 16-0 run bridging the first and second quarters and led 53-38 at halftime. They pushed their advantage to 58-38 with 10:50 remaining in the third quarter, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope missed a 17-footer that would have made it a 22-point lead.

The Timberwolves came storming back, using a 19-3 run to get within 61-57 with 3:05 left in the period. Towns then hit a pair of free throws to get Minnesota within two, and Edwards drained a 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds to go to make it 67-66 Denver heading into the fourth.

Andrew Nembhard and Pascal Siakam each scored 20 points while Aaron Nesmith had 19 points on 8-of-8 shooting for the Pacers.

Myles Turner scored 17 points while T.J. McConnell added 12 points off the bench. The 130 points were the most by a road team in a Game 7 in NBA history.

Donte DiVincenzo scored 39 points for the Knicks, who played the series without All-Star Julius Randle (out since January with a right shoulder injury). Mitchell Robinson didn’t play after Game 1 due to an aggravation of his left ankle injury while OG Anunoby missed the previous four games with a left hamstring before scoring five points in fewer than five first-quarter minutes Sunday.

Josh Hart played 36-plus minutes Sunday despite an abdominal injury he suffered in Game 6 Friday night.

Alec Burks had 26 points Sunday while Brunson had 17 points and nine assists. Hart tallied 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists before fouling out.

The road team entered Sunday 0-6 in the series, but the Pacers took control with a blistering first half in which they led by as many as 22 while shooting 76.3 percent (29-of-38) from the field — the best shooting percentage in a half in an NBA playoff game in the last 25 years, per ESPN.

The Knicks scored the first seven points of the third quarter to begin a 12-3 run that pulled them within 73-67 with 8:06 left. But Indiana answered with a 22-9 run and led by at least 13 throughout the fourth quarter. — Reuters