Minnesota fell down 9-2 in the opening minutes Thursday at Target Center, and it looked like perhaps more of the same was on its way.

Denver blitzed the Wolves in each of the previous three contests in the Western Conference semifinals, and the early moments of Game 6 appeared to be following a similar script.

Then the Wolves finally bit back.

Minnesota went on a 20-0 run and never looked back, taking Game 6 115-70 in Minneapolis to knot the series at 3-3.

The decisive Game 7 will be Sunday in Denver. The time is still to be determined. If the Knicks beat the Pacers on Friday, the Wolves’ game will be at 2:30 p.m. Central. If Indiana forces a Game 7 in that series, the Wolves will play at 7 p.m. CT.

That will be the franchise’s second Game 7 in franchise history — played 20 years to the date after Minnesota topped Sacramento in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals in 2004.

If Minnesota can play how it did on Thursday, it’ll like its chances.

The Wolves resembled the team that handled the defending champion Nuggets in the first two games of the series. They were vicious defensively, again making Denver fight for inches of space on the floor.

Even when the Nuggets generated good looks, nothing fell. Jamal Murray went 4 for 18 from the field. Michael Porter Jr. went 3 for 9. Nikola Jokic — who dominated Games 3-5 in this series — was just 9 for 19 shooting with two assists.

Denver shot just 30 percent from the field and 19 percent from deep as Minnesota built a lead as big as 50.

The Wolves were allowed to play with extremely high levels of physicality on the defensive end, and took full advantage. Minnesota’s size was finally a differentiator, as the Wolves dominated the paint and the glass. Rudy Gobert grabbed 14 rebounds, Karl-Anthony Towns had 13 and Naz Reid snagged 11.

The Wolves out-rebounded Denver 62-43.

They looked more physical, more tenacious and, well, longer than their opponent — AKA, exactly who they’ve been all season.

Somewhere along the way over the past week, they lost that identity. On Thursday, with their backs against the wall, they regained it.

It was exactly what a prophetic Karl-Anthony predicted Thursday morning after shootaround.

“So tonight is a great night for us to show that unity, that cohesiveness we’ve been talking about before training camp, before (our preseason trip to) Abu Dhabi,” Towns said. “A great chance to also show our brand of basketball defensively and offensively show how when we’re executing at a high level on defense, it can make our offense even better.”

That played out to a “T.” Minnesota forced misses and turnovers, which led to looks against non-stacked Denver defenses. Even in the half-court, Mike Conley’s return from a one-game injury absence gave Minnesota an additional shooter and playmaker that balanced out the offense.

Denver was in scramble mode for much of the night and, unlike in Game 5, Minnesota executed with poise and precision on Thursday.

Jaden McDaniels had his best offensive game of the series, tallying 21 points on 8 for 10 shooting. Anthony Edwards was again brilliant, finishing with 27 points.

When Minnesota grew its lead to 36 in the fourth frame, Edwards turned to the crowd and held up seven fingers. In the waning minutes, Target Center busted out a “Wolves in 7” chant that echoed throughout the arena.

Time — and Minnesota’s effort and energy on Sunday — will tell if that prediction comes to fruition.

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Kyle Anderson is Minnesota’s lone truly key free agent this offseason, and it’s tough to find a scenario in which the Timberwolves bring him back.

The Wolves are already set to soar into the luxury tax given the extensions for Karl-Anthony Towns, Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards all kick into the team’s salary cap table.

Minnesota could still re-sign Anderson, but it would further hamstring the team financially and continue to push up the luxury tax bill that ownership — whoever that is at the time — will have to pay.

None of this has crossed Anderson’s mind to date.

“No, I don’t think about that stuff until after the season,” he said Thursday morning ahead of Game 6. “I hate thinking about that stuff.”

But it will weigh on the minds of Minnesota, surely. Anderson has had a few tough stretches of play this season. The experiment of having him play alongside multiple other bigs — whether that’s Naz Reid, Rudy Gobert or Karl-Anthony Towns — hasn’t always gone well.

Anderson’s best stretches in his two years with Minnesota have come with Towns injured, both for much of last season and then during the month this season Towns missed with a meniscus tear in March.

Whenever Anderson has played his more natural position of power forward, he’s shined. But those opportunities are injury-dependent and this season have been few and far between.

Still, it may be tough for Timberwolves coach Chris Finch to part with the 30-year-old. He has the ultimate faith in the high-IQ utility player. That trust has been earned.

“He was our most important player last year in many ways. He saved our season, he did anything we asked him to do, so we know he had it in him,” Finch said near the end of the regular season when Anderson played well in Towns’ absence. “He’s played mostly at the three this year, which has been an adjustment for many reasons. He’s a basketball player, so he can play all over the floor. I think the rhythm of the game for him was slightly different at times. That certainly had something to do with it. But I think since the trade deadline, breathe a sigh of relief that he wasn’t going anywhere and thankfully he hadn’t, never had any plans to, but it seemingly at that point in time, it’s been better and better for him.”

