Former Nuggets coach wants Charles Barkley to own his ‘weak analysis’ of Wolves series

Former Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl hopes that Charles Barkley admits to his “weak analysis” after he was very wrong about the outcome of the second-round series between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Nuggets.

In Barkley’s defense, the Timberwolves seemingly had the Nuggets on the ropes and all of the momentum in the series following Game 2. After winning Game 1 at Ball Arena by just seven points, Anthony Edwards and Minnesota responded by earning a blowout win in Game 2.

The Timberwolves held the Nuggets to just 80 points in a game they won by 26 to take a 2-0 series lead as it shifted to Minnesota for Games 3 and 4.

But the defending NBA champions have responded ever since the team dropped the opening two games of the best-of-seven series.

First, in Game 3, the Nuggets made a statement by beating the Timberwolves by 27 points at Target Center. Arguably Denver’s three best players — Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. — each scored 21 points or more in the lopsided victory, with Murray and Jokic dropping 24 apiece.

Game 4 was a much closer game than Game 3, considering Denver won by just eight points on Sunday. Efficient scoring from Aaron Gordon spearheaded what was another impressive offensive showing from the Nuggets, as he scored 27 points while knocking down all but one of his 12 shot attempts from the field.

After taking Games 3 and 4 on the road, the Nuggets have now regained home-court advantage in this series.

A pivotal Game 5 will take place at Ball Arena on Tuesday night. NBA playoff history suggests that the winner of Game 5 will likely go on to advance to the Western Conference Finals, considering teams that take a 3-2 series lead win the series 84.1 percent of the time.

While it’s still anyone’s series and there’s plenty of basketball yet to be played, it’s clear that Barkley’s prediction that the Timberwolves would sweep the Nuggets was dead wrong, so it’s easy to see why Karl came to the defense of a team he formerly coached.