In the latest edition of the Nuggets Ink podcast, beat writer Bennett Durando and sports editor Matt Schubert reconvene after the Minnesota Timberwolves eliminated Denver in a stunning Game 7 comeback. Among the topics discussed:

• Where did things go wrong for the Nuggets in the second half of Game 7? What could coach Michael Malone have done differently to stem the tide as Minnesota rallied from 20 points down to advance?
• How much of the blame for what happened Sunday should be heaped upon the shoulders of superstars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray? What about the supporting players around them, in particular a cold-shooting Michael Porter Jr.?
• What part of this result can be pinned on management? Did general manager Calvin Booth not give his head coach enough parts to successfully defend the title? What must be done to avoid this next season?
• Lastly, Bennett talks about the chain of events that led to Michael Malone blowing up at him in the postgame press conference.

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Producer: AAron Ontiveroz
Music: “The Last Dragons” by Schama Noel

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In the NBA arguably more than any other American sports league, the playoffs have a tendency to consume any relevant regular-season context about a team or an individual.

That reality has worked to Jamal Murray’s advantage over the last five years of Nuggets runs. It’s working to Michael Porter Jr.’s disadvantage this time.

Porter chose to wear the blame Sunday night for Denver’s early exit from the playoffs after Game 7 against the Timberwolves. He averaged 10.7 points on 37.1% shooting from the field in the second-round series, and he made only 10 of his 35 shot attempts across the last four games, totaling 25 points.

“This was a terrible series,” Porter said after shooting 3 for 12 in a 98-90 Game 7 loss. “I felt like I might’ve had one or two good games out of the seven we played. Part of it was the way they were guarding. Part of it was (that) my shot wasn’t falling. It’s just tough because I know if I would have played up to par with how I normally play, we would have won this series. And there’s a lot of things that could have been different as a team, but I know if I had played my part, we would have won the series. And I’ve gotta live with that.”

It makes evaluating Porter’s season unexpectedly complicated all of a sudden. The regular season was a testament to the durability he has rediscovered after recovering from three back surgeries.

Porter played in 81 of 82 games, shattering a previous career-high of 62. He averaged 16.7 points and seven rebounds, shooting 39.7% from 3-point range and breaking a franchise record for most made 3s in a single season. Only four players in the NBA attempted more 3-pointers than Porter and shot them at a higher percentage: Steph Curry, Donte DiVincenzo, Paul George and C.J. McCollum. The difference between each of them and Porter is multiple inches of height.

MPJ’s shooting splits exceeded 50/40/90 after the All-Star break. He grew more comfortable with his mobility, his downhill driving, his physicality. His scoring efficiency even carried over to the first round of the playoffs, when he was Denver’s second-best offensive player against the Lakers. He shot 55% from the floor, 49% from three and averaged 0.481 points per touch in the series.

That number dropped to 0.252 in the second round. Minnesota stuck Jaden McDaniels on him, and Porter struggled to get separation off-ball. The Timberwolves chose not to help off of him. His touches per game decreased by 4.8 between rounds. His shot attempts per game decreased by 5.2.

“I know sometimes it’s an over-simplification of the NBA being a make-or-miss league, but we just did not make enough shots in this series — Michael included, but he wasn’t the only one,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We as a team did not make enough shots, and I didn’t help generate enough looks maybe to help ourselves.”

Malone was content with the looks Porter got in Games 6 and 7, when Minnesota started double-teaming Nikola Jokic from the perimeter more frequently. But the 6-foot-10 forward was out of rhythm by then. He shot 1 for 6 beyond the arc in both games.

“He’s so dangerous with his size. You have to be super-mindful of how far off you are on him at any time,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said Saturday ahead of Game 7. “Because he’s got great size and he shoots the ball high, and he has a quick release and a quick side-step dribble. Fortunately we’re able to put some size on him, too, which could help bother him.”

Porter is two years into a five-year, $179 million max contract that he signed before the 2022-23 season. His approximate salary this season was $33.4 million, and it’s set to be around $35.9 million in 2024-25.

Multiple of his siblings were embroiled in a string of legal troubles as the playoffs began. Jontay Porter, a Toronto Raptors two-way forward, was banned for life from the NBA after being investigated in a sports betting scandal. The same week, their younger brother Coban was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a woman in a drunk driving crash in Denver last year. MPJ missed Denver’s final practice before the first-round series to attend the sentencing hearing. Then a third younger brother, Jevon, was arrested in Missouri on investigation of driving while intoxicated.