CONLEY, TOWNS GUT IT OUT

Mike Conley missed just one game with a calf strain, returning for Thursday’s Game 6. Calf strains generally require longer absences to allow them to fully heal, but Conley is a competitor who doesn’t want a season to end with him on the sideline.

While playing for Utah in 2021, he missed the first five games of the Western Conference semifinals in 2021 with a hamstring injury when the Jazz were taking on the Clippers. With Utah down 3-2, Conley returned for Game 6. Unfortunately, he wasn’t himself, struggled from the floor and Utah lost.

Karl-Anthony Towns played through a knee injury suffered in the second quarter of Game 5 and was visibly hobbling off the court following the contest. Towns still looked affected by the injury Thursday morning but was emphatic about his availability.

“I’m playing tonight. That’s all that matters,” Towns said. “I’ll take care of (the injury) later.”

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Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers say they won’t let speeches about fast food or Republican threats to kill a bonding deal derail their efforts to advance a bill that would plot a path for abortion rights in Minnesota’s Constitution.

After House Republicans delayed votes in two floor sessions with lengthy speeches that sometimes veered into seemingly unrelated topics, House Speaker Melissa Hortman shut down an eight-hour debate at midnight Wednesday so the chamber could vote on a paid leave bill. The move prompted loud protests from Republicans, who said it violated norms of the chamber.

On Thursday, Hortman said she and her DFL colleagues will continue to entertain some debate on bills in the final days of the session, but won’t hesitate to stop “deleterious” speeches and questions from Republicans.

“At a certain point, it’s very obvious when Republicans are filibustering. I mean, I don’t know how many of you tuned in on Monday, but there was a lot of conversation about cheeseburgers and also hamburgers, maybe French fries,” she said. “That’s not what the voters of the state of Minnesota engage in an election to do.”

The fast food comments were tied to a seven-hour debate on a bill to force businesses to disclose hidden last-minute charges that ultimately got bipartisan support in the House when the vote happened at midnight on Monday.

ERA amendment

A version of the Equal Rights Amendment that would put the right to an abortion and protections for LGBTQ people in the state Constitution has been delayed — and not yet scheduled — after extended debate on other bills. If passed by the House and Senate, the question would be put to voters in the 2026 election.

There are just three more days for the House and Senate to vote before the end of the 2024 session, and even as each chamber works late hours, the odds are dimming for bills to legalize sports betting, borrow money for roads and bridges, and even on a minimum wage deal to keep rideshare services Uber and Lyft from making good on their threats to leave Minnesota.

Hortman said cutting off debate was a sort of “nuclear option” for Democrats, as there are technically no time limits for debate in the Minnesota House, but called the move warranted as Republicans were “lying on the tracks.”

Minority Leader Rep. Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, called the shutdown of debate Wednesday “shameful” and disputed DFL claims that her party is deliberately delaying votes in the final week of the session. She added the majority has had two years to get its work done, and can’t place blame on Republicans for expecting full debate on bills.

“It is not the responsibility of the minority to pass the majority’s bills,” she told reporters Tuesday. “It is the responsibility of the minority to make sure that the voices of our constituents are heard and represented.”

Republicans earlier this week rolled out a list of demands to DFLers tied to the passage of a roughly $900 million dollar infrastructure bill, including dropping a gun control proposal and a version of the Equal Rights Amendment that includes abortion as a right.

Obstacles to an infrastructure bill

Despite being in the minority in both the House and Senate, borrowing money for infrastructure, which traditionally happens in even-numbered years, requires a three-fifths majority in both chambers in order to pass.

That’s one of the few leverage points available to Republicans — though it doesn’t just inconvenience DFLers. If Republicans kill a bonding bill it means they won’t be able to deliver local projects in their districts either.

GOP lawmakers also are pushing to remove gun control language from a bill increasing criminal penalties for people who buy guns for others who are ineligible to do so, such as felons.

While both parties support increasing penalties for what’s known as straw purchasing, Republicans oppose DFLers inclusion of language banning binary triggers, a modification that allows a semi-automatic weapon to fire both when the trigger is pulled and released — greatly increasing its rate of fire.

Republicans used their leverage with bonding to get $300 million in aid for struggling nursing homes last year, but the tactic didn’t get much else from Democrats.

Hortman told reporters the House DFL is willing to give more funding to emergency medical services, a Republican request, but won’t allow threats on bonding to make them budge on the ERA, the binary trigger ban, or anything else.

Even if the House passes the ERA with abortion rights, the version already passed by the Senate version does not include that language, so the two versions would have to be reconciled.

The last day to vote on bills is Sunday.

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