The road to a repeat just got a bit harder for the Denver Nuggets, as the defending NBA champs fell flat on their collective faces against the Minnesota Timberwolves in a 115-70 rout in Minneapolis on Thursday.
The 45-point shellacking at the hands of Minnesota came in large part due to the 36-9 advantage that the Timberwolves held over the Nuggets when it came to bench points, with the rest stemming from the visitors’ 30.2% field goal percentage.
Now, Denver is tied up 3-3 against the Timberwolves heading into Sunday's Game 7 of the second round.
Using Sports-Reference.com, BetColorado took a break from evaluating Colorado sportsbooks and took the percent chance results for teams going into game 7 that are tied 3-3 after losing Game 1 to see how likely the Nuggets can win it all. We found that 6 teams out of 9 teams won the second round series when tied 3-3 after losing Game 1.
Note: Data was from all NBA teams tied 3-3, after losing Game 1, in a second round series during the past 5 years.
NBA Teams Results When Tied 3-3*
Win Series | Lose Series |
67% | 33% |
*After losing the first game of the series
Recently, it’s been the Game 6 loser that’s come out victorious in a do-or-die Game 7, with 66.7% of the teams that fell flat in the penultimate game of the series ultimately emerging victorious in the end.
Oddsmakers at Bet365 Colorado seem to think as much in 2024, with Denver listed as a 4.5-point home favorite in Game 7, with a -200 moneyline for the defending champions, to +165 for the visitors from the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Head coach Michael Malone and the Nuggets can only hope that Game 6 was a one-game blip on the road to the club’s second straight Larry O’Brien trophy, with Denver looking to join the six other NBA teams that fell flat in the second-to-last game of the second round of late, only to emerge victorious in Game 7 to keep their title dreams alive.
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