#2: The Timberwolves are NOT the Lakers
This isn’t a hot take or anything, but my goodness it was immediately glaring what a step up in competition this series will be for the Nuggets. The Lakers obviously have great talent in their two all-time players, but that team is old, slow, and lacking in a lot of areas.
The Nuggets may have fallen into some bad habits in that Lakers series and may have been in cruise control more than they should have been. Meanwhile, the Wolves were snatching souls and destroying the Phoenix Suns' entire franchise in four business-like games.
It was clear pretty early on Saturday night that the Wolves' size, speed, and athleticism were on another level and the Nuggets didn’t look ready for it. It was talked about at length how the Nuggets were coasting through Lakers games only to turn it on and pull away in the fourth quarter.
Well, that’s not going to work against the Timberwolves. This is a damn good team and they punished Denver for a slow start in game 1. The Nuggets need to approach these games with a sense of urgency right from the jump or they’ll be in big trouble. They can’t sit back and expect to make a big comeback every game against this defense.