Minnesota shook. And the Nuggets looked shaken. They were a no-show for most of Game 3 of their first-round playoff series Thursday, never leading in a 113-96 loss to the Timberwolves. It was only the third time this season that Denver has failed to score 100 points. The other two were without Nikola Jokic.

“It’s tough. Nobody on the team was making shots, including myself,” Jamal Murray said. “… They played with a lot of adrenaline. The crowd was into it in the first quarter, and I feel like we were just playing a little too fast. And after that quarter, the score was pretty even quarter to quarter. But that first really hurt us. Couldn’t recover from that. So we’ve just gotta be better to start the game and have a calmer mindset, especially on the road.”

Starting power forward Aaron Gordon was sidelined by left calf tightness, but his presence might not have mattered. Jokic and Jamal Murray never established any sort of scoring rhythm in the rout. They combined to shoot 12 for 43, scoring 43 points between them, and it took until the second half for a third Nuggets starter to make a shot from the field.

Jokic missed his first six shots. The team missed 16 of its first 18. The Timberwolves foamed at the mouth, eager to back up Jaden McDaniels’ trash talk about Denver’s defense from three days earlier. The Nuggets didn’t appear bothered enough by it. They allowed 40 points in the paint before halftime. They had scored 39 points total at half — in and outside of the paint.

“We just had a hard time making shots tonight,” coach David Adelman said. “… Our two best players, from the field, obviously really struggled.”

Adelman turned shades of Michael Malone late in the half, seething as he called a timeout after Denver failed to get back on defense off of a made shot. He burned through three of his timeouts in a four-minute stretch of the second quarter, as the Nuggets’ defense abandoned them.

It had saved them from getting run out of the gym early — they trailed 25-11 after the opening stanza — but Minnesota’s relentless downhill driving was too much of a problem. Especially with Gordon and Peyton Watson out.

“Guys were trying to get back to their matchups as opposed to: Just match up,” Adelman said. “They’re gonna play faster in this building than they do on the road. All teams do. And it was unfortunate because I thought the group to start the second quarter really competed. … But every time we would make a run, we’d give up a runaway layup after a make or a miss. You can’t do that in a playoff game. So we’ll definitely watch the film. That has to get better.”

Ayo Dosunmu, one of the most impactful trade deadline acquisitions in the NBA this year, led the Wolves with 25 points and nine assists off the bench. He exposed Denver’s transition defense, forced the Nuggets to collapse with his straight-line speed and finished a flawless 10-for-12 inside the arc. McDaniels exposed the Nuggets on the glass, crashing for four offensive rebounds en route to a 20-point double-double. Rudy Gobert continued to be the most valuable player of the series, keeping Jokic uncomfortable at all times.

He and McDaniels — the two best defenders on either team in this series — have outplayed Denver’s two best offensive players through three contests. That’s been enough for Minnesota to seize a 2-1 lead after trailing by 19 points early in Game 2.

And it was enough on Thursday to compensate for a choppy game from Anthony Edwards, who developed a limp in the fourth quarter after spending most of his evening in foul trouble. He finished with 17 points, five boards and three assists.

The Wolves left the door open for a second-half comeback when Edwards and Julius Randle were both off the court. But Denver failed to cut substantially into a 27-point deficit. It was still 20 after the third quarter. Going to a zone defense slowed Minnesota down further in the fourth, but the Nuggets weren’t generating the shots they’re used to getting automatically.

Christian Braun finished the game with two points and no field goals. Cam Johnson scored six on as many shots.

“I think to get those guys going, they have to screen better,” Adelman said. “If you can free up your best players, that’s gonna bring rotations. That’s gonna bring a low man.”

Julian Strawther entered the rotation as Adelman searched for offensive punch, but he missed five of his six attempts from the field.

Zeke Nnaji slid in as a backup center and provided good energy. The Nuggets won his 16 minutes by two. Nobody else finished in the black. Spencer Jones replaced Gordon in the starting lineup and limited Randle, though he added very little offensively. The Nuggets are unsure what Gordon’s status will be for Game 4, which tips off Saturday at 6:30 p.m. MT at Target Center.

But as coach David Adelman points out, the timing of Jaden McDaniels’ viral insult was a little ironic.

McDaniels was not afraid to stir the pot Monday night after the Timberwolves stole Game 2 of their first-round playoff series from the Nuggets. Minnesota’s 25-year-old wing called out Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and several other players by name for being easy marks. “They’re all bad defenders,” he declared.

Indeed, Denver’s defense ranked 21st in the regular season at 116, a bottom-10 finish for the second consecutive year. But Minnesota has failed to consistently take advantage of it through two games, despite McDaniels’ smack talk.

“We’ve gotten really lazy as a society. What����ap our defensive rating in this series?” Adelman asked reporters Wednesday after the Nuggets finished practice.

It����ap 109 points allowed per 100 possessions — 102 in 67 minutes when Jokic and Murray have shared the court.

“OK,” Adelman said. “Next.”

Denver’s defense became a national talking point after the attention-grabbing quote from McDaniels. It was convenient talk show fodder. And it wasn’t completely without merit: Jokic and Murray generally have a reputation for being subpar defenders at their respective positions — Jokic as a big man who doesn’t protect the rim, Murray as a guard who struggles to stop the ball. The majority of their effort is devoted to offense, where they’re one of the savviest and most talented duos in the NBA. Opponents try to force them, in turn, to defend pick-and-rolls and other actions.

“All teams do this in the playoffs,” as Adelman said himself between the first two games of the series. “You’re either hunting a matchup, or you’re trying to get the other team’s best offensive players as tired as possible.”

But the Nuggets didn’t lose Game 2 at home because of their defense. In large part, they lost Game 2 because Jokic and Murray weren’t good enough … offensively.

Sounds backwards, doesn’t it?

“I think that defensively, we’ve been pretty good,” Christian Braun said. “There were some spots where we could’ve played better. We made some mistakes, I think late (in the) game, that we don’t typically make. But we’re not too worried about comments, what other people are saying.”

“I can’t wait for his podcast,” Adelman added when reacting to McDaniels’ take.

Two portions of the game stand out upon review. The first is a stretch of the second quarter, when the Wolves were erasing a 19-point deficit. Their comeback started with an 11-0 run when Jokic was on the bench, taking his usual breather, but Denver still wielded a 10-point lead with 7:30 to go in the half.

Jokic had checked back in. Rudy Gobert, who played outstanding 1-on-1 defense against him, was out of the game with three fouls, not be seen again until the second half. Minnesota was playing a smaller, five-out lineup with Julius Randle and Naz Reid in frontcourt. That unit did inherently cause problems for the Nuggets’ defense by stretching them out. It enabled Anthony Edwards and the Wolves to more comfortably put pressure on the rim, move the ball around the perimeter and knock down open 3s.

But it also sacrificed defensive stability against Jokic. Or it should have, at least.

The Nuggets neglected to use their biggest advantage. On four consecutive empty possessions, Jokic never touched the ball in the frontcourt. Denver played fast-paced offense instead, rushing into shots without settling down and involving him. On a fifth possession, Jokic finally got an awkward touch around the elbow but had to tip the ball to himself multiple times while Minnesota went for a steal. He ended up passing out of the chaos. Aaron Gordon missed a corner three. Make it five straight possessions without a paint touch for the MVP center.

