The Minnesota Timberwolves had a chance to end their first-round playoff series with the Denver Nuggets on April 30, 2024, but they went into Game 5 at Ball Arena trailing after one quarter, 34-29.
Minnesota carried a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series into the game, which was televised by NBC and Peacock with Noah Eagle handling play-by-play. KFAN and the iHeart app carried the radio broadcast, with Alan Horton and Jim Petersen on the call.
The Timberwolves were trying to finish the series while still missing Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo, who were injured in Saturday’s Game 4 victory. That made the task harder in Denver, where the Nuggets had the early edge in Game 5.
The setup showed how quickly a playoff series can change shape. Minnesota had already put itself within one win of moving on, but doing it without its starting backcourt left the team to lean on the same depth that helped it win Game 4.
By the first-quarter break, Denver had given itself a foothold. For Minnesota, the next stretch mattered because the series was no longer about the size of its lead entering Game 5. It was about whether the Timberwolves could close it without the two guards they lost on Saturday.