The rivalry between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets gained another chapter Saturday night at Target Center.
Despite losing both Donte DiVincenzo and Anthony Edwards to injuries for the rest of the series, the Timberwolves won Game 4 112-96 to take a 3-1 series lead with a performance that spoke volumes about each of the two teams.
In the final seconds of the game, and the Timberwolves up by 14 points, Mike Conley threw a pass up ahead to Jaden McDaniels, who, instead of running out the clock, layed the ball in the basket. Nikola Jokić took exception.
It is an awful look for the 3-time MVP, who seemed more concerned with guarding the unwritten rules of the game than anyone on the opposing team, to start a fight as his team falls down 3-1 to a team missing two of their best players.
If Jokić wanted to avoid getting punked or embarrassed, he should have done so after Game 2 when McDaniels called out Jokić and the entire Nuggets roster as bad defenders. Instead, McDaniels and the Wolves hung 68 points in the paint on the Nuggets’ defense in Game 3 en route to a 113-96 blowout victory.
When asked why he was so upset about the McDaniels layup, Jokić said, “Because he scored and everybody stopped playing.” Jokić was understandably not very interested in breaking down the play further, but he did say he has no regrets.
By his lofty standards, Jokić has had an awful series. His defensive limitations have been on full display, while his offensive game has been completely disrupted by Rudy Gobert. In the last three games, each of which the Nuggets lost, Jokić has shot 23-68 from the floor (33.8 percent). In the fourth quarter, Jokić has made just two of his 16 shot attempts.
As the shooting percentages have gone down, the flopping and gamesmanship with the officials have gone up. Rather than attempting to match the Timberwolves’ level of play or competitiveness, Jokić has far too often focused his attention elsewhere.
“I thought we were very competitive tonight,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said about his team’s performance. “The competitive spirit question bothers me because I thought we were extremely competitive tonight at the start of the game. I thought we got into them. It was a game I thought we had control of, and in the third quarter, we just could not make a run.”
While the Nuggets may have been competitive to begin the game, the rest of the contest tells a different story. The Nuggets got outscored 62-42 in the second half with two of the Wolves’ offensive engines, DiVicenzo and Edwards, out of the game.
The Nuggets’ two best players, Jokić and Jamal Murray, shot a combined 6-24 from the field, including nine straight misses from Jokić to close the game as Gobert and Murray locked them down for the third consecutive game.
Adelman, like Jokić, took exception to the layup by McDaniels at the end of the game.
One thing Adelman is correct about: Game 4 and this entire series is precisely who Jaden McDaniels is.
McDaniels knew exactly what he was doing by putting the ball in the basket at the end of the game, just like he knew what he was saying after Game 2. He knew the reaction both would likely generate and was unafraid the Nuggets would do anything about it. When confronted, McDaniels, with a smile on his face, grabbed the jersey of Jokić and pushed him out of the way.
McDaniels does not care if he gives another team bulletin board material. He does not care about any unwritten rules, and he certainly does not care about what anyone thinks of him or his teammates. He just wants to play basketball.
“I said what I said,” McDaniels explained. “And then after that, just come to hoop every night.” When asked if Jokić said anything to him, McDaniels replied, “I don’t know what he said to be honest. I just seen someone that was big as hell.”
The only surprise was that McDaniels took it easy on the Nuggets by laying the ball in instead of breaking out his signature dunk, which has come to be known as the Slim McNasty, as he did in Game 7 of the 2024 series between these two teams.
For much of the night, Target Center felt like a balloon that someone had let all the air out of. They lost, in many ways, their heart and soul, DiVincenzo to a catastrophic Achilles injury, and the franchise superstar Edwards to a hyperextended knee.
The Timberwolves could have let their emotions get the best of them. They could have let the game go before halftime and tried to regroup before Game 5 with the series still tied.
Instead, they decided to battle back.
“That might be the most proud of our team I’ve been all season,” Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch said after the game. “Losing those two guys was really tough, tough emotionally for the guys. We regrouped well. I thought the key was just hanging in there until we get to halftime, kind of reset things, figure out what we have and who we have going forward.”
“Really proud of the guys,” Gobert stated. “You know, we lose two of our main guys early in the game, kept competing, had a lot of adversity, a lot of things didn’t go our way, kept competing no matter what, kept playing together. Every single guy that came in the game brought something and able to close out at the end, so really proud of the guys.”
The biggest bright spot on the night was the 43-point performance from Ayo Dosunmu, who saw an increased role with DiVincenzo and Edwards both out. The scoring total was a career-high for Dosunmu and a Timberwolves playoff record for scoring off the bench, a mark Dosunmu set just a game earlier with 25 points in Game 3.
“I didn’t know he was that damn good, I ain’t gonna lie to you.” Julius Randle said of Dosunmu’s Game 4 performance. “But, damn, I’m glad we got him.”
Dosunmu said the key to his performance was “just being aggressive.” He continued. “Just staying true to my technique and my routine. I think that’s very important having a very strict routine off the court. I think that plays a huge part into your performance on the court. Then just entering flow state.”
At every turn in Game 4, the Timberwolves and Nuggets told everyone watching exactly who they are as a team.
The Timberwolves, without their starting backcourt, kept their composure. The Nuggets, on the other hand, had no response for the Wolves on either end of the court while their best playing starting a brawl because of an extra two points in garbage time.
The Wolves, every step of the way, overcame the adversity that was thrown their way, while the Nuggets seemed to succumb to the pressure.
The Timberwolves will hope to bottle up that feeling one more time to close out this first-round series. The Nuggets, meanwhile, will need some soul-searching if they’re even willing to do so.