“I’m not gonna sit here and act like it wasn’t a burden, or I wasn’t thinking about it all day every day. But that’s still no excuse,” Porter said after Game 7. “I’m a better player than I played in this series. I’m a better shooter than I shot in this series. In the NBA, you’ve gotta be able to separate off-the-court matters with your on-the-court play. So I don’t have any excuses. … I told my teammates sorry. I feel like this is on me.”

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The Broncos are going to be without one of their young linebackers into the regular season.

Second-year player Drew Sanders tore his Achilles tendon about a month ago during the early part of Denver’s offseason workout program, sources confirmed Monday to The Post

Sanders, a third-round draft pick in 2023, played inside linebacker after first being drafted and then during the season switched full-time to outside linebacker.

All told, Sanders played in all 17 games as a rookie, started four and finished with 24 tackles (one for loss). He ended up playing 23% of the Broncos’ defensive snaps and was a key special teams player, logging 64% of snaps on those units.

The main question regarding Sanders this offseason would have been if he’d play inside or outside going forward.

“We’re going sit down with Drew and the coaches and we’ve had those meetings,” general manager George Paton said in late February at the NFL Combine. “I think he’ll probably end up on the edge, but he has the flexibility. He’s so talented. It’s hard. It’s kind of like (fourth-year linebacker) Baron Browning. … It’s a blessing and sometimes it’s a curse because he can’t get settled in at one position. Once we left Drew at outside, he finished strong and so we feel good about Drew moving forward.”

Though an Achilles injury is still substantial, players aren’t missing as much time as they used to due to new surgical procedures. Broncos wide receiver Tim Patrick tore his Achilles on Aug. 1 last summer and by the end of the regular season was running hard and cutting during his workouts on the side field of Denver’s practice area. He may have returned to action had he not been placed on injured reserve before the roster cutdown, which made him ineligible for the entire season.

The timing of the injury means there is a chance, then, that Sanders returns at some point during the regular season. At minimum, though, his second professional season will be cut short by a considerable margin due to the injury.

When Patrick tore his Achilles, Dr. Kenneth Jung, an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles told The Post that the success rate of rehab is accelerating.

“There’s newer protocols now where we’re definitely accelerating rehab,” Jung said then. “It’s somewhere between six and nine months.”

Denver drafted Utah outside linebacker Jonah Elliss in the third round last month at No. 76 overall but did not select an inside linebacker during the draft. The outside linebacker group is headed by Browning, Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper and Elliss. At inside linebacker, the Broncos have Alex Singleton, Cody Barton, Jonas Griffith (who has missed the past season-and-a-half due to foot and knee injuries) and Justin Strnad among others.

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Jonathan Drouin authored one of the best stories in the NHL this season and provided the Colorado Avalanche with incredible value.

Now, the question is will both sides be able to agree on a new contract to make this short-term partnership a longer one? There is certainly a will to make it happen on both sides, but the way remains a little less certain.

“I’m going to dwell on this loss for a bit. It’s going to sting for a couple days,” Droun said shortly after Colorado’s double-overtime loss Friday night in Game 6 of their second-round series vs. the Dallas Stars. “I would love to come back here and sign here. I’ve loved my time here. My family has loved our time here. It’s a great group.”

Drouin set a career-high with 56 points, including 19 goals, after joining the club on a one-year, $825,000 contract. It was a classic “show me” contract. Drouin was a former phenom who had been through a handful of rough seasons with his hometown Montreal Canadiens.

He needed an opportunity to rebuild his value for the second half of his NHL career. The Avs needed a forward who could potentially play in the top six but didn’t take up a lot of cap space. They did offer the chance to play on a skilled, fast team and to reunite with Nathan MacKinnon, whom he had won the Memorial Cup with in Halifax.

It worked out about as well as either side could have imagined.

“Obviously I had tough years in Montreal so to come here and play with this team, find my way as the year went on, it was cool,” Drouin said. “Great bunch of guys, the staff is awesome. It’s a great place to play hockey.”

