The Denver Nuggets took care of business Friday in their first road game of the playoffs.
Now the top seed in the West has a commanding 3-0 lead and can advance to the conference semifinals by beating the host Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 4 on Sunday night in Minneapolis.
The Nuggets rolled to a 29-point win in Game 1 and had a comfortable nine-point margin in Game 2. They knew the Wolves would be fired up by their home crowd and play with a sense of desperation in Game 3, and they were ready for it.
Denver withstood Minnesota’s emotional start to forge a 28-all tie after one quarter. Then it made 12 of its first 16 shots in the second quarter and led by as many as 13 points before settling for a 61-55 halftime lead.
The Nuggets never let the Wolves catch up in the second half. Denver shot 57 percent from the floor and its bench outscored Minnesota’s bench 29-10, led by Bruce Brown’s 12.
The Wolves got another outstanding performance from Anthony Edwards, who scored 36 points and is averaging 31.7 in the series. Karl-Anthony Towns, who had just 21 total points in Denver, broke out with 27 and Rudy Gobert had 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Guard Mike Conley, who scored 12 points, said the loss was a game the Wolves “would love to have back.”
If Minnesota is going to force a Game 5, it will have to play its best game in a series in which it has outscored the Nuggets just once in 12 quarters.
The Wolves got within five points on three occasions during the final six minutes but couldn’t get any closer.
The Wolves perhaps can take some hope from the fact that they won twice at home against Denver during the regular season — by 30 and 13 points. But obviously this is a much different situation after the way the first three games have gone.
