The best sportsbooks have released their NBA odds for Game 6 between the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves, with Denver leading the series 3-2.
For your best bet, I recommend investing in the Timberwolves for this matchup. And, for more top picks for the NBA Playoffs, visit our YouTube channel.
For an additional NBA best bet from our expert:
And if you’re looking for even more value picks, make sure to visit our YouTube channel. Today, our expert has the best analysis on this game and Friday’s Knicks vs. Pacers game.
NBA Pick: Timberwolves -2.5 (-110) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
Denver Nuggets vs. Minnesota Timberwolves
Thursday, May 16, 2024 – 08:30 PM ET at Target Center
Don’t Count out the Timberwolves
People are counting out the Timberwolves because they enter Game 6 having lost three straight games.
But dismissing the Timberwolves is wrong because doing so ignores the capability that they’ve displayed in their losses.
We have to look beneath the surface to see that Minnesota is showing that it can beat Denver and that Minnesota is doing so in ways that make its outlook for Game 6 very strong.
Anthony Edwards
First of all, Anthony Edwards had one of his off games in Game 5.
Minnesota lost Game 5 by 15 with Edwards scoring 18 points, which is way more than 15 points fewer than he’s scored in other games in this series.
That is, if Edwards would have had one of his stronger performances, then Minnesota could have very likely won.
Game 6 provides a great betting opportunity for the Timberwolves because Edwards is a reliable bounce-back option.
In the first round against Phoenix, he scored 15 points in Game 2 before scoring 36 points in Game 3.
Edwards, in this series, scored 44 points in Game 4 after scoring 19 points in Game 3.
He is one of those players who are simply unstoppable when they are hot. He’ll take over games with his energetic, attacking style of play and make tough, contested shots.
The Importance of Nikola Jokic Is Overstated
We all know that Denver’s star Nikola Jokic is very good. Cool.
But, first of all, he is not going to play out of his mind as he did in Game 5. That was a rare sort of performance that was going to happen at some point in a series.
It is most probable that he falls down to Earth only somewhat, though. But let’s think about whether Minnesota can survive a more reasonable but still solid Jokic performance.
In Game 1, Jokic scored 32 points. The Timberwolves won by seven despite the fact that Denver also shot beyond itself from behind the arc and despite Michael Porter Jr., who is inconsistent and often disappears, having one of his great games.
Minnesota has a lot of good individual defenders and scorers, such that one or two players won’t beat it.
Supporting Casts
This game will come down to Edwards’ supporting cast being remotely close to as good as we know it can be.
Karl-Anthony Towns has shown repeatedly that he can handle Aaron Gordon’s defense. Minnesota lost Game 4 because Towns no-showed, but he reliably scores 20+ points.
As for the rest of Edwards’ supporting cast, this group underperformed tremendously in Game 5.
Minnesota, as a team, made a ridiculously awful three of 18 wide-open three-point opportunities. No NBA team should be expected to be that bad.
Takeaway
Denver’s chances of winning rely too heavily on Edwards being lackluster, Towns underperforming, Minnesota missing a ton of wide-open threes, and Jokic being out-of-this-world.
Normally a strong bounce-back team, Minnesota is going to do to Denver what it did to a Phoenix team that supposedly matched up excellently against it.
Great games from Edwards and a good one from Towns, a decent shooting performance, and Jokic being less than perfect will produce a double-digit win.
There’s a lot of margin of error here for the Timberwolves to still win, meaning that it can withstand a masterclass performance from Jokic because it has the offensive firepower and the breadth of individual quality on defense to win by a clear margin.
The Pick
Hoping for a superstar like Edwards to underperform or for a clearly very capable player like Towns to play poorly or for the Timberwolves to brick a ton of wide-open shots again is just silly.
NBA Pick: Timberwolves -2.5 (-110) at BetOnline
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
Calculators
