Nuggets Can't Hit Back After Timberwolves' Comments
After Game 2, Jaden McDaniels called the entire Denver Nuggets team bad defenders. In Game 3, the Nuggets couldn't make him pay. Denver's defense wasn't horrible, but losing in blowout fashion after being called out like that is an extremely bad look. Nikola Jokic was particularly bad once again after being shut down by Rudy Gobert in Game 2.
Timberwolves shut down Nuggets, Nikola Jokic
There may not be a better offensive player in the NBA than Nikola Jokic. The Nuggets may be the best offensive team in the NBA, and their 2025-26 offensive metrics rank alongside some of the best teams to ever play basketball. None of that was evident in Game 3, as the Timberwolves took them to task.
Denver's defense was ranked 20th in the NBA, and Jaden McDaniels called it out after Game 2. The natural response would be to come out and play well defensively and win, but that didn't happen. 113 points isn't a terribly high number to allow, but losing by 17 after being ridiculed by a role player stings.
Jokic had one of the worst games he's ever played. He shot 7/26 and had just three assists after averaging 10.7 for the entire season. He was -21 on the night, as the Timberwolves dominated the minutes he was on the court.
It wasn't just Jokic, though. Everyone struggled on offense, and the Nuggets scored fewer than 100 points for the first time since January. They had a top-ranked 121.2 offensive rating in the regular season, the second-highest in NBA history. Only two other times did they not score 100, and Jokic missed both games with injury.
Read More
David Adelman comments
The Nuggets are a really good team, but they do go as Nikola Jokic goes. If he's not playing well, it throws everything else off. He's the best player in the NBA, and their offense largely revolves around or is aided by him. So if he's shut down, which is almost impossible to do, the Nuggets struggle.
"He had a tough night," Nuggets coach David Adelman said. "It happens to players. This guy's played a million playoff games. There's nights that are poor. He'll bounce back. Everyone needs a day to understand we didn't play well offensively."
"I think to get [the role players] going, they have to screen better," Adelman continued. "If you can free up your best players, that's going to bring rotations. That's going to bring a low man. That leads to ball movement 3s."
The Nuggets ruled out Aaron Gordon, a strong offensive role player, just hours before tipoff. That can be difficult to overcome, especially when the team had initially planned for him to be active. They had to scramble afterwards.
"I do think out of fairness to the team we do want to know who is going to play that next game," Adelman said. "It just helps you because guys know the expectation of what's going to be that night, as opposed to today when we were scrambling a bit."
Shooting slump
Nikola Jokic has gone gold at the wrong time. Credit the Timberwolves for good defense, but he is the same person who scored 40 points when matched up with Victor Wembanyama. There's usually only so much defense can do.
With Rudy Gobert on him, though, Jokic is now 8/29 shooting. Gobert has become the Jokic stopper, although Jokic is not shooting well, regardless of who is on him. He is 5/24 on threes in the three games, a far cry from the normal shooting percentages he employs.
It was the first time the center had ever attempted 26 shots and made seven or fewer of them. In two losses, Jokic is 15 of 42 from the floor. In Game 1, he was 11/19.
