It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t even fun. But it didn’t matter. The Denver Nuggets earned a big 115-112 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
To wrap up their four-game road trip, the Nuggets were handed a gift with all three of Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, and Naz Reid missing Tuesday night’s game. The T’Wolves were forced to start Kyle Anderson at center to match up with Nikola Jokic, and the Serbian big man took advantage early and often. The Nuggets looked to be in firm control of the game heading into halftime and simply needed to hold on for the rest of the game.
Unfortunately, Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, and the Timberwolves had other ideas, putting constant pressure on the Nuggets in the third quarter and ultimately forcing the Nuggets to relinquish their lead. Target Center was going absolutely insane, and the Nuggets lost all of their momentum until the middle of the fourth quarter.
Then, Michael Porter Jr. came in and changed everything with a personal 7-0 scoring run. He hit three buckets in a row to force the T’Wolves to call timeout and continued putting pressure on Minnesota for the rest of the game. His shotmaking helped unlock the rest of Denver’s offense in the fourth, which had been stuck in the mud until he hit a contested three over Luka Garza late in the shot clock. Porter finished the game with 26 points on 9-of-15 from the field and 4-of-7 from three, including some clutch free throw shooting at the end.
Michael Porter Jr. hits three straight buckets to force Chris Finch to call a timeout pic.twitter.com/Af1ODGWS5z
— AlexHoops (@AlexHoops_) March 20, 2024
Somehow, the Timberwolves weren’t done though, even with the Nuggets seemingly out of reach. The Timberwolves, namely Jaden McDaniels and Mike Conley, and several incredible three-pointers in a row to keep within striking defense and forcing the Nuggets. Fortunately, they were able to do so, and yet Anthony Edwards still had a final shot to tie the game at the end and got a relatively uncontested three at the buzzer, only to draw front iron. Denver escaped with a win.
The Nuggets had clearly dominated the first half and put a ton of pressure on the Timberwolves on the offensive glass. Jokic and Gordon combined for 19 rebounds in the first half alone and were dominating on the boards. Credit to Minnesota for effectively nullifying Denver’s offensive rebounding advantage in the second half, forcing the Nuggets into some ugly turnovers and shots with pestering defense.
“A killer”
Nikola Jokic drills a clutch 3-pointer to extend the #Nuggets‘ lead to 8 with just under 2 minutes remaining#MileHighBasketball pic.twitter.com/4bvg614htp
— Joel Rush (@JoelRushNBA) March 20, 2024
Unfortunately, it was also in Murray’s bench rotation in the fourth when the Nuggets couldn’t score at all. There wasn’t a lot of pressure being put on the rim, and the Nuggets weren’t getting great shots. They went with Aaron Gordon at center replacing an injured Zeke Nnaji with the bench, but that didn’t impact things positively. Christian Braun and Peyton Watson had tough games, and though Braun hit a three-pointer, the Timberwolves never really respected their spacing and were hard doubling every Murray pick and roll. The Nuggets will be better prepared for that in a playoff series, but it’s important for one or both of Braun/Watson to be scoring threats in those moments.
Still, a win is a win, and the Nuggets move back into second place in the Western Conference. The Oklahoma City Thunder don’t appear to be slowing down any time soon, so it’s on the Nuggets to keep pace and put pressure on them, while also holding off the Timberwolves at the same time. Coming off of a big road trip, the Nuggets are in a good spot with just 13 games remaining. They have five road games left, and the only multi-game road trip now includes the final two games of the season. If they want to, they could push for the top seed and a franchise record in wins.
We will see what they bring at home.
Final Rotations
