By the end of it, Nikola Jokic’s triceps were an angry red mess of scratches. Some long scabbed over, from the bigs he’d plowed through on his climb to greatness. Some, assuredly, still to form after clawing with Timberwolves in a regular-season night somehow unlike any other in a career of firsts.
“Just tired,” the Nuggets’ center said, postgame Tuesday, matter-of-fact as ever. “… It was an exhausting game.”
He took the floor again, with Minnesota slaughtering his Nuggets in the non-Jokic minutes, with 6:38 left in the second quarter. He did not leave. Not for a second. Not at the start of the fourth quarter. Not, certainly, for two overtimes, in a night that devolved into chaos at Ball Arena.
And somehow, fighting off a Timberwolves roster that sent traps and double- and triple-teams, he finished with a career-high 61 points on 18-of-29 shooting and 19-of-24 free throws and the .
And somehow, it wasn’t enough in a 140-139 double-overtime loss that ended as brutally as any in a string of six straight losses to Minnesota. Peyton Watson stood in disbelief, with hands over his face. Aaron Gordon walked off and straight to the tunnel, early, as the Timberwolves’ Nickeil Alexander-Walker buried the free throws that’d bury Denver.
“We had the game won,” said Gordon, who finished with 30 points. “That’s something to take away, from it. We beat ourselves at the end.”
They’d withstood a fourth-quarter barrage from Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, and a potential game-winning step-back three at the end of regulation from Julius Randle that hit off iron, and a potential game-winning pullup from Nickeil Alexander-Walker at the end of the first overtime that missed. Jokic had lofted a clutch floater to clinch 2OT, and dropped in a free throw to put Denver up 139-138 with 17.1 remaining, a maelstrom in Ball surrounding a man who seemed invincible.
And then guard Russell Westbrook tipped a pass from Edwards, hit Christian Braun on a 2-on-1 as the final seconds ticked under 10, and caught a pass back from Braun on a crash course with the basket.
His layup dinked off rim.
A subsequent last-gasp Minnesota possession ended in a missed buzzer-beating 3 by Nickeil Alexander-Walker — only for a whistle to blow on Westbrook’s aggressive closeout. Alexander-Walker buried two free throws as the effervescent Edwards danced near midcourt. And the wolf on the Nuggets’ back only grew heavier.
“Losing sucks,” Malone said postgame. “Losing like that really sucks. But again, I just can’t say it enough — I know there’s a lot of talk, do our guys not want to play against Minnesota, are they scared of Minnesota?”
“And I think hopefully tonight, I knew it, but for other people — we don’t fear anybody,” Malone said. “And I know we can beat anybody.”
It wasn’t quite the potential playoff-rematch preview promised after a string of five losses to Minnesota. The Timberwolves were missing two key sharpshooters in Donte DiVincenzo and Naz Reid, after both were slapped with suspensions for spilling into the stands in the T-wolves’ Sunday night smackdown with the Detroit Pistons. Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, meanwhile, missed his second straight game with hamstring tightness and Michael Porter Jr. was a late scratch.
Malone told media pregame that Porter had a “personal family matter that was really last-minute,” and a source familiar with the situation told The Denver Post that Porter was dealing with an illness in the family.
“Obviously, our thoughts and prayers are with Michael and his entire family at this time,” Malone said.
Everyone inside Ball Arena — from the fans who roared jeers at the very PA mention of Minnesota, to the Timberwolves’ black-suited coaching staff — knew the weight that’d be placed on Jokic’s shoulders this night. He began the night bellowing at referee CJ Washington over an early travel call, in his ear consistently from the tip. He continued it grappling with Timberwolves star Julius Randle, the two boxing and bumping and banging on trips up and down the floor.
And early intensity gave way to a late-game assassin. Jokic drew a sixth foul on Wolves center Rudy Gobert at the end of regulation, sending him to the bench as he hit a pair of tying free throws. He dropped in his sixth 3 late in the first overtime to cut Minnesota’s lead to three, then a baby hook a minute later to tie. He left Edwards baffled, the Timberwolves’ superstar grinning postgame after a 34-point performance.
“Nikola Jokic, bruh,” Edwards said in a video . “Oh my God. He might be the best basketball player I’ve ever seen, like, close up. Besides myself, to myself.”
Not even the best different-human-being basketball player Edwards had ever seen, though, could beat the Timberwolves on Tuesday night. The losing streak hit six. And there, still, was no escaping the Wolves Curse that continues to haunt Ball Arena.
“I mean, when we beat them, we won the championship,” Jokic said postgame, referring to a first-round win over Minnesota in 2022-23. “So, I think we can beat them.”
