In tennis terms, Denver saved the first match point in the series against Minnesota. Faced with elimination, the Nuggets finally played as they know how and convincingly beat Minnesota 125-113 to reduce the score to 2:3 and extend the hope of staying alive in the playoffs.
What is worrying is the fact that only 13 teams in the history of the league have managed to do that, and what awakens hope in that statistic is that this Denver team, in the famous corona playoffs in the “bubble” in Orlando in 2020, became the first and only team to overturn a 1-3 deficit twice in the same playoffs (against the Utah Jazz and LA Clippers).
Tonight, Nikola Jokić realized that the situation had become serious and took matters into his own hands. He led the team on the court since they don’t have much of a coaching brain on the bench; assists were flying everywhere, fast breaks were run, and “live balls” were snatched from the hands of the Timberwolves players.
The Serbian center rounded off a perfect first half with a three-pointer from 10 meters in the final second of the first half, continuing in the same rhythm in the second half, eventually recording 27 points (9-15 shooting, 8-10 free throws), 16 assists, and 12 rebounds.
He was followed by Murray with 24 points (7ast, 4reb), while Jones was excellent with 20 (3reb) and Cam Johnson with 18 (5ast, 6reb).
For Minnesota, in the absence of Edwards and DiVincenzo, better than the rest were Randle with 27 (9reb, 6ast), Dosunmu with 18 (4ast), and Hyland and Shannon with 15 each.
The next game is played on Thursday in Minneapolis.