The Nuggets’ road trip to Minnesota was a failure, and they fell 3-1, on the verge of an early vacation, at the fangs of the Timberwolves. Keep in mind that Donte DiVicenzo tore his Achilles tendon a few minutes into the game, and Anthony Edwards couldn’t proceed in the second half after grotesquely hyperextending his left knee.

The Nuggets had Aaron Gordon, who missed Game 3, back wounded with a calf injury. He played 23 minutes and it was 23 minutes too long because he rarely showed any burst to pressure the ball or had lift on his legs to attack. 

Ayo Dosunmu gutted the Nuggets with 43 bench points on 76.5 percent shooting and was the main story of the game, and Rudy Gobert did another fine job of slowing down Nikola Jokić.

Yet, late-game foolishness is partially overshadowing the outcome: Jokić didn’t like that their gracious hosts were going to run up the score, so he charged at Jaden McDaniels by the sideline, getting in his personal space and forcing him to put his hands up to shove. Naturally, the Timberwolves’ bench being steps away was not pleased, coming forward, which is a violation that causes a suspension. Yet the NBA has not always enforced it.

Complaining about the score is soft, especially when the king of drop coverage hurts his team, being such a poor and unwilling pick-and-roll defender. Keep in mind that he’s also been way below standards on offense, too, making only 39.1 percent of attempts, being uncareful and not the same volume of playmaker, in part because of how hounding the Wolves have been on his teammates.

It’s unclear how the new head of NBA discipline James Jones will rule, but he should suspend Jokić. If someone did what he did to another on the sidewalk or in another public place in front of law-enforcement, good chance they’re getting booked with battery.  Athletes shouldn’t get away with doing things normal people can’t for the sake of entertainment or somehow them being special. 

One could even interpret the situation as him trying to be a martyr by causing a reaction from Minnesota’s bench. Still, the potential for making things worse in that regard should be weighted against him in the verdict. 

Jokić’s behavior was unbecoming of a champion, especially one of his status. 

Coach David Adelman thinks “it’s hilarious that the narrative is offense doesn’t matter. If you shoot 24 percent in the second half, it’s hard to win.” Of course it matters, but he should more worried about how his team knew they couldn’t hang with the Wolves.

Remember when Michael Jordan, via propagandadized Last Dance tapes, said the sign of a good man is when he can talk trash when they are tied or down?

Well, Jaden McDaniels coldly taunted the Nuggets after the Minnesota Timberwolves’ epic road comeback that tied round one (1-1). He has no respect for their defense, and he called players out by name when answering questions in the locker room.

“Go at  [Nikola] Jokić, Jamal [Murray], all the bad defenders. Tim Hardaway [Jr.], Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, their whole team.”

Woah — if that’s not the wake up call the Nuggets need, then they’ll find themselves as a pile of bones in the Wolves’ den.

Jokić was hunted, and the team didn’t pressure enough catches behind the 3-point line. It would be one thing if McDaniels’ comments came from someone who didn’t have too much experience playing Denver in the playoffs. But he was already a big factor on a team that beat them in 2024. He didn’t play in their first-round series in 2023, which Denver won, because he foolishly broke his hand by punching a wall before the playoffs started. Rest assured he knows exactly what the Nuggets are made of.

So far, McDaniels has been Minnesota’s fourth best player in the series plus third-leading scorer (15 points on 44.8 percent shooting), and he’s been better than every opponent not named Jokić and Murray. It doesn’t help Denver either that Peyton Watson, who hasn’t played since April 1 after re-triggering his hamstring injury, hasn’t been available to chase McDaniels around or make him backpedal.

Circumstances like Watson’s, Jonas Valančiūnas not being a dependable backup, and Spencer Jones being caught in too many mismatches, have turned coach David Adelman into Michael Malone since he doesn’t trust the bench. As a result, Murray and Jokić are leading the series in minutes at 41.1 and 40.2. 

As the series shifts to Minnesota, the Nuggets need more scoring out of Gordon, even if it means he’s a release valve, waiting for the kick-out pass. On top of that, Jokić has only made 18.8 percent of attempts outside of the lane through two games. Plenty of those are great looks, and he needs to be sharper if he wants to lead this team to the next round because they can’t afford for his offense to be below standard with how much of a liability he is on the other side.

Keep in mind that Anthony Edwards is also shooting 21.4 percent on shots outside of the paint for Minnesota. The Nuggets will be in even bigger trouble if he snaps out of it before Jokić.

It didn’t take long for Nuggets versus Timberwolves to become a special series. This is the third meeting in the last four years, which has built up animosity and on-court respect, and Game 2 should be remembered as a classic.

