3 keys for Timberwolves against defending champion Nuggets

The Timberwolves will appear in the Western Conference Semifinals for the first time since 2004, tipping off Game 1 vs. the Nuggets Saturday at 6 p.m. (CT) in Denver.

Minnesota will need all hands on deck to knock off the defending champs, but there are three things that stand out to be major keys in determining who will advance to the Western Conference Finals.

There is no surprise that Denver's offense runs through 2x NBA MVP Nikola Jokic. His unorthodox play style makes him one of the toughest players to defend in the league and nobody has seemed to be able to figure it out in the last 5+ seasons.

But if there is one team designed to at least slow down Jokic, it would be the Timberwolves. Minnesota has three bigs – Rudy Gobert, Karl Anthony-Towns and Naz Reid – to throw at him and give him different looks all game.

In the first round of the playoffs last season without Reid, the Wolves held Jokic to his worst series of the playoffs when he averaged still-staggering 26.2 points (lowest), 12.4 rebounds (lowest) and 9.0 assists (2nd-lowest) on 48.5% (lowest) shooting.

Keep in mind that Minnesota was also without Jaden McDaniels in last year's playoffs, and he's a long defender who could help make things difficult for Jokic.

Jamal Murray is one of the best playoff performers of the last 10 years, but his game is built around offensive shot-making. He has had a negative defensive box plus-minus (DBPM) every single year of his career in the regular season and Mike Malone has done a terrific job of hiding his struggles on that end of the floor.

DBPM is a statistic that measures a player's defensive contribution compared to the league average and Murray has a -1.6 mark in the playoffs, meaning he is a below-average defender. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope will likely be the primary defender on Anthony Edwards, with Aaron Gordon on Towns, Michael Porter Jr. on McDaniels and Jokic on Gobert, so that leaves Murray on Mike Conley Jr.

It will be imperative for the Wolves coaching staff to get Murray in unfavorable positions guarding Edwards. Caldwell-Pope has been an impressive perimeter defender his whole career, especially in the playoffs. Therefore, both Conley and Edwards making Murray uncomfortable on defense will be a major key in this series.

Towns just completed one of the best playoff series of his career. He averaged 19.3 points and 9.5 rebounds and only 1.8 turnovers per game on 53.1% shooting from the field. The shooting percentage is the highest he's ever had in a series and the turnovers are his fewest.

His performance vs. the Phoenix Suns was proof of maturity and that he is comfortable in a secondary role next to Edwards, or even a tertiary role when another player steps up.

Last year against the Nuggets, Towns averaged 3.6 turnovers per game and shot 45.7% from the field, so if he is able to keep his head on straight and have numbers close to the series vs. the Suns, the Wolves will have a better chance of advancing to the conference finals.