[ad_1]

Tap here for play-by-play and in-game boxscore

The Timberwolves and Nuggets are meeting tonight in Game 1 of their playoff series. The Star Tribune’s Wolves beat reporter Chris Hine has live reports from Ball Arena in Denver.

7:03 p.m.: Nuggets lead 44-40 at halftime despite no points from Jamal Murray

The Timberwolves offense was non-existent — except for Anthony Edwards — and they trail the Nuggets 44-40 at halftime.

Edwards had 25 of Minnesota’s 40 points on 10-for-17 shooting, while the rest of the Wolves were just 6-for-27. Karl-Anthony Towns had three of those field goals for nine points.

The Wolves defense has done a commendable job limiting the efficient Denver offense — the Nuggets are just 16-for-40 from the floor — but the Wolves have failed to take advantage of that on the other end.

The Wolves have shut down Jamal Murray, who finished the half 0-for-5 and didn’t score, as Edwards handled a lot of one-on-one duties against Murray. Murray was the hero of Denver’s first round victory over the Lakers, hitting winning shots in Games 2 and 5.

Nikola Jokic has 15 points, four rebounds and five assists for Denver while Michael Porter Jr. has 13.

6:35 p.m.: Denver rallies from 18-4 hole to take first quarter lead 25-23

The Wolves couldn’t have started the first quarter and better – and they couldn’t have ended it any worse.

After they went up 18-4 to begin the game, Denver closed the quarter on a 21-5 run to take a 25-23 lead after one.

Anthony Edwards had 16 points for the Wolves, who shut Denver down when the teams had their starters on the floor. They held Jamal Murray to 0-for-3 from the field and held Denver to just four points over the first 7:10 of the game.

But Denver is never more than one run away from getting back in a game.

The Wolves’ bench minutes, one of their prospective strengths coming into the series, were a disaster in the first quarter. Naz Reid tried too hard at times to make things happen and missed an easy shot and had a costly turnover. The Wolves had trouble scoring outside of Edwards.

Nikola Jokic, likely the NBA MVP this season for the third time, had nine in the first for the Nuggets.

6:10 p.m.: Finch has a nice spot from which to coach

The question about how Chris Finch would coach the Wolves tonight was answered pretty quickly and comfortably.

Finch sat to the right of lead assistant coach Micah Nori, a row behind Nori. A radio broadcast table is protecting Finch from oncoming traffic.

Finch is able to get up and talk with players during timeouts.

4:40 p.m.: Wolves coach Chris Finch will sit near team bench as Micah Nori calls out plays

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch left his crutches with a member of the team’s public relations staff and climbed the press conference podium before the game.

“That was easy,” Finch joked before giving his first public comments since having surgery Wednesday on a torn right patellar tendon.

Finch suffered the injury Sunday in the closeout game of a first-round series in Phoenix and there were questions as to just what his role would be in this series.

He will be in the bench area for Game helping assistant Micah Nori, who will be handling game interaction and game flow duties as the standing coach on the sideline.

“I feel pretty good, all things considered. The plan was to try and be here all along,” Finch said. “Just see how I felt day by day. And then kind of figure out logistically how it might work being on the bench and with the other coaches.”

Finch has been using crutches to get around at Wolves practice the last few days and before the game. Finch said the goal since he suffered the injury was to make it to Denver and help any way he could following Wednesday’s surgery.

“I was wide open on everything,” Finch said. “They told me that they really wanted me to just rest. I’ve been trying to do that. But I also wanted to be here, if I could be here in any capacity. That was the most important thing for me. Just literally taking it day by day and see how I felt.”

[ad_2]