Drouin had 11 more points than any other player on a standard, non-rookie contract that cost less than $1 million against the cap. It wasn’t just the offensive production. He became a trusted two-way player for the Avs, something that was not part of his reputation before arriving in Denver.

He got off to a slow start to the season and was even a healthy scratch at one point, but by the end of it he was entrenched as one of the club’s most integral players. Losing him in Game 82 after a skate cut to his leg did not cost the Avs in the opening round against Winnipeg, but he was clearly missed early in the Dallas series.

“Obviously, it was a good year for me, definitely took some steps forward toward my game, how I want to play,” Drouin said. “Credit to a lot of people here, from the coaching staff to the players. It’s a hell of a group.”

Now, for the hard part. There are only eight forwards who are pending unrestricted free agents who had more points than Drouin this season. Of those eight, only one (Florida’s Sam Reinhart) is older than Drouin, who will turn 30 in March.

If Drouin wants a big contract, there will likely be one out there for him. Here’s a look at what the other forwards who were between the ages of 28 and 30 and finished with between 53 and 59 points cost this past season (view chart on mobile here):

Monahan is also a UFA and will double, if not triple his price this offseason. The others all made $4 million-plus.

The Avs do not have a lot of cap space. They do have plenty of uncertainty with what happens next for Gabe Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin.

It’s also clear that with those uncertainties, retaining Drouin or finding a top-six wing to replace him is going to be a huge need/priority before next season.

“I hope (he comes back),” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Yeah, I mean, that’ll be up to him, his agent (and) management. He’s well-liked in our locker room. Certainly like his ability and his talent and the way he played for us this year, so hopefully we can get it done.

“He was a great teammate, and I love the improvement in his game, the growth in his game on both sides of the puck.”

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Troy Renck: A day later, hearts remain in throats, fists remain in a ball. The frustration and disappointment with the Nuggets’ season-ending defeat is palpable. There is no shame in losing to a team as talented as the Minnesota Timberwolves. But the Nuggets did not lose. They choked. No NBA team over the last 25 years has ever squandered a 20-point lead in a Game 7. Worse, the Nuggets were at home, where they have been dominant the past two seasons. It’s hard to think of a more crushing defeat. Maybe the 2012 Broncos falling to the Ravens and Joe “Cool” Flacco? Or Denver collapsing at home to the expansion franchise Jacksonville Jaguars in the divisional round in 1996? So, with emotions still raw, I ask the question: Was Sunday night the most crushing loss in Colorado pro sports history?

Sean Keeler: Joe Flacco! Mark Brunell! Too soon, my man. Too soon. The Broncos are woven so deeply into this town’s soul, those wounds cut deeper. Always will. But Sunday night? Sunday night was epic. In all the wrong ways. The ’96-97 Broncos never had a second-half lead against the Jags. The ’12-13 Broncos, who scored at will, never led by 20 versus the Ravens. (Or, in fact, by double-digits.) Broncos playoff losses will always hurt longer. But a Game 7 that plays out like that? Oh, it hurts more. Brother, it burns.

Troy Renck: Recency bias makes it hard not to argue the Nuggets’ loss is the worst. If Denver gets any offensive contribution from Aaron Gordon or Michael Porter Jr., they win. But for me, the 1996 Broncos’ playoff collapse was more crushing. That team was loaded and hosting a Jaguars team in its second year. Jacksonville owned a 9-7 record and was 1-7 on the road during the regular season. This was supposed to be the season John Elway won his first ring. Inexplicably, Mark Brunell outplayed him, erasing a 12-point deficit while shredding the Broncos defense.

Keeler: There’s a circle of Hades for Broncos Country in which Jimmy Smith’s touchdown runs on a continuous loop, the crowd gasping as DB Tory James stretches, then flails in the end zone at a near-perfect strike from Brunell on the fade. Nobody wants to go there. Nobody ever should. But Anthony Edwards stealing the ball from Jamal Murray at half-court at the end of the third quarter of Game 7, then beating everybody downhill for the two-handed slam, feels destined for a circle of its own now.

Renck: The 2012 Broncos loss remains fresh 12 years later because of the ending. While the Jaguars dominated Denver for three quarters, the Broncos were in control vs. Baltimore. All they had to do was not give up a Hail Mary. Instead, they did not bump receiver Jacoby Jones at the line of scrimmage and he raced by the defense as safety Rahim Moore misjudged Flacco’s bomb like a kid losing at Three Flies Up in the backyard. Viewed objectively, it was must-see TV, a track meet disguised as a football game. But there’s no denying it ruined Peyton Manning’s historic season, made worse by taking a knee in regulation and losing in overtime.