The Wolves took a bit longer to join the party at Ball Arena, going down 19 points in the first half as Jamal Murray pieced them up from short, middle and long range, plus they fouled three 3-point shots. They followed up cranking up their pressure and ball movement, which put snipers in rhythm, while Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle broke past defenders to the cup. 

It was a stalemate at intermission, and Nikola Jokić, who had a dormant first half, was the Terminator in the third quarter, making hooks, layups and a 3-pointer while carving up schemes with his passing. Such activities usually avert a crisis, but the Wolves kept hanging around because that was the Nuggets’ best shot of the game. 

Jokić and Murray subsequently went colder than blizzard as the outcome hung in the balance. Rudy Gobert, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year, deserves tons of props for slowing down Jokić to one of eight attempts, and he jammed a mean putback over him with two minutes left. On top of that, Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels and Donte DiVincenzo’s offensive labor crushed Denver’s spirit. 

It gets worse. The Nuggets were down three points after Randle buried two freebies with 19 seconds left. Murray then ran a screen-roll with Jokić, but the Wolves were well prepared covering the arc, and he pulled up inside it, bricking it, which turned into DiVincenzo’s fastbreak dunk to close the curtains. 

The Nuggets lost 119-114 after seven ties and 15 lead changes. They got massacred in the trenches, as the Wolves scored 20 second-chance points to their three. Additionally, it didn’t help them that they stopped trusting Aaron Gordon. He’s one of the NBA’s most macho players, being irrepressible at close range so he should have got more touches. 

There’s no doubt, either, the epic comeback brought back memories to Nuggets players and supporters of when the Timberwolves came back from down 20 points to eliminate them in Game 7 two years ago in round two. One wonders how psychologically damaging it’ll be for the Nuggets that this team stays on them like a shadow. 

They now find themselves in the danger zone with home court flipping to Minnesota since Edwards can be much better from 3-point range, and the Wolves are not typically bad enough to blank 11 free throws, too (63.3 percent). Since coach David Adelman is not relying on the bench outside of Tim Hardaway Jr., and Bruce Brown, more weight is on the shoulders of the team’s top three to deliver.

Extra days of rest can be a blessing or a curse, and it was no help for the first-seeded Detroit Pistons in Game 1. They started sloppily, and the Orlando Magic, who had wiped out the Charlotte Hornets to advance to round one on Friday, opened with more vigor and mental focus, upsetting them.

It took most of the first quarter for the Pistons to wake up, and then they started making the Magic pay for turnovers and bad shots, plus had forced Desmond Bane into multiple contested, fallaway jumpers. The hosts were even in the bonus with nine minutes left in the first half, but the Magic were carried by Paolo Banchero’s mid and long-range scoring, and the team had shut off easy access into the lane.

The Magic subsequently survived a flurry, and their defense took further advantage of their opponents lacking a second high-level shot creator. Wendell Carter Jr. also contained Jalen Duren, and the Magic took a seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter. 

Franz Wagner emerged as the go-to guy, ripping up schemes on the dribble and was immaculate on five attempts. Carter didn’t miss on three rim attacks, either.

The Magic won 112-101, and it was coach Jamahl Mosley’s first road playoff victory, too.

Observations:

•  It never turned into a blowout, but it was an embarrassing performance by the Pistons, which the Magic deserve credit for. Still, when a team gets shown up like that, they are usually a powerhouse in the next one. The Magic will need to match their mental sharpness and avoid being satisfied with a split because they can make this series ugly. They have two potent shot creators in Banchero and Wagner when they play like this, and their defenses’ size and physicality is comparable to Detroit’s. 

• The Magic struggled to make 3-point shots consistently and had poor ball security, so they got killed on the break as a result. Their defense was dominant, holding the Pistons to 102 points per 100 possessions, good enough for the 13th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. Yet the only downside was that they fouled too often, allowing the Pistons to take 38 freebies, making 29.

• The Magic’s two best games of the season have been in highly pressurized situations, which included the elimination game they thumped the Charlotte Hornets into the lottery. Could they have turned a corner overnight? The picture will be clearer by the time the series shifts back to Orlando.

• Some stars will do what they want, either turning into a scorer or passer against whatever scheme, and Cade Cunningham was no different, totaling 39 points on 48.1 percent shooting, with five rebounds, four assists and three turnovers. He’s a big, strong point guard with a quick first step, and 14 of his points came in the lane.

• The starters scored between 16 and 23 points, but the X factor was Carter, who made 88.9 percent of his attempts and had five assists against zero turnovers. On top of that, Jalen Suggs was a pest on defense, racking up three steals and a block. He later fouled out with 93 seconds left in the game while the Pistons were on life support.