The Minnesota Timberwolves season might already be on the line, and their starting big men probably won’t rescue them.
During the Denver Nuggets’ 122-113 win in Game 2 to take a 2-0 series lead, what Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert brought to the table was questioned by Charles Barkley. Mind you: the NBA on TNT never said their names himself.
As Denver cruised to a 64-49 halftime lead, Kenny Smith started to praise the talent Minnesota had at its disposal, especially at the 4 and 5 positions. In his rebuttal, Barkley completely disagreed with Smith. He named Mike Conley (who is “102 years old”) and Anthony Edwards as players he likes but purposely left out Towns and Gobert.
When Smith questioned this excluding opinion, Barkley had a perfect reaction that essentially amounted to “Did I stutter?”
Charles Barkley not a fan of Minnesota and only a fan of Mike Conley and Anthony Edwards 😭 pic.twitter.com/o0qhL448Cz
— x – Alex 👋 (@Dubs408) April 20, 2023
It’s worth noting that after this discussion, the Timberwolves would get it together and make the Nuggets sweat out the win in the second half. However, it probably had a lot less to do with Towns and a measly 10 points and 12 boards and Gobert being routinely abused by Nikola Jokic in the post.
It was Edwards, the true face of the franchise, dropping 41 points that brought Minnesota back first and foremost. Just like Barkley alluded to while excluding players holding the Timberwolves back.