The Timberwolves defeat the Nuggets, 113-96, to claim a 2-1 series lead.
With so much chatter about the comments made by Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels earlier in the week after Game 2 — tens of thousands of words devoted to the 50 or so McDaniels uttered in disparaging Denver’s defensive skills — there were a couple of likely responses the Nuggets could have had in Thursday’s Game 3:
- They could have taken that bulletin-board material personally and dialed up their defensive performance to season-best levels, win or lose, as the first-round series shifted to Minneapolis.
—OR—
- Denver might have gone the other way, flexing the NBA’s top-ranked offense so dominantly that their defense – by the numbers, the most porous of this spring’s 16 playoff teams – was rendered an afterthought. That pretty much had been the Nuggets’ formula all season anyway.
However, option 3 in the Timberwolves’ 113-96 victory at Target Center wasn’t on a lot of bingo cards. The Wolves staged a defensive clinic of their own, as if schooling their opponents in the tactics and stinginess required in the playoffs.
Minnesota made their guests struggle and sputter in myriad ways. It held the Nuggets to their most anemic shooting percentage of the long season: 34.1% (28-for-82). The Wolves made sure their 3-point shooting wasn’t ready for Prime Video either, 25% (8-for-32). The 96 points Denver managed was its third-fewest all season, only the third time the Nuggets failed to reach 100.
The Wolves bothered stars Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray into an ugly 12-of-43 (2-for-15 3-pointers) for a combined 43 points. And without rotation pillars Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson due to injury, there wasn’t enough firepower left to challenge Minnesota. The Wolves went wire-to-wire, leading by as much as 27 points.
In control now of this latest edition of the teams’ rivalry, the Wolves can worsen Denver’s predicament in Game 4 Saturday (8:30 ET, ABC). At the very least, it showed McDaniels and his crew know what they’re talking about on the defensive end.
Here are four more takeaways from the night:
1. Gobert found his own motivation
It’s safe to say that facing familiar and formidable foes to start what Minnesota hoped would be a long playoff run would be incentive enough for Rudy Gobert or any of his teammates. But the timing of the Kia Defensive Player of the Year announcement last week seemed to amp up the Wolves center even more.
Gobert had no problem with either the winner (San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama) or, individually, the guys who finished second (OKC’s Chet Holmgren) and third (Detroit’s Ausar Thompson). But as a proud man and four-time DPOY winner, he was irked when the panel of media voters didn’t show him enough support to gain him a finalist spot.
just a Rudy Gobert appreciation post. pic.twitter.com/RWVHHmxNNT
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 24, 2026
He has talked about it when asked, but frankly, Gobert could have let his play make his case. Through three games, handling Jokić with little help, Gobert has his Denver counterpart falling short of regular-season numbers across the board (25.3 ppg, 13 rpg, 7.3 apg, 40% shooting and 20.8% on 3-pointers). Tackling and largely handling that matchup has enabled his teammates to tackle other defensive chores without opening vulnerabilities.
“It’s the greatest offensive player I’ve guarded in my whole career,” Gobert said, “so I just try to enjoy the challenge and make him work as much as I can.”
That means both big men are working hard.
2. Gordon was a significant scratch
Gordon, Denver’s starting power forward, has been essential to what the Nuggets do at both ends since their 2023 championship run. He’s the defender about whom McDaniels was most wrong when he criticized them, and he’s a versatile, normally bouncy big man working the baseline who perfectly complements Jokić’s high-post piloting.
The left calf tightness that had been barking at Gordon finally sat him down on Thursday. That made a size-challenged Denver team more of a target for Wolves’ rim attackers and it removed a frequent outlet for Jokić’s passes.
Jokić could have opened up his assist game by making a few more shots, sure. But Gordon’s absence took away one of his favorite finishers. It wasn’t clear late Thursday if the 12-year veteran would be able to play Saturday.
3. Dosunmu finds his comfort zone
Ayo Dosunmu is one of several former Chicago Bulls players still competing after that team’s season ended with their 82nd game. Acquired for a parcel of role players and picks in February, the 26-year-old guard was seen as a two-way asset for Minnesota, a strong open-court player who could help plug the bench hole left by Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s departure after last season.
That’s what he did in 24 appearances down the stretch and that’s how he played Thursday, his biggest night in the series. Picking up slack from a foul-hobbled Anthony Edwards, the native of Chicago scored 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting and set a tone that had Minnesota players wearing a rut through the paint.
From Chicago, to Chicago pic.twitter.com/TwANZzhJTF
— Dos (@AyoDos_11) February 7, 2026
With zero fears of finding a rim protector down low or even any punishing bodies, the Wolves scored 68 points in the paint, making 64% of their shots (34-for-53) down there.
“The downhill mindset he played with all season for us was back,” said coach Chris Finch. “I thought he was tentative to do that at first, kind of feeling his way through it. Obviously, it’s a big playoff experience for him and he answered the bell, whatever we needed from him.”
4. The Nuggets know what they face
A year ago, Denver fell into a 2-1 hole in the first round against the Clippers, fired back in Game 4 and won the series in seven. Two years ago, it was Minnesota with a 2-1 lead in the conference semifinals, Denver again winning Game 4 on the road before losing that one in seven.
There might be basketball reasons why the Nuggets struggle more or differently this time. They aren’t going to find a Jokić or even a Gordon clone to add to their attack, and none of them will have a growth spurt in 48 hours to offer an easy answer to the size disparity inside. There’s only so much rest and healing Denver’s primary contributors can get in 48 hours.
But if this series continues to go downhill for the Nuggets, it won’t be due to inexperience or anxiety.
“The panic is not going to be there,” said coach David Adelman. “But without the panic, there has to be responsibility to get better for Game 4. And I mean it, after two straight losses, there were positives to look at and build on. And then there were a ton of negatives that we have to get better at.”
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