By the end of those five possessions, Minnesota had transformed a double-digit deficit into a lead. Jokic got a paint touch on the next trip and scored easily. He posted up Randle the possession after that, waited for a second defender to collapse then kicked out to Murray for an open 3-pointer. When the Nuggets ended the half on an 8-0 run, it started with Jokic establishing position deep in the paint for a catch and an easy bucket.

But in total, he only attempted four shots — one of them from deep — in his 8.5 second-quarter minutes against a lineup that couldn’t guard him. That much was obvious in the second half, when Gobert was sidelined by foul trouble again. Denver adjusted by slowing down and feeding Jokic more. He was a more willing aggressor. He scored 12 easy points during a 14-5 run, as if to accentuate the missed opportunities from that earlier stint.

Then came the fourth-quarter drought. Game 2 ended on a 19-9 Timberwolves run, the crux of which happened from the 8:20 to 1:20 mark. In those seven minutes, Denver’s only made field goal was a transition dunk by Braun when Randle fell asleep getting back on defense after a free throw.

Jokic and Murray combined to miss 10 consecutive shots. They spammed the two-man game against Minnesota’s two best defenders, McDaniels and Gobert. Jokic screened for Murray. Murray screened for Jokic, inverting the pick-and-roll — a trick that very few tandems have the skill-set to pull off. By using Jokic as the ball-handler, Denver can make an elite defensive center like Gobert guard in a way he’s not accustomed to — fighting over screens. The coverage decisions can become trickier for a defense.

But Jokic was sloppy. Not as precise as usual. On one inverted pick-and-roll with Bruce Brown as the screener, Donte DiVincenzo (Brown’s defender) stepped up to show, before Jokic had dribbled around the screen. Brown read the defense and slipped toward the rim instead of holding his screen — the right play. He was open. But Jokic had the ball poked away by DiVincenzo before he could make the pass, forcing him to reset. The possession ended with Jokic cutting to receive a pass from Brown, then missing a contested layup with Gobert in pursuit.

On another possession, McDaniels navigated an initial screen from Jokic successfully to stay glued to Murray. The point guard gave the ball to Jokic and screened for him, flowing into the second action. Jokic rejected the screen and leveraged it to create an open driving lane to his left. But Gobert again stuck to his hip just well enough to make Jokic’s lefty layup attempt difficult. Jokic missed it and fell on the baseline in the process, perhaps trying to sell a foul. It led to a 5-on-4  transition push for Minnesota. An easy dunk.

Other times, the Nuggets generated open 3s but simply missed. They ran an after-timeout play in which Murray dribbled to his left around two screens and got free of McDaniels, only to clank the shot from one of his favorite spots on the floor. Jokic came off a pin-down from Braun to catch on the right wing — again making Gobert chase him around a screen — but air-balled the 3-pointer.

And Gobert was up to the task of guarding Jokic in isolation when the Nuggets decided to clear out on a handful of clutch possessions. Jokic moved the French giant into the paint on one, but he front-rimmed a hook shot that he usually makes, leading to an awkward, ricocheting long rebound and a fast-break dunk the other way.

In those seven minutes, the Timberwolves outscored Denver 12-3. Four of those points were in transition — directly resulting from Jokic’s missed shots. Another two points were scored by Gobert when he bullied Jokic out of the way for an offensive rebound. Aside from those three dunks, the Wolves shot 2-for-10 during their own run to take over the game by four.

The Nuggets got enough stops to win. Their set defense didn’t fail them. Their offensive execution, shot-making and rebounding did.

The loss was punctuated by two uncharacteristically bad decisions on offense — one by Jokic with the ball in his hands, the other by Murray with the ball in his.

So naturally, their defense became the center of attention afterward.

“This is just a part of the rivalry,” Braun said. “I think that’s just part of what comes with it. I don’t think (the comments) caught anybody off-guard. He’s kind of speaking his truth and what he believes. We’ll allow them to do that. We kind of want to take care of our own things. … You shouldn’t need a fire lit under you in the playoffs.”

Indifference was the Nuggets’ overarching tone as they prepared for Game 3 on Thursday (7:30 p.m. MT) in Minneapolis. Even so, it was clear enough that McDaniels’ quote had been posted on a bulletin board somewhere in Ball Arena.

“They’ve just been saying a lot. All season. All series,” said Cam Johnson, who was one of the players named by McDaniels. “So let them talk. Let them get everything they want off their chest. We’re cool with it.”

He was about to release one with 21 seconds left in Monday night’s Game 2 of another captivating Nuggets-Timberwolves playoff series. It was going to tie the score at 115. Minnesota was going to call a timeout to set up the last possession of regulation. Denver was going to defend it out and hope to extend the game to overtime. Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels were going to be walking on thin ice if it got there, with five fouls each. Game 2 was going to meander past midnight.

The floater was the formality before all that. It’s almost as automatic as a layup for Jokic, especially when the rim protector is out of the picture — and Gobert was. He and McDaniels were stuck behind the play after a pristine pocket pass from Jamal Murray in the pick-and-roll. Anthony Edwards was the low man, contesting the shot for Minnesota. Helplessly, in all likelihood. Nuggets coach David Adelman said earlier this month that he would rather see Jokic shoot a floater over Victor Wembanyama’s 8-foot wingspan than shoot free throws with a game on the line. Edwards was an ant in comparison.

But Jokic balked. Halfway into his shooting motion, after the ball was reared back over his head, after his left foot had levitated off the ground, he reconsidered. Christian Braun was open in the dunker spot. Jokic lowered the ball and passed. Braun caught it low. The Wolves converged immediately. They fouled him under the basket.

Braun missed a free throw. Denver’s opportunity for a 2-0 series lead slipped away.

Jokic’s floater is still hanging in the air, in the imaginations of Nuggets fans. In his, too.

“I should definitely have taken that floater,” Jokic said after the series-tying 119-114 loss.

Braun volunteered to take the blame as well. Needing both free throws to tie the game, he split the pair, missing the first one. He was a 78.2% foul shooter in the regular season.

“You don’t have time to dwell on it,” Braun said. “I think I’m gonna be in that position again, and next time, I’ll step up and knock them down. It sucks. It’s not the whole game. But I feel like I make that free throw, and we’re in a lot better spot. So, kind of gotta take that one on the chin. That’s on me. And like I said, I’m gonna be in more pressure spots going forward, so I’m excited for those moments.”

“Rimmed out,” Nuggets coach David Adelman added. “That happens in the NBA. You’re gonna have moments you don’t want to remember. That����ap a tough moment for CB after playing such a good game. He was all over the place in this game. Has so much responsibility on both sides of the ball. So I feel for CB.”

Jokic and Murray combined to miss seven consecutive shots during clutch time as the Timberwolves seized control, led by Gobert’s sturdy defense against Jokic in the post. Denver’s three-time MVP center shot a 1-for-8 clip in the 20 minutes he shared the floor with Gobert in Game 2. He scored 20 of his 24 points when Gobert was trapped on the bench by foul trouble.

