The Minnesota Timberwolves came away with an incredible 98-90 win over the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 to advance to the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, and Magic Johnson took to X to give his takeaways on the game, specifically shouting out Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaden McDaniels.

“Defense, defense, and more defense won the game for the Timberwolves,” Magic Johnson said on X. “WOW! What a game! Six guys finished with double figure scoring led by Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaden McDaniels, each finished with 23 points and KAT added 12 rebounds!”

The Timberwolves were once down 20 points in the game to the Nuggets, and it seemed like the defending champions were well on their way to cruising to the Western Conference Finals once again. But Johnson is right, the Timberwolves turned it up on the defensive end to fuel that comeback, and Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaden McDaniels each played huge roles in the game.

Towns made a ton of defensive plays, disrupting passes and forcing turnovers. As Johnson mentioned, he had 23 points and had 12 rebounds as well. McDaniels added 23 points as well. Minnesota's entire starting five scored in the double figures, as Anthony Edwards scored 16, while Rudy Gobert had 13 and Mike Conley had 10. Not to mention, Naz Reid added 11 off the bench as well, which just goes to show the depth that the Timberwolves have that makes them a legitimate threat.

Timberwolves have sights set on first NBA title

There is no getting around it, with a performance like that and taking down the defending champions, the Timberwolves are firmly in contention to win it all. They will face the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals coming up, and will have home-court advantage as well. Game 1 will take place on Wednesday, and it will be interesting to see how they go from facing Nikola Jokic to going against Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

The Timberwolves have a very strong defensive squad, but going up against the Mavericks will present a different type of threat. Still, they likely are the favorites to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals at this point.

If the Timberwolves move on to the NBA Finals, they would face either the Boston Celtics or the Indiana Pacers. The Celtics had the best regular season, and are heavy favorites over the Pacers. It would be interesting to see how the public views a potential Timberwolves-Celtics finals matchup. Minnesota would likely be heavy favorites against Indiana.

Regardless, the Timberwolves have not won an NBA championship in franchise history. It seems like this is one of, if not the best chance the franchise has had. It will be interesting to see how things play out over the next few weeks.