Keeler: In the words of Matt “Guitar” Murphy from the “Blues Brothers” movie, they’re all pretty bad. According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, there’s a reason that Jags upset still lingers. The Broncos were a 12.5-point favorite, and Jacksonville hadn’t scored more than 25 points on the road all season — until the playoffs. The Nuggs were five-point faves going into Game 7. So even if Sunday night isn’t Denver’s No. 1, it’ll probably stay lodged among the metro’s top 5 wounds forever.

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In an emptying locker room of players who had forgotten what it feels like to end a season with a loss, nobody was in uncharted territory as much as Christian Braun.

Towel draped over his head, eyes red underneath it, the second-year guard was in a state of disbelief that replicated the entire Nuggets fanbase. Braun actually went back-to-back before this season, sort of. He won an NCAA championship in 2022 on his way out of Kansas and an NBA championship in 2023 on his way in the door with Denver.

“It sucks,” he said, “because I think we’re the better team.”

Better team or not, the Nuggets’ 2023-24 season is over too soon, shockingly soon. They are the fifth consecutive defending champion to not make it out of the second round of the playoffs. They were also the closest to breaking that trend — up 58-38 on the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second half of a Game 7 at home. They would have hosted the Western Conference Finals, too, if they didn’t squander that 20-point lead.

Instead they were left sitting in the sudden stillness of the offseason, first marinating in the agony of the biggest Game 7 comeback in NBA history, then wondering how they allowed it to happen. How they spiraled from a plus-10 rebounding advantage in the first half to a minus-13 in the second half. How they didn’t capitalize on Anthony Edwards’ 6-for-24 game. How their starting lineup was minus-60 points in the series against a team they beat in five games last season. How they ran out of gas where they’re meant to invincible, at altitude.

“We played into June last year — a lot of basketball. And then we had to play our guys, our main guys, unlike last season, through Game 82 to secure the No. 2 seed,” coach Michael Malone said. “Whereas last year we were able to rest down the stretch. And I think the run last season, and coming back, and the amount of minutes that our starters had to play, I think mentally, emotionally, physically, guys are gassed. They’re dead tired. They gave me everything I could ever ask for.”

The irony makes it twice as painful. That push to secure the No. 2 seed in Game 82? First, that was supposed to be for the No. 1 seed. It would have been a success if not for pesky Game 81, when Denver coughed up a 23-point second-half lead at San Antonio in a game that felt very much in conversation with this Game 7. The Nuggets would have avoided Minnesota and Oklahoma City for two rounds. Maybe they’d be preparing for Ant right now.

Second, all the minutes and all the effort Denver devoted to that regular-season push ended up being a waste. By playing the starters on the last day in Memphis, all the Nuggets earned was a silver lining: the No. 2 seed, meaning home-court advantage in a potential second-round series with Minnesota. This second-round series with Minnesota. The series in which Minnesota won three of four games at Ball Arena.

“I’m not worried about being tired,” Jamal Murray said when asked about Malone’s comment that starters might have been over-relied on. “I’ve been playing in Denver for eight years now. I’m used to the altitude and used to finding my second wind. That doesn’t even make sense. I’m playing the game. I played 42 (minutes); Ant played 43.”

Contradictory statements such as those summed up the postgame scene. Malone, asked what went wrong with Denver’s defense in the second half, combatted the question by pinpointing offense. Braun, asked what the Nuggets needed more of to win, said “defense.” Braun kept reiterating his belief that Denver was the better team, making the loss sting more. Nikola Jokic disagreed. “I don’t believe in that,” he said. “I think the team who wins is better team. You have seven games, or a best-of-seven, so if someone beats you, I think they’re the better team.”

When all that frustration and confusion settles, the in-house questions will shift toward how the Nuggets can make this wake-up call productive for their future. If every playoff series defeat is a revelation of something or someone that needs to change, who got exposed?