His most aggressive stretch of the game was a four-minute stint in the third quarter, when the Timberwolves couldn’t find an answer for Jokic between Naz Reid and a switching McDaniels. Jokic scored 12 of Denver’s points during a quick 14-5 run.

He was uncharacteristically out of rhythm the other 36 minutes he played, often hesitating to attack as a scorer. It all culminated with his abrupt decision to pass up his best shot, at the end of a 1-for-7 fourth quarter.

“I thought I had (Braun). Ant kind of stepped up and jumped up in the air. I thought I had a pass,” Jokic said. “… We had two free throws, so it’s not a bad ending. But I definitely should have took that floater.”

“You always want him to shoot that shot,” Adelman said. “But he sees what he sees out there. He’s playing. And if he sees his teammate open, he’s gonna make that play. … I trust the best player in the world to make the decisions he makes. He saw CB. … The decisions he makes in a game are always unselfish. They’re always for the right reasons. And I trust CB to make those free throws.”

Denver’s wayward finish to the game was also stamped by a questionable decision on the ensuing possession. Julius Randle made a pair of free throws to push Minnesota’s lead to 117-114, leaving the Nuggets with one last chance at a game-tying shot. But Murray didn’t hunt the 3-pointer. He slithered inside the arc for a midrange attempt instead, sealing the result with a miss that would have only cut the deficit back to one. He defended his decision to go for two afterward.

“We’re down three. We just need a bucket,” Murray said. “We have a timeout. I mean, if I hit the shot, they inbound it. They had Rudy and somebody else out there. We could have fouled them. He makes one, maybe. We call timeout. I mean, I have to make the shot for it to go well. So that was the problem. I didn’t make it.”

Meanwhile on Minnesota’s end?

“I was happy he took it,” Edwards said.

And equally happy when Jokic declined to take his floater.

The Nuggets collapsed against the Timberwolves. Again. They squandered a 19-point second quarter lead. It represented their biggest playoff meltdown since Minnesota erased a 20-point advantage two years ago.

The Timberwolves are the definition of annoying. Coach Chris Finch turns officiating into the Lincoln-Douglas debates. And their players relish talking smack.

Monday night, however, the team that cried wolf left the Nuggets with a bloody lip and crooked nose.

The postgame scene eloquently explained why this series has become greasy, if not spicy.

Aaron Gordon sat at his locker twirling the tape from his finger, unable to wrap his head around a stunning 119-114 defeat.

Christian Braun frowned into space, upset over missing a free throw with 19.1 seconds left.

And Jamal Murray looked spent, trying to make sense of how the Nuggets raced out to a 44-25 cushion and dissolved when it mattered most.

Down the hall, the Timberwolves popped off like they found the cheat code for Nikola Jokic. They blabbered about the Nuggets in a way more suited for a prize fight than a first-round NBA playoff series.

Just listen to how Jaden McDaniels described their offensive awakening over the final three quarters.

“Go after Jokic, Jamal, all the bad defenders. Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team, just go at them,” said McDaniels on the key to Minnesota’s attack. “Yeah, they’re all bad defenders.”

OK, this just got good. No more pretense. Or political correctness. This rivalry — the teams are 15-15 over their last 30 games — is on full volume and out in the open for everyone to see.

If the Nuggets don’t respond with vigor to McDaniels’ evisceration, they don’t deserve to play for a championship, let alone win one.

Given a chance to step on Minnesota’s throat, the Nuggets choked. Simple as that. Their bodies were too tired. The shots too short. Typically after a Denver-Minnesota postseason game, talk centers on a center. It did again.

Just not the one we expected.

Instead of dissecting another unicorn performance from Jokic, the discussion focused on how Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert won the one-on-one matchup.

Jokic scored two points in the fourth quarter, unable to solve Gobert’s range and length. It was a running theme.

Gobert held the three-time MVP to 1-for-8 shooting and four points over 20-plus minutes when he was on the floor. Jokic scored 20 points against everyone else, including wearing out Naz Reid for 12 in the third quarter, a strategy he should have employed sooner.

“(Gobert) is a really good defensive player. He makes you make tough shots. He’s big, has reach,” Jokic said. “He can take away any kind of angle or position.”

Gobert also had motivation. He has not defended Jokic well in the playoffs, but Game 2 offered a chance to make critics swallow their tongues.

As Anthony Edwards explained, “Everybody’s gonna say this and that about Rudy. People don’t understand what he means to us. They don’t want to lay the ball up around him. They don’t want to go at him.”

Before the game, the NBA announced Spurs star Victor Wembanyama as the Defensive Player of the Year. No surprise.

Gobert failing to finish in the top three in the voting, behind Chet Holmgren and Ausur Thompson, did not sit well with Finch.

“It’s a joke,” Finch said. “I thought it was incredibly disrespectful. It’s just laughable.”

Gobert tried to deflect the voting as a reason for Monday’s effort. He scored two points and had five fouls, but rarely has a box score been so misleading.

Gobert made everything hard. He turned every trip into the paint into an episode of “Naked and Afraid,” uncomfortable, awkward and desperate.

When the Nuggets broke out in the first quarter, they should have finished on cruise control. Instead, they ran into a 7-foot-1-inch high retaining wall on the back stretch.

They got Gobert-ed.

“I know who I am. It’s not the first time I have been disrespected. Probably not the last. I just have to be myself,” Gobert said of the awards voting. “If they want to disrespect greatness and take it for granted, sooner or later they will realize the impact.”

During clutch time over multiple possessions, Jokic was thwarted. The last two minutes were capsulized by Jokic eschewing a floater for a pass to Braun. What should have been a bucket turned into a single free throw.

“I was lucky. I am not a top 3 defender so I shouldn’t be able to do that,” Gobert quipped.

The easy narrative told through blue and yellow-tinted glasses is that the Nuggets missed shots they normally make. Especially late. There are not many examples where Jokic and Murray clank 10 of 12 shots in the fourth.

But this stumble felt more personal, more damning.

The Nuggets bench was shallow, too dependent on Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bruce Brown. Jonas Valanciunas provided nothing. And Spencer Jones is a functional piece, but not someone capable of shifting momentum as Denver was torched in non-Jokic minutes, including an 11-0 second quarter run.

The truth is the Nuggets got cute, became intoxicated by their rocket launch. Every shot became an opportunity to get into transition. The problem is they stopped rebounding. They were outscored 20-3 on second chance points.

In January on a back-to-back, that is an effort statistic. Monday, it was the wrong mindset.

“We have to change ours,” coach David Adelman said.

The Nuggets lost because they were slow to adapt defensively in the second quarter. They wilted because they could not get anyone hot over the final 10 minutes when Jokic and Murray lost their aim.

These Nuggets are still good enough to dismiss the Timberwolves. But Monday, they folded.

They did not just get beat. They got punked.

How they respond Thursday will tell us everything we need to know about their toughness.

Jaden McDaniels isn’t worried about the illusion of respect. Not in this rivalry. He wanted all the smoke Monday night after a 119-114 win over the Nuggets. The Timberwolves stormed into Denver and split the first two games of a best-of-seven playoff rubber match, and they howled with laughter on their way out.

