Nikola Jokic’s expression was either vacant or vengeful, defeated or determined.
Staring at the basketball court but maybe beyond it, too, he stood alone on the Target Center baseline and watched the fourth quarter of a historic clobbering without taking his seat on the bench. Was he antsy to jump on the team plane back to Denver to play Game 7 immediately? Or resigned to an early flight home to Serbia? It was a mystery for three days.
Staring their own mortality in the face for the first time in two years, the Nuggets had no choice but to play Jokic for almost every second Sunday night at Ball Arena, as a 20-point lead disappeared and so did a season with championