The Nuggets could have tried more to lose on the final day of the season, buthead coach David Adelman said they "weren't ducking anybody." They should have, because now the Minnesota Timberwolves have them backed into a corner three games into the first round of the playoffs.
The Denver Nuggets came into the final day of the NBA regular season as the third seed in the Western Conference playoff race. A win secured their position, and a loss would have moved them to fourth with a Lakers win. The Nuggets rested all of their starters and key reserves against the Spurs, seemingly signaling they didn't care about the outcome, but they still won. They didn't "duck anybody," and that halfhearted decision now has them on the verge of an early playoff exit.
The Nuggets basically chose this route
The Nuggets were dismantled in Game 3, losing 113-96 to the Timberwolves. The avalanche of bad play began in the second quarter of Game 2 and hasn't let up. The Nuggets now trail in the series 2-1, and after the way they played in response to Jaden McDaniels comments, they could be on the verge of a first-round exit. Something Nuggets fans would have never been thinking mere days ago, when they held a 1-0 series lead.
The Nuggets essentially chose to be the three seed with the Timberwolves locked into the sixth seed on the final day. They know who they had ahead of them based on the outcome of the final game against the Spurs. Lose, get the Houston Rockets. Win, Timberwolves.
The Nuggets should have tried harder to tank for fourth
Now, we know the choice not to care was the wrong one. But it was questionable to begin with, even given the Nuggets' regular-season success against the Timberwolves. The Nuggets were 3-1 against the Timberwolves in the regular season this year, but they lost all four games last year and were knocked out of the playoffs two years ago by the Timberwolves after a home Game 7 collapse in the second round.
Tim Connelly, the Nuggets' former front-office architect, left Denver after the 2021-22 season, and immediately began getting to work to build a team that could first and foremost beat the Nuggets. The first thing he did was trade for Rudy Gobert. Gobert, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year, has shifted this series and been Nikola Jokic's kryptonite.
Jokic has had his worst series in memory. Game 3 was the worst of the lot. Gobert kept Jokic quiet, going one-on-one and limiting Jokic to just 3 assists on 4 turnovers. It allowed the Wolves to get into man coverage instead of zone, and it takes the passing lanes away from Jokic.
It's almost as if the Timberwolves know the best game plan to defeat the Nuggets. And it makes you wonder why the Nuggets didn't do more to tank the final day to avoid the Timberwolves in round one.
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