Stone-faced, with deadly seriousness, McDaniels called out Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and the rest of the Nuggets for their poor defense.

“Go at Jokic. Jamal. All the bad defenders,” he said when asked about Minnesota’s approach on offense. “Tim Hardaway. Cam Johnson. Aaron Gordon. The whole team. Just go at them.

“They’re all bad defenders.”

Denver held the Wolves to 105 points in a Game 1 win but coughed up a 19-point lead in Game 2. Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with a 30-point double-double.

“They don’t got people that can defend the rim,” McDaniels said, “and if (Jokic) is there, we’re still more athletic than them. Just gotta be able to finish.”

Nuggets starters Gordon and Christian Braun, when asked about McDaniels’ trash talk, both shrugged and said they weren’t concerned by it. This is the third playoff series between Denver and Minnesota in the last four years. Before Game 2, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch accused the Nuggets of flopping in the series opener.

The Wolves have targeted Murray on switches and forced him and Jokic to defend in pick-and-rolls early in the series, as is standard practice for Denver’s opponents. McDaniels took aim at the Nuggets’ better defenders as well in his postgame comments, though.

The Nuggets have now lost four of their last six home playoff games against Minnesota.

“I’ve been around these guys a long time,” coach David Adelman said. “They understand what this is. They’re disappointed right now. But they know what they’re capable of. We’ve been in a lot of series like this. We’ve seen 1-1 quite a bit. So we’ll react to it positively.”

They’re going to Minneapolis in a tied first-round playoff series, 1-1, after blowing a 19-point lead Monday night and dropping Game 2 at home to the Timberwolves, 119-114.

“You get too high,” Tim Hardaway Jr. said, “and you get, I don’t want to say cocky, but feeling yourself.”

Denver’s missed opportunities loomed nightmarish over a 6-0 Timberwolves run that flipped the game in the last five minutes. Nikola Jokic missed short on a contested layup over Rudy Gobert that’s usually automatic for him, the long rebound leading directly into a Minnesota fast break. David Adelman used a timeout to reset and draw up a play, down 110-107. It resulted in an open 3-point attempt for Murray, who missed on an otherwise stellar 6-for-14 night from deep.

The Timberwolves locked up Denver’s patented two-man game. Gobert bullied Jokic out of the way for a put-back dunk to double the lead with two minutes left, highlighting Minnesota’s 20-3 dominance of second-chance points.

Aaron Gordon cashed a triple to cut it to one, but Donte DiVincenzo got free for an answer. It gave Minnesota a 115-111 edge with 1:05 to play. Jokic threw down a dunk over Gobert at the other end to keep the Nuggets within range.

But at the end of a wobbly performance from Jokic, he made a surprising decision that will linger as the biggest what-if of the series so far. With a chance to bury a game-tying floater in the pick-and-roll, he instead passed out of his form at the last second to Christian Braun, who was grounded in the dunker spot, not soaring for an alley-oop. He nonetheless drew a foul. A trip to the line. A chance, maybe, to force overtime.

Not quite. The Timberwolves missed 11 free throws on the night, but Braun’s miss with 19 seconds left just about sealed Denver’s fate. Down three on the next possession, Murray settled for an ill-advised midrange jumper, and the Wolves escaped with a split on the road. They’ve won four of their last six playoff games at Ball Arena.

My NBA awards ballot: MVP, All-NBA, Rookie of the Year votes | Durando

It snapped a 13-game win streak for the Nuggets. They're now 1-5 in their last six Game 2s, dating back to the 2023 NBA Finals.

Anthony Edwards amassed 30 points and 10 rebounds on a shaky knee. Murray matched him in scoring. Jokic finished with 24 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists. He shot 8 for 20.

The first half alone belongs in the annals of instant classics between the Nuggets and Wolves. It packed in all the emotional swings that have characterized the best games between these star-crossed rivals. It included a sequence in which Denver converted three different 4-point plays in a span of four possessions. That wasn't even the weirdest thing that happened. It was late in the first quarter, as the Nuggets were piling on against an underdog that appeared physically limited and emotionally distant.

Edwards was limping around, voluntarily not involving himself in some of Minnesota's possessions. The Wolves were stagnant. The Nuggets were inspired. Hardaway powered Ball Arena's electricity for the next month with a double-dip of effort plays, diving two rows into the stands to save a loose ball on Denver's baseline, climbing out as the Nuggets turned it over, then gathering himself just in time to take a charge against Minnesota's ensuing 3-on-1.

Then the Timberwolves got frisky. Down 44-35 early in the second quarter, they started whittling away while Gobert and Jonas Valanciunas traded fouls. Gobert picked up three in as many minutes. Valanciunas got tagged with two and a technical. Minnesota was on an 11-0 run by the time Adelman used a timeout to get Jokic back on the floor ahead of schedule. Not even that helped. With Gobert sentenced to the bench, Chris Finch had to go smaller with Randle at the five. Jokic wasn't aggressive enough against those lineups until the second half, and the Wolves suddenly couldn't miss a shot.

They took the lead five minutes after trailing by 19. Overall, they engineered a 27-point swing in 10 minutes. Edwards suddenly had 20 points and a spring in his step.

Then the Nuggets struck back, scoring the last eight of the half. It ended in deja vu. Murray splashed a game-tying 51-footer at the buzzer, his league-leading fourth bucket of the season from behind halfcourt. In Game 4 between the Nuggets and Wolves, the first half finished identically -- with an 8-0 run and a heave from Murray. Denver went on to win the game. Not the series. This time, Game 2 went into intermission deadlocked and the slate was wiped clean, as the basketball gods intended.

“I’m tired of waiting,” the Nuggets guard shared with nobody in particular on his way into the locker room. “It’s (expletive) playoff time, mother-(expletives).”

It might as well have been a thesis statement for his entire team’s headspace. The Nuggets live a charmed life, boasting the longest active streak of NBA playoff appearances in the Western Conference, and it can cause the dog days of the regular season to feel burdensome. Their annual struggle is to resist auto-pilot — especially at the end of the floor that requires more effort. Combine their human instinct and an unusually contagious injury bug this season, and the result was a bottom-10 defense in the NBA for the second consecutive year.

It didn’t show in Game 1 against the Timberwolves.

In what felt like an upside down start to the playoffs, the best 3-point shooting team in the league overcame a 1-for-17 second half with disciplined guarding. Braun took the lead on Edwards, and Denver held an opponent to 105 points or fewer for just the 15th time this year.

“Which is something we’ve been crying about the whole season,” Spencer Jones said, laughing. “So to be able to do it first game of the playoffs shows the intensity we can play at, and play at it consistently.”

The Nuggets shot 43.7% from the field and 27.8% from deep, their second-lowest clip of the year in a win. They were 15-22 in the regular season when they shot any worse than 49% overall, a sign of the strain they put on their historic offense nightly.

Defensive stops were manufactured up and down the lineup. Bruce Brown was Denver’s amplifier, compiling five steals off the bench in his first playoff game as a Nugget since the 2023 championship clincher. “Some guys might get mad at me, but I think he’s our most effective on-ball defender,” Jamal Murray said. “When he comes in, he’s up underneath guys. He’s not even fouling. And if he does foul, it’s stopping them from getting two points.”

Nuggets coach David Adelman praised him for “toeing the line that you need to toe in the playoffs.”

Aaron Gordon was predictably formidable as the primary matchup on Julius Randle, who never established a groove while scoring an inefficient 16 points. The Nuggets allowed less than a point per possession in 29 minutes with Gordon on the floor.

When he got in early foul trouble, Jones and Cam Johnson helped weather the storm against Minnesota’s offensive-minded fours, Randle and Naz Reid. Johnson displayed his understated versatility as an isolation defender throughout the series opener, forcing Randle and Edwards into tough shots despite mainly taking the Jaden McDaniels assignment. “Trying to bother the handle a little bit,” Johnson said. “Don’t let them get super rhythmic with it, because that’s when guys get comfy and hit shots.”

Nikola Jokic played his vintage up-to-touch ball screen coverage, giving Braun time to recover to Edwards when Minnesota wanted to put Jokic in the action (which was often). His defensive effort has been justifiably scrutinized at times this season, but the context is crucial. Denver’s new coaching regime — Adelman as the head man, Jared Dudley as his defensive coordinator — prefers to play the long game.

Their philosophy from the start was to devise a scheme that could help save Jokic’s legs for playoff basketball. They wanted him hanging out around the paint more during the regular season, despite his shortcomings as a rim protector. They didn’t want him to overexert himself with too much aggressive pick-and-roll defense, like he has typically played over the years to capitalize on his quick hands and high IQ. They’ve put him in a drop more often, or at the bottom of a zone, or they’ve they sought out cross-matches against non-shooters. “I don’t want him having him to go guard these guards on the wings, in rotations,” Dudley told The Post early in the season.

It was all in anticipation of this. Physical and mental fatigue played a factor in Denver’s last two season-ending losses, both second-round Game 7s. The sense around the team this year is that Jokic feels fresh. Adelman stumped for him after Game 1, pointing out unprompted that Jokic “was up (the floor) in pick-and-roll, like, 65 times. I know he gets killed defensively. But man, he’s in good shape.”

And at the center of this “grimy” series-opening win was Braun, who shouldered the Ant matchup that he’s grown all too familiar with in recent years. Edwards led the Timberwolves in scoring (22), but he looked nothing like his usual self in a labored 7-for-19 performance. Part of that may have been due to lingering runner’s knee; he had an opportunity to attack Murray in space on a late fourth-quarter possession, but as the Nuggets loaded up with help behind Murray, Edwards settled for a deep 3-point attempt instead of driving and kicking to an open teammate.

Part of it was Braun, who has the liberty to switch strategies on his own from possession to possession, Adelman said. The fourth-year guard, who turned 25 the day before the playoffs, has been growing more comfortable playing on his left ankle in the second half of the season. It still gets swollen and requires extra postgame treatment, residual effects of the ligament damage caused by a severe sprain last November.

“I thought CB was great,” Adelman said. “He’s guarding one of the best players in the world. … With Ant, you have to have somebody guarding him that will change up their own coverages sometimes. Take responsibility to not give him the same look every time. … You can trust CB that what he’s doing, there’s a reason for it. I realized this last year in the playoffs, when he really had an enormous role guarding the better players with (James) Harden then on to Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander). You can trust him. Not all players are like that.”

Braun emerged as one of the Nuggets’ best Ant defenders during the 2024 playoffs, when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope struggled in the matchup. He left Denver in free agency that offseason, leaving a job opening in the starting lineup. Braun seized it, becoming the team’s lead defensive guard. He’s taken on most of the NBA’s premiere ball-handlers over the last two years, experiencing ups and downs as an over-screen defender in pick-and-roll. But he has grown accustomed to the mental resilience it takes to guard superstars in a league where good offense tends to trump good defense. He’s startlingly honest when he feels an opponent “kicked my (butt),” as Harden did in Game 1 of the playoffs last season.

“It was probably his best game of the series,” Braun recalled Saturday. “Then I kind of learned and I adjusted. I think in Game 7, obviously we took care of business and did a really good job on him. I think as the series went on, we kept me on him more and more. … I’m gonna learn what Ant does throughout the series, and it’s a series for a reason.”

Which is all to say, Braun and the Nuggets know they’re in no place to take a victory lap after one game of good defense.

Harden had 32 points and 11 assists in that Game 1. He fizzled out by Game 7, scoring seven points on eight shots.

The opposite trajectory is just as feasible, if Braun allows Edwards to get too comfortable on his knee as this series develops.

“Just be annoying the whole game,” Jokic said.

The entire roster took that edict to heart in Game 1, and the Timberwolves buckled under the pressure. McDaniels shoved Jokic in the back and picked up a dead ball technical foul. Randle failed to hustle back into the play after Denver snatched an offensive rebound on a 45-foot heave with two minutes left. Gordon punished him for his poor effort by getting wide open for a dunk. Then Randle committed two frustration fouls in an 11-second span as the game spiraled out of control for Minnesota. Wolves coach Chris Finch criticized his team’s lack of composure.

It stemmed from a Denver defense that had been hibernating for months, counting on its ability to suddenly jolt awake in April. It’s a risky blueprint, but it worked in Game 1.

“They tried to bully us a little bit in the front. We knew that was gonna happen. That’s how this team tries to get under our skin,” Jones said. “So for us to match it from beginning to end and never give in, and see them be the ones to kind of complain to the refs more than we were — it shows how focused we were.”

The Nuggets were stunted. Flustered. Worked up.

David Adelman was across midcourt. His protests were only causing more harm. Aaron Gordon was in deep foul trouble. He had just picked up his third of the first quarter, and Adelman had wasted his challenge trying to overturn it. He picked up a technical foul in the process for his indignance. The Timberwolves had brought their 2024 defense to Denver, and they were headed toward a 12-point lead. Nikola Jokic was turning it over. The role players were missing shots.

This all felt reminiscent of that cursed second-round series two years ago, when the Wolves and refs got in the Nuggets’ heads, when Denver lost three of four games at home.

The 2026 Nuggets were ready to take the first punch. They rallied to tie it by halftime, raced ahead in the third quarter, then held on in the fourth for a 116-105 Game 1 win over their rivals Saturday at Ball Arena. They’ve won eight of their last nine playoff Game 1s dating back to their championship run in 2023. Their only series-opening loss in that time was to Minnesota.

“It was the type of playoff game that you love to win because it was kind of ugly,” Adelman said. “… We were up against it right away. And that’s a big thing for a road team to come out, punch the home team in the mouth. That’s what they did after we missed shots. And just the reaction to that, staying together, winning a grimy game, it’s good. We’re gonna have games where we shoot the hell out of it and everything looks pretty, and everybody is gonna say how good we are. There’s no difference. You just win the game. And that’s what the game was tonight.”

Nuggets guard Christian Braun put it more simply after contributing 12 points and eight rebounds.

“When you win and you don’t play well,” he said, “I think that’s a good sign.”