It probably can’t be seen as a referendum on Murray, as poorly as he shot the ball and as frequently as Minnesota targeted his defense in the post. His playoff reputation is too ironclad, his fit with Jokic too tailored. This was the first mediocre postseason of his career, and he was battling through an injured calf.

It probably can’t be seen as an indictment on general manager Calvin Booth, as gaping as the Bruce Brown-sized hole in the roster felt. The Nuggets were CBA-bound from offering Brown the money he deserved last offseason. Reggie Jackson’s two-year contract hasn’t aged well since December 2023, but Braun was Booth’s vision for the sixth man anyway. Braun, who guarded Edwards impressively during this series and improved his offense throughout the season.

It probably can’t be seen as a damnation of Malone, as valid as it is to scrutinize his removal of Peyton Watson from the rotation. Watson’s defense and athleticism might have made a difference, but Justin Holiday ate up his minutes and was outstanding for more than half the series. And anyway, Malone’s bench rotation wasn’t responsible for losing this series. Denver’s starters underperformed. And this definitely isn’t a referendum on Nikola Jokic. He’s Nikola Jokic.

So maybe it’s a referendum on that starting lineup, and whether it has run its course after two years — whether the rest of the league has caught up to it. Maybe this defeat is a sign of necessary changes to that unit. Those might be on the horizon anyway. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is expected to decline his $15.4 million player option and attract a robust market, league sources told The Denver Post in March.

Maybe it’s a commentary on the long-term sustainability of Michael Porter Jr., who averaged only 10.7 points in the series and disappeared for the last four games. He apologized to all of his teammates after Game 7, choosing to wear the blame for the outcome. But that would be ignoring the most durable season of Porter’s career, as well as his heroics in the first round against a Lakers team that (in hindsight) was pretty close to taking Denver six or seven games.

Or maybe it’s none of these things. Maybe one playoff choke isn’t enough to rattle the cages so dramatically when everyone involved is a proven championship contributor, even if everyone mentioned deserves a piece of the blame. Maybe this series was simply a testament to the difficulty of repeating in a post-Warriors world, where parity is supreme. “The one thing I keep on going back to right now is, I consider the San Antonio Spurs a dynasty,” Malone said, echoing Booth’s ambition for the Jokic era. “And they’ve never won back-to-back.”

“Just mentally and physically conjuring up the energy to fight like you’re being hunted. That’s the emotion,” Murray said. “When you’re the hunter, you have so much more motivation and you grasp onto anything to prove everybody wrong. You have a constant chip on your shoulder. I don’t know, I feel like we should have won tonight. That’s the tough part.”

More specifically, there’s the elephant in the room: The Nuggets were the hunted this year, but the only successful hunter was ex-Nuggets executive Tim Connelly.

Here’s something Denver’s players can start to agree on, regardless of which team was better this season. A rivalry is blooming between the Nuggets and Timberwolves.

“I don’t like them. I think that we need more of that in the NBA,” Braun said. “They’re a really good team. Really well-coached. Really good players. It’s a matchup that you love to play in. You don’t want to play, like, really friendly with a bunch of teams. I think it’s a really good rivalry for the NBA. I would say it is a rivalry. And that’s why this hurts more.”

“I think they’re built to beat us,” Jokic said. “Just look at their roster.”

With that comment, the three-time league MVP probably came closest to identifying the true defining takeaway from all this. Booth, Malone, Jokic, Murray, the Kroenkes and everybody else in Ball Arena must reckon with the anti-Nuggets now. “It’s back to being the hunters,” as Murray put it. “Back to fighting for something with a different kind of edge.”

It’s a question of what being the hunter means to Denver’s decision-makers. Do they side with Braun in believing this version of the Nuggets is already good enough to conquer Minnesota? Or do they side with Jokic’s stance, in which case more offseason changes would be a mandate?

While that question simmers, for now there’s only the cold reality that one MVP year of Jokic’s prime has now turned to dust.

The Denver Nuggets lost 98-90 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 7 of their second-round NBA playoff series at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Sunday, May 20, 2024. Denver blew a 20-point lead to end their season, handing Minnesota a trip to the Western Conference Finals.

Jamal Murray didn’t want the rest.

He’s getting it anyway after Denver blew a 20-point lead in Game 7 against Minnesota on Sunday night and bowed out of the NBA Playoffs well short of his expectations.

