Three stars from Thursday’s NBA playoffs

It wasn’t just his scoring. Edwards played intense defense, harassing Jamal Murray and disrupting Denver’s passing lanes. He had three steals and turned them into fast breaks, just as he did for rebounds, punishing the Nuggets with his speed.

If that wasn’t enough, Edwards also punished the Nuggets when he slowed down. Then accelerated past his hapless defender.

Nikola Jokic is still the best player in the world. But the 22-year-old Edwards might be the best player in this series.

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels | 21 points, two blocks

McDaniels outplayed a much more famous forward in Kevin Durant in the first round, justifying Edwards’ prophetic line, “You know, they got KD, but we got Jaden McDaniels.”

McDaniels had 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting while terrorizing the Nuggets on the defensive end. He was only 2-for-12 from three-point range in the first five games of the series, but he went 3-for-5 in Game 6. That's the same number of threes — and one more point — than Denver's Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. combined.

When McDaniels is playing well, the Wolves are hard to beat. Game 7 might come down to whether McDaniels can score on the Nuggets again.

Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert | 14 rebounds, eight points

After Gobert caught so much flak for Nikola Jokic's big Game 5, he deserves recognition for being part of a highly stout interior defense by the Timberwolves. Specifically, Gobert shut up his nemesis Draymond Green, who had a lot to say about Gobert's defense both Tuesday and Wednesday night on "Inside the NBA."

Green criticized Gobert's defense on Jokic and claimed that "this series is over" because the Timberwolves no longer thought they could win the series. After a 45-point victory in which Minnesota held Denver to only 70 points and dominated on the glass, Gobert emphatically answered.

Did Green actually think the series was over, or was he still upset because he got a lengthy suspension for trying to choke out Gobert earlier in the season? Green's trash-talking backfired, and Gobert demonstrated that his Defensive Player of the Year award and Minnesota's top-rated defense were no flukes.