The Denver Nuggets came into the playoffs as the NBA's top-ranked offense, but you wouldn't have guessed that by the way they played in the disaster first-round exit at the hands of their bitter rivals, the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves applied constant pressure to the Nuggets in Game 6, which ended in a 110-98 collapse that put the Nuggets into an early Cancun-mode.
The offense sputtered throughout the series. The Nuggets failed to score 100 points in three of the six games, and they eclipsed their season average of 122.1 points per game just once, scoring 125 in Game 5 to force a Game 6 collapse on the road. The Nuggets are now 0-3 in road elimination games played in front of a crowd with Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.
The Timberwolves applied constant pressure on defense
From the top of the 2nd quarter of Game 2 until the final whistle of Game 6, something changed inside the Timberwolves. Wolves head coach Chris Finch must have said something right. From that moment on, Rudy Gobert dominated Jokic defensively, and the Timberwolves switched to man-to-man, allowing their stout defense to push everyone around.
The box score only shows 13 turnovers for the Nuggets in Game 6, but it felt like so many more. The constant pressure from Jaden McDaniels and Jaylen Clark on Murray limited him to an ineffective 12 points on 4-17 shooting, including 0-2 from three, with only one clean look.
The only Nugget besides Nikola Jokic who seemed to figure out the Timberwolves was Cameron Johnson. Johnson was everywhere, and he scored 27 points on 5-10 from three, and he had 8 rebounds and 3 assists, plus 1 block.
Jokic just missed what would have been the triple-double to put him in first place on the all-time regular-season and playoff combined list. He finished with 28 points to lead the Nuggets, 10 assists, and 9 rebounds, but just 1-5 from three again.
The Timberwolves were more aggressive on offense, too
The Timberwolves were more aggressive against the Nuggets in every way in their wins. The Timberwolves were more physical, they got to more loose balls, and they stuck to their game plan of making the Nuggets stop them in the paint. And the Nuggets couldn't.
It didn't matter who the Timberwolves deployed to attack the rim. They could do it at will in every game in the series, and Game 6 was no exception.
Starting in place of the injured Anthony Edwards and Ayo Dosunmu, third-string shooting guard Terrence Shannon Jr. did the damage this time. Shannon had 24 points, key drives, and dunks that really shifted momentum when needed. The Nuggets were unable to stop the leak in the paint, again.
The Nuggets were simply outplayed by the Timberwolves. The Timberwolves wanted it more, and it showed. The regular season offense was a mirage all along. As soon as it faced some pressure, that was it. The Nuggets' offseason came far earlier than anyone wanted because of it.
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