The Minnesota Timberwolves took it to the Denver Nuggets on Monday night. Despite Rudy Gobert missing the game, the Wolves walked into Denver and put the clamps on the defending champions, as the best defense in the NBA flexed its muscles en route to a 106-80 win that put them in total control of the series as it shifts to Minnesota.
Seeing the Nuggets get punched in the mouth like this really resonated with Charles Barkley, who discussed the state of the series on Inside the NBA. Barkley, as it turns out, is so impressed with the Timberwolves that he predicts they’ll go on to win Games 3 and 4 on their way to a sweep.
Chuck: “This series is a wrap. Minnesota is better than the Nuggets. They don’t have an advantage anywhere. … They’re gonna sweep the Denver Nuggets. Period.”
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“This series is a wrap,” Barkley said. “Minnesota is better than the Nuggets. No disrespect, they don’t have an advantage, the MVP is getting outplayed. They don’t have an advantage anywhere. Jamal Murray, I think he’s still hurt a little bit, but other than that, they don’t have an advantage anywhere. This series is a wrap, the Minnesota Timberwolves — you know, I said before the season I didn’t believe in them. They have changed my mind 100 percent. They are going to win this series, I don’t know who they’re gonna play in the other series, could be very entertaining.
“But man, they are for real,” Barkley continued. “They have that guy. If you have that guy, and that Bulldog, he might well be a damn wolf. Because he ain’t messing around. He’s like, ‘Boys, y’all come on and follow me.’ And the other guys are following him.”
Barkley then went on to discuss Nikola Jokic, who struggled from the field and had eight assists to four turnovers in Game 2. While he knows that Jokic is great, Barkley said that the Timberwolves are making life hard for him, even without Gobert, saying, “you know how rough it’s gonna be going to Minnesota against those two guys?”
“You never thought that Denver was gonna win that game tonight,” Barkley said. “The Minnesota Timberwolves are for real. They’re gonna sweep the Denver Nuggets, period.”