Jamal Murray led the Nuggets with 30 points on a 16-for-16 afternoon at the foul line, shaking off a slow start and a twisted right ankle after Jaden McDaniels closed out into his landing space on an early 3-point attempt. It was his 20th career 30-point playoff game, and he overcame an 0-for-8 outside shooting performance to get there. Jokic added 25 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. Their two-man game picked apart Minnesota in the third quarter, generating clean scoring chances on nearly every possession.

Most importantly, Denver’s defense came to bat. It bided time for the offense during the first half, while nerves settled and turnovers slowly dissipated. It sank its teeth in during a 14-0 third-quarter run that broke the game open, holding the Wolves scoreless for more than four straight minutes.

“It was physical. It was ups and downs. Runs,” Jokic said. “… It always is about the runs and how you’re gonna react and how you’re gonna manage those runs. Are you gonna take bad shots, or are you gonna create open looks?”

Anthony Edwards, playing on a wobbly knee, led the Wolves with 22 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Adelman was pleased with Braun’s defense against the star guard, who said he felt fatigued but healthy in the loss. Rudy Gobert added 17 and 10. Julius Randle struggled to assert himself, needing 16 shots to compile 16 points. He and Edwards combined to shoot 14 for 35. Minnesota coach Chris Finch called Murray’s 16 free throws a “head-scratcher” compared to his team’s 19 attempts.

“Ant was trying to snake. Just get a little tap on the ball and make him fumble it so he has to get back in front. The little details helped our defense a lot,” Murray said. “And for us, that leads to offense. So I felt like when we did make those runs, it was because of those little plays.”

The Wolves have been prone to mental lapses this season, and they bit themselves with one at a critical moment in the series opener. Murray was forced to heave a 45-footer at the shot clock buzzer after having the ball poked away with two minutes left — a rare example of a Nuggets possession that didn’t generate an open shot down the stretch. It should’ve been Minnesota’s ball down five. Instead, Murray’s heave grazed the rim, and the Timberwolves ball-watched, giving up an easy offensive rebound to Bruce Brown.

“I’d be mad if I didn’t hit rim,” Murray said.

Gordon capitalized with an open dunk to punctuate his 17-point, eight-rebound game.

“We know what this is. When Aaron plays, we’re a different team,” Adelman said. “It’s just the bottom line. It’s not the stats. It’s the feel. We feel bigger because we are.”

Peyton Watson was the only inactive player on either team. As he continues to recover from a right hamstring strain that he reaggravated on April 1, the growing sense around the team is that he’ll miss at least a couple more games, a source told The Post.

His absence was a troubling sign for the Nuggets’ bench depth and for their defensive options against Edwards. Adelman said earlier this week that he hoped to start the playoffs with “at least nine guys out there (to) see the rotation, how it works,” then to shorten his rotation throughout the series. With Watson ruled out for Game 1, it wasn’t so simple.

“I’ll say I’m gonna play eight and a half going in,” the first-year coach said before tip. “That’s kind of the way you look at it.”

Spencer Jones was the eighth man, making his playoff debut and checking in for the first time since March 29. The 24-year-old was sidelined by a right hamstring injury of his own late in the regular season, interrupting his momentum right after the Nuggets had found success with him as a quasi-backup center.

They had to rely on him and Cam Johnson at the four through most of the first half Saturday after Gordon got in foul trouble. Both were ready for the task defensively. Johnson put in good work against Randle and Edwards in isolation. Offensively, he had Edwards guarding him, so Denver tested Ant’s off-ball defense by calling a steady diet of plays early for Johnson. He scored 10 of his 12 points before halftime. The other two: a game-sealing floater with 53 seconds to go.

As for the ninth man to complete Adelman’s eight and a half? Jonas Valanciunas played the eight minutes Jokic was off the floor, attempting to match Rudy Gobert in size on the glass. Murray and Johnson staggered with the bench unit. The Timberwolves forced Murray to defend pick-and-rolls while Valanciunas was down the floor in coverage, resulting in a couple of pull-up 3s. But otherwise, Minnesota didn’t have enough reliable shot creation when Edwards and Randle were both off the floor. Murray got into a midrange rhythm during the second quarter, and Denver won the first non-Jokic minutes of the playoffs by seven to find new life.

That stint was a minus-five to start the fourth quarter, prompting Adelman to go back to Jokic with nine minutes left and a seven-point lead. Gobert was impressive in 1-on-1 defense against the three-time MVP most of the day, and he forced the Nuggets to respect him offensively by finishing through contact around the rim.

“If he plays like that,” McDaniels said, “we’re going to win (the series).”

But Jokic delivered a decisive sequence with six minutes remaining after Minnesota had cut it to two. Ayo Dosunmu was amping up the pressure. He handed the ball to Murray on the baseline after scoring, ready to pick him up full-court as the Wolves are fond of doing. After the Nuggets got the ball up, Jokic drained a tough floater over Gobert while getting fouled. He disrupted a pass by Randle at the other end, leading to a steal, then tipped in a missed 3-pointer in transition to put Denver back up 102-95.

Nuggets vs. Timberwolves matchups: Who has the edge?

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Backcourt

Anthony Edwards and Jamal Murray are better players than they were in 2024. They’ve both increasingly embraced the 3-point line to great effect. Murray launched 127 more than his previous career-high this season, shooting 43.5% clip on 7.5 attempts per game. He’ll likely be rewarded with his first All-NBA nod. Edwards is 39.6% on 9.5 attempts per game over the last two years, up from 35.3% on 7.4 in the first four of his career. Nobody on earth craves the ball more than him. He’s the cockiest player in the NBA and arguably one of the five best. Pick-and-roll pull-up 3s have become one of his favorite shots to hunt — especially against teams that struggle with screen navigation like Denver.

How Edwards and Murray are guarded could evolve over the course of the series. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was Denver’s primary perimeter defender in 2024. He’s long gone. Christian Braun has been inconsistent at keeping Edwards in front of him, but he’s likely to start games with the assignment. Aaron Gordon, Bruce Brown, Spencer Jones or Peyton Watson (if he’s healthy) could take shifts. The case for a Minnesota upset starts with the Nuggets being a bad 1-on-1 defensive team. They’ll likely have to send two to Edwards and find creative ways to force the ball out of his hands without compromising their 3-on-4 defense behind the double. Their zone will probably make an appearance at some point, with two at the top magnetized to Ant. Blitzing him on ball screens will test his capability — and just as importantly, his willingness — to make the right read out of the advantage he creates.

Murray is the more advanced playmaker of the two, and he has the benefit of sharing the court with an offensive weapon who demands even more attention than him. But if he’s bringing the ball up, he should expect the Timberwolves to replicate their full-court pressure that caused him so many headaches in 2024.

More likely, the Nuggets will run plenty of sets with him coming off pin-downs and other screens to catch in the flow of their half-court offense, sparing him from the burden of initiating every possession. Murray can breathe a sigh of relief that Nickeil Alexander-Walker left Minnesota for greener pastures in free agency last summer, diminishing the Wolves’ on-ball defensive firepower. Their matchup choices will be fascinating here. Two years ago, Ant often guarded Murray himself and was up to the challenge. His commitment to defense has fluctuated throughout this season (understandable when you’re also the team’s offensive engine). Is he prepared to handle a healthier, more polished Blue Arrow? Or is that a job for Jaden McDaniels alone?

