Nuggets use balanced effort to blast Wolves

Jamal Murray had 24 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, Nikola Jokic finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds and the host Denver Nuggets routed the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-80 in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series on Sunday night.

Michael Porter Jr. had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 15 points, Bruce Brown added 14 points and Aaron Gordon had 13 points for the top-seeded Nuggets.

Anthony Edwards scored 18 points, Karl-Anthony Towns had 11 points and 10 rebounds, Jaylen Nowell scored 12 points, Kyle Anderson added 11 and Rudy Gobert finished with 13 rebounds for Minnesota.

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Denver.

The Timberwolves rallied from an eight-point deficit to lead 19-18 late in the first quarter. The Nuggets went back in front and led 26-24 early in the second, and then put together an 11-3 run to go up by 10.

Minnesota got within 45-40, but Denver finished the period strong and took a 55-44 lead into halftime.

The Nuggets capitalized on the Timberwolves' cold start to the second half. Gordon made four free throws, Caldwell-Pope hit a layup and Porter drained a long three-pointer to make it 64-45.

Anderson hit Minnesota's first field goal of the third quarter with 8:18 left, but Porter answered that three-pointer with his third make of the night from deep.

The Timberwolves cut the deficit to 69-53, but Denver took control in the final 4:12 of the third.

Gordon split a pair of free throws and hit a three-pointer and Caldwell-Pope made a finger roll to put the Nuggets ahead 75-53. Austin Rivers briefly ended the outburst with a three-pointer, but Brown and Caldwell-Pope each hit a trey and DeAndre Jordan dunked to make it 83-58.

Things got physical when Anderson was called for a Flagrant 1 foul on Christian Braun with 35 seconds left in the period. Braun made one of the free-throw attempts and Murray nailed Denver's sixth 3-pointer of the quarter to make it 87-58 heading into the fourth.

The Nuggets went ahead by 32 early in the fourth and easily closed it out.