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The Timberwolves' defense takes a huge hit with Rudy Gobert on the Bench, but their offense takes a huge dip when he's on the court. They'll need to balance it.

The Denver Nuggets' 3-point shooting has improved since the last time these two teams met in the playoffs.

After playing in the first 79 games in the regular season, Julius Randle sat out the last three, which could spark a big playoff run.

For the Timberwolves to pull off a first-round upset over the Nuggets, their defense must be elite.

Ayo Dosunmu is one of the NBA's premier transition threats, and luckily for the Timberwolves, the Nuggets are extremely poor at defending in transition.

Anthony Edwards is dealing with a knee injury, and it's unclear if this will affect his production in the playoffs.

The Timberwolves will have to find a way to limit the Nikola Jokic-Jamal Murray two-man game in order to pull off a first-round upset.

All 12 of ESPN's experts are picking the Nuggets to advance past the Timberwolves.

Both Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu have both performed excellently for the teams they were traded to.

If Julius Randle can level up as a 3-point shooter like he did last year, then the Wolves' chances of pulling off an upset will increase significantly.