Minnesota’s de facto Alexander-Walker replacement is Ayo Dosunmu, a brilliant trade deadline acquisition who thrives in transition, shoots 44% from deep and could also guard Murray off the bench — if he doesn’t get moved into the starting lineup at some point. Both teams have a veteran, sharpshooting two-guard with a fiery competitive edge. It’s 82-game starter Donte DiVincenzo for Minnesota; it’s Sixth Man of the Year candidate Tim Hardaway Jr. for Denver. Either of these guys could pop off and steal a game for their team at some point in this series.

But so much of this rivalry comes down to Ant, as compelling a Nuggets villain as any. “I think there’s a lot of rivalries in the league right now,” he said Wednesday, “and me and Denver is one them.” For the sake of great television, here’s hoping his recent knee injury doesn’t become a storyline in this series. Who has the edge? Timberwolves.

Frontcourt

This is the first playoff clash between the Nuggets and Timberwolves since the latter swapped out a pretty important variable in its frontcourt — Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle (and DiVincenzo). The surprise blockbuster trade has aged confusingly for Minnesota and New York. Both teams went to the conference finals in 2025. Yet both players have a particular knack for getting their fan bases worked up by their flaws and inconsistencies.

Randle built a decent All-Star candidacy for himself early this season, but struggled at both ends in the second half. He’s 29.9% from 3-point range since Jan. 1. When he and Rudy Gobert are both on the floor, Minnesota’s spacing can get wonky if Randle doesn’t have the ball in his hands. Those lineups risk giving the Nuggets an easy out when they want to defend Edwards aggressively. Over the years, they’ve been more than happy to leave Gobert — a notoriously clunky offensive center — wide open on the short roll. If they’re also willing to ignore Randle on the perimeter, his off-the-catch shooting could become a pressure point in the matchup. KAT’s deadeye 3-point shooting and Gobert’s defensive acumen complemented each other beautifully when Minnesota eliminated Denver two years ago.

Randle is dangerous with the ball, though. Where he’s an upgrade from KAT is in his ability to hunt mismatches and attack smaller defenders. Gordon will guard him for the vast majority of this series and might even mirror minutes, but if the Nuggets try to put him on Edwards at any point, they don’t have great secondary options for Randle. (Zeke Nnaji might be their best bet, but he’s highly unlikely to see the court unless Denver is in foul trouble.) Watson doesn’t have enough strength to hold his ground against the 6-foot-9 power forward. Braun might be to size up to him occasionally, but not probably consistently enough for Denver to give up a switch every time. Could David Adelman test out Jones? It would be a tough assignment for a former two-way player who’s coming off a hamstring injury as he prepares for his first career playoff minutes.

As weird as it sounds, defense might be where the Wolves miss KAT most in this matchup. (This is where Nikola Jokic’s name is finally uttered.) Two years ago, Towns was their primary defender on Jokic, allowing Gobert to roam as a help-side rim protector. KAT is rather famously not known for his defense, but his ability to rise to the occasion and match Jokic’s physicality throughout that series was a remarkable feat, allowing Gobert to do what he does best. It was a huge reason the Timberwolves advanced.

Randle is nowhere near as viable in that scheme, in part because he gives up multiple inches to Jokic, unlike Towns. “Probably gotta call God and talk to him for a little bit and ask him for a few favors,” Randle said this week when asked about how to guard the three-time MVP center. Jokic is averaging 35.5 points, 11.3 rebounds and 10.4 assists in eight games against Minnesota since the KAT trade, shooting 62.1% from the field. Randle and Gobert played in all eight. How often will the Wolves want to try the Randle matchup arrangement? How long will they be willing to stick with it? Gobert is an all-time defender, but if he has to guard Jokic straight up, Jokic typically finds ways to win that battle as well (and Minnesota tends to double-team his post-ups less than other teams do).

One of the most effective strategies against Jokic around the NBA has been to front him with a smaller player who can get away with more contact. (See Alex Caruso, Game 7 in Oklahoma City.) The Timberwolves could try that with a scrappy guard like DiVincenzo, a lanky athletic wing like McDaniels, or even with veteran forward Kyle Anderson, a buyout acquisition who was also pursued by Denver. Adelman predicted Edwards could try to guard Jokic at some point. Whichever way the Wolves configure their matchups, their help defense will be coming from Braun this year instead of Gordon, who has evolved into a lethal spot-up shooter since 2024. Braun regressed to 30% from 3-point range this season while battling an ankle injury. He’ll be the disregarded role player if and when Rudy roams. Minnesota is more likely to stay home on Cam Johnson, whether it’s McDaniels matching up — he’s the best perimeter defender in this series — or DiVincenzo. Who has the edge? Nuggets.

Bench depth

Both coaches will have to gauge how deep they want to go into their benches early in this series, which could lead to some interesting dynamics. Minnesota has at least two high-level reserves in Dosunmu and backup big man Naz Reid. Beyond that, Chris Finch’s rotation could vary night to night. Anderson adds value as a defender and playmaker, but lineups involving him will also sacrifice spacing. Terrence Shannon Jr. or ex-Nugget Bones Hyland could be used as a sparkplug if Minnesota needs scoring. Mike Conley is a veteran with Finch’s supreme trust; his ability to eat minutes could be tested.

When the Nuggets are healthy, they have known entities off their bench in Watson, Hardaway and Brown, though their trust in Watson as a ball-handler might be tested in these playoffs. The backup center minutes will be a fascinating element of this series in particular. If the Wolves make sure Reid is on the court whenever Jokic isn’t, they might be able to take away Jonas Valanciunas completely. Reid can pick-and-pop teams to death, and the easiest way to guard him on the perimeter might be with a more switchable lineup, using Jones at the five. On the other hand, if the Nuggets want to force the issue, they could try to get Valanciunas a few minutes against Gobert, though that might mean altering Jokic’s sub pattern. Julian Strawther is Denver’s Shannon equivalent — a young guard who’s probably out of the rotation but capable of changing a game if he gets hot. Who has the edge? Timberwolves — until Watson and Jones are cleared.

— Bennett Durando, The Denver Post

Nuggets vs. Timberwolves: 5 storylines to watch

Frenemies: Channels of communication are wide open between these two franchises, based on their hiring practices. Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly left Denver for Minnesota in 2022, taking front-office employees like Jon Wallace with him. Wallace left the Wolves last summer for the co-general manager job back in Denver. Both head coaches have been assistants for the other team. And don’t forget Minnesota guard Bones Hyland, who the Nuggets once traded in an addition-by-subtraction deadline move the year they won the title.

The end of the trilogy: The Nuggets took down Minnesota in 2023, beginning their road to the first championship in franchise history. It was only a five-game first-round series, but the seeds of begrudging respect were nonetheless planted, as Bruce Brown described it as the toughest series Denver had played. The Wolves got payback in 2024 with a 20-point second-half comeback to win Game 7 at Ball Arena. Eight current Denver players were on that team. They haven’t forgotten the sting.

