Timberwolves stun defending champion Nuggets out of NBA playoffs, Pacers shoot down Knicks

The Minnesota Timberwolves authored a stunning second-half comeback to beat the Denver Nuggets 98-90, knocking the defending champions out of the NBA playoffs.

It marked the sixth straight season that the defending champions failed to make it out of the second round.

"The teams are more hungry, better, (more) talented than last year," Denver star Nikola Jokic said of the difficulty of repeating, even in a season in which he scooped a third Most Valuable Player award.

"Everybody gets better. Everybody wants to beat us, probably."

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The Timberwolves followed up a 45-point game-six victory with an epic comeback from 20 points down in the third quarter to win their best-of-seven series 4-3 and book a Western Conference finals clash with the Dallas Mavericks.

Karl-Anthony Towns scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Jaden McDaniels added 23 points and Anthony Edwards hit his stride late as the Timberwolves became the first team to come back from a halftime deficit of more than 11 points to win a game seven.

"I think our poise was the most (important) thing," Edwards told broadcaster TNT after he shook off his early struggles to score 12 of his 16 points in the second half.

The Nuggets went cold as Edwards and the Timberwolves built a rhythm and cut the deficit to one point going into the final quarter, then took on a driving layup by Rudy Gobert early in the fourth.

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"They were scoring," said Jokic, who scored 14 of his 34 points in the fourth. "They had a lot of offensive rebounds. We cannot make shots.

"I think we had a lot of open looks, wide-open looks, but that's what happens. Sometimes you make shots, sometimes you miss shots, and today I think we missed a lot of good shots.

"But that's not just on us. They played some good defense."

Jamal Murray scored 35 points for Denver, but had just 11 in the second half.

"It's tough when you get the looks you want and you don't make them and they come down and score," Murray said. "I felt like we got the shots we wanted and the opportunities were there."

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But Jokic said he wouldn't buy into the notion that defeat felt worse because the Nuggets should have won.

"I don't believe in that," the Serbian star said. "I think the team who wins is the better team."

Elsewhere, the Indiana Pacers put on a shooting clinic to throttle the New York Knicks 130-109 on Sunday and book an NBA Eastern Conference finals showdown with the top-seeded Boston Celtics.

The Pacers won their second straight game - and their first on the road in the series - to complete a 4-3 triumph at Madison Square Garden, where their stunning offensive display silenced the crowd and sent them into the conference finals for the first time in a decade.

Tyrese Haliburton scored 26 points while Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard added 20 apiece. Six Pacers players scored in double figures as Indiana connected on an NBA playoff record 67.1% of their shots.

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Donte DiVincenzo made nine three-pointers on the way to 39 points for the Knicks. Jalen Brunson scored 17 and handed out nine assists before departing with a broken left hand at the start of the fourth quarter - the final injury blow for the ravaged Knicks team.

The Pacers had struggled on the road in these playoffs but seized control at Madison Square Garden with a breathtaking first-half offensive display that saw them connect on 29 of 38 shots in the first half, a 76.3 shooting percentage.

They led 39-27 after the first quarter, silencing the New York crowd.

"We were not expected to win these games," Haliburton said after the Pacers won after trailing 0-2 and 2-3 in the series. "We just came out, played free and had fun."

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The Knicks showed signs of life with an 8-2 scoring run to close the second quarter but Siakam blunted the momentum shift with a block on Brunson at the rim to end the period leaving the Pacers up 70-55 at halftime.

The Knicks cut the deficit to six early in the third, but the Pacers - whose defensive effort included nine blocked shots and seven steals - had all the answers.

"Just a great game overall, top to bottom for us," Haliburton said. "We hadn't won on the road all series - we just found a way."

The Knicks, chasing a first Eastern Conference finals berth since 2000, hurt their own cause with two costly turnovers on inbound plays and the Pacers quickly pushed the lead back to 19 points.

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