He wanted to keep grinding through a stubborn calf injury, but instead he’ll get some down time. Then, he’ll ramp up for a busy summer representing Canada in the summer Olympics, which begin in Paris in late July.

Murray confirmed he plans to play and that the calf won’t keep him from being in the middle of the action a little more than two months from now.

“I’ve got rest now, so,” he said, voice trailing off.

When asked again if he was sure he’d play, he just nodded his head.

Had Denver pushed through to the NBA Finals, Murray would have had only a couple of weeks to prepare. Now he’s got an extra month. That’s hardly a silver lining, of course, for a team that had designs on winning back-to-back championships and ended up nine postseason wins short.

Murray went through the entire playoff run being listed as questionable due to a calf strain, then added an elbow issue to the mix in Game 6 against the Timberwolves.

The Toronto native played in 59 regular season games, missing the better part of a month early in the season due to a right hamstring injury and then seven more down the stretch due to an ankle sprain.

“He played a really long season last year, got injured again this year,” second-year wing Christian Braun said of Murray. “If you saw how many people had calf injuries in the postseason, a lot of them missed time. Jamal didn’t. He was playing through a lot and balled out today. Played really well, bounced back from Game 6 and played really well.”

Three-time MVP Nikola Jokic was non-committal when asked about the Olympics and playing for Serbia after Denver’s loss Sunday.

“I don’t know, my friend, we will see,” he said. “I need to think about it.”

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The Ant-Man waved goodbye. To the script. To the narrative. To Denver.

And to the Nuggets’ chances of winning back-to-back NBA titles.

“I mean, it showed us who we are,” Minnesota star Anthony Edwards said after his Timberwolves stunned the defending NBA champs, 98-90, in Game 7 of their second-round series on Sunday.

“Because the coaches believed in us, even though at halftime, even in the third (period), the coaches said, ‘Just keep making runs, keep making runs.’ Offense played OK. But once we lock in on the defensive side, we are a (heck) of a team to beat.”

The Joker hit a wall.

Karl-Anthony Towns hit buckets. Rudy Gobert hit a turnaround, for pity’s sake.

“When Rudy hit the turnaround I was like, ‘Yeah, we probably got ‘em,'” said Edwards, who scored 16 points, pulled down eight boards and dished out seven assists despite a miserable first half.

Edwards only put up 12 points in the second half. But he did almost as much damage on the defensive end, helping to hold Nuggets guard Jamal Murray to 11 points after halftime. At the break, the Arrow was outscoring the Ant-Man by a count of 22-4.

“We said to ourselves all series (that) ‘Our best is better than their best,'” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “And we just had to play our best.”

But it took a while — like, almost three quarters — for No. 5 to get his Michael Jordan mojo back.

When Mike Conley picked Murray’s pocket at midcourt with 3:07 left, the Nuggets’ fifth turnover of the second half, the veteran point guard shoveled it to Reid, who found Edwards wide open in the right corner. The young guard connected from deep to put Minnesota up 92-82. That capped a madcap 31-17 Wolves run.

And to think: Ant-Man’s first Game 7 was setting up to be anything but a picnic.

For the first 24 minutes, the Nuggets doubled No. 5. They trapped. They went bonkers on screens with Conley. They overloaded Edwards’ half of the court when he went to the strong side. Two dudes. Three dudes.

Edwards was heard on the live microphone during the first half pleading to his teammates: “In order for them to stop doubling me,” the next MJ said, “I need you to hit.”

In the first half, they didn’t. At all. While Ant went into the break with a 1-for-7 shooting line, including 0 for 3 from beyond the arc, backcourt mates Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker were a combined 1 for 12 from the floor (1 for 7 on treys) with a collective plus-minus number of negative-21.

That third quarter, though, the script flipped.

“I’m going to force ’em back downhill,” Edwards said during halftime warm-ups. “Watch the backdoor.”

Defense led to offense. Minnesota forced four steals in the third stanza alone, leading to runouts the other way, and Edwards found himself on the finishing end of a pair of fast-break dunks. The Wolves, down 58-38 a minute and 10 seconds after halftime, closed the third stanza on a 28-9 run.

“That final game was just a microcosm of the series,” Finch said. “Teams getting a big handle on each other, and just trying to fight through it.”

Edwards found a way off the canvas. And the Wolves, somehow, landed the last punch.