The beginning of the road: The Nuggets are facing a nightmarish path to the NBA Finals, with arguably the three best teams in the West (other than themselves) standing in their way. First, it’s Minnesota. Second and third, barring upsets, are San Antonio and Oklahoma City. If Denver can somehow get through this series efficiently, it would do wonders for the team’s stamina and health going forward. Game 7s are likely in store eventually if the Nuggets are going to pull off a run for the ages.

Rudy vs. Joker: This is the fourth playoff clash between them, dating back to Gobert’s time in Utah. Way back then in the 2020 bubble, a memorable first-round series ended with Jokic scoring a beautiful hook shot over Gobert to give Denver the lead for good with 27 seconds left in Game 7. “I like his humility,” Gobert said this week. “I think he’s someone that doesn’t really care about the outside noise. He’s just here to show up, help his team win and go home. I like that. I respect that.” Jokic hates to admit it, but his eyes often light up at the opportunity to prove the best offense is superior to the best defense. The Joker vs. Rudy post-ups will be highlights in this series, one way or the other.

Wild card Watson: Peyton Watson’s lack of a contract extension has loomed over his breakout fourth season. He’s entering a crucial playoff run now that should be significant in determining his value as a restricted free agent this summer. But a suddenly gimpy right hamstring stands between him and the spotlight right now. He missed 25 of Denver’s last 30 regular-season games after suffering a grade two strain on Feb. 4. It’s been more than two weeks since he last played, and Denver still has some anxiety about his status. If and when he’s able to return, he may have to find ways to be impactful that don’t appear on the stat sheet. His on-ball and help-side defense will be invaluable to the Nuggets if they’re going to make a deep run.

Nuggets vs. Timberwolves series predictions

Bennett Durando, Nuggets beat writer: I’ve got too much respect for Ant, and too much lingering skepticism about Denver’s point-of-attack defense, to predict a short series. But two years after the Wolves danced on Denver’s grave, I think the Nuggets return the favor. This one ends in Minnesota’s house. Nuggets in six.

Troy Renck, sports columnist: This is a real rivalry. Since 2022, counting the regular and postseason, the teams are 14-14 over 28 games. But Minnesota is no longer the boogeyman. Anthony Edwards is a human highlight, but has not been healthy. He might steal a game. He is not swiping a series. The Nuggets will win the offensive boards, and even if Christian Braun struggles from 3 when dared to shoot, Minnesota will have no answer for Nikola Jokic. As is always the case when these two play. Nuggets in six.

Sean Keeler, sports columnist: Keep those rosary beads handy whenever Aaron Gordon grabs his hammy. The Nuggets didn’t have Cam Johnson, Bruce Brown or Tim Hardaway Jr. in the 2024 conference finals — and Hardaway has been a quiet thorn in the side of Minnesota defenders for years. This is why you got ’em. Nobody can really guard Anthony Edwards when he wants it. Same for Nikola Jokic. If the Nuggets get more offense from THEIR wings than Minnesota gets from Gobert/Randle, they’ll be good. Ant-Man says the Wolves sandbagged the regular season. Prove it. Nuggets in seven.

Luca Evans, sports reporter: Anthony Edwards has hit the peak of flame-throwing powers like never before seen in 2025-26, which puts somewhat suspect Denver perimeter defense under massive stress. The Timberwolves have an ascending Jaden McDaniels to toss at Jamal Murray, and rotational options at center with all-time-great defender Rudy Gobert and sixth man Naz Reid. But the Nuggets have finally unlocked their late-game flow across this 12-game winning streak, and are ready for revenge in Minnesota. Nuggets in seven. 

Nate Peterson, sports editor: The fix for the Nuggets’ Ant problem? Too much offense and just enough defense to win the 2026 Tim Connelly Bowl. Denver has reeled off 12 straight wins entering the playoffs, and with Aaron Gordon healthy and Spencer Jones and Peyton Watson likely available to start this series, Minnesota will avoid a sweep but won’t push this thing the distance. The Nuggets’ starting five with AG has obliterated opponents all season long with a +12.5 net rating. Meanwhile, Minnesota’s starting five with a less explosive Ant-Man has limped to the finish line with only a +0.1 net rating since the All-Star break. Nuggets in five. 

David Adelman says he’s hopeful that Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones will be able to play in Game 1 of Denver’s first-round playoff series Saturday (1:30 p.m.) against the Timberwolves. But the two young wings had not been cleared yet as of Wednesday.

“It’s nice to have some days to get people right,” Adelman said after practice Wednesday afternoon at Ball Arena. “Hopefully, Spence and Peyton, it gives them a better chance to come back and play, which is good for us. … And getting their bodies right and their minds right for what the challenge is going to be.”

Watson and Jones both participated in the practice, which was entirely non-contact, Adelman said. They’re both dealing with right hamstring injuries. Watson’s is a reaggravation of the strain he suffered in early February. In Jones’ case, hamstring tightness popped up at the start of April, causing him to miss the last six games of the regular season.

If they’re able to play, they’ll be two of Denver’s most important perimeter defenders against a Wolves team led by All-NBA guard Anthony Edwards.

“His change of pace, his ability to finish the ball, his ability to shoot the ball, his great separation — he’s so talented,” Nikola Jokic said. “And (he has) an ability to make tough shots. So he’s definitely one of the hardest offensive players to guard. He can do a post-up. He can do a midrange. He’s really good 1-on-1.”

Edwards has been ramping up recently after missing time late in the season with a right knee ailment. He told reporters in Minneapolis on Wednesday that he has spent the last few weeks focusing on getting his body fat down and returning to game shape. He currently weighs in at 218 pounds, the lightest he’s been since college, he said.

Christian Braun will guard Edwards in Denver’s starting lineup, but Watson and Jones represent reinforcements off the bench for a team that has struggled to keep star ball-handlers in front throughout the season.

“He can do a little bit of everything,” Braun said. “I think that even this year as opposed to when we played him in the past in the playoffs, he’s shooting the ball a lot more and a lot better. So he’s just a tough guard. He’s physical. Got to stay down on his pump fakes. He’s got the sweep-through moves. He’s just got a little bit of everything. He’s a really good player. One of the best in the league. So it’s an exciting matchup for us.”

Forget the past, Adelman says

There’s no escaping the recent history between Denver and Minnesota. But as the two teams prepare for their third playoff meeting in four years, Adelman said the Nuggets have tried to get into a frame of mind that these are not the same teams that faced off in 2023 and 2024.

“We’ve talked about that, us beating them in five, them beating us in seven all those years ago,” he said. “It’s no different than, you win the championship and people keeping talking about it (even though) it was a long time ago. This is a totally different series. (Nickeil) Alexander-Walker’s not there. We don’t have Russ (Westbrook). I mean, there’s a lot of different people two years ago. There’s no KCP. We’re a different team over the course of all these years. So I think it’s its own thing completely. That’s how we’re attacking this. I think their team has gotten better in certain ways over those years. Ant has gotten better and better. So it’s a totally different animal to me, and I’m sure they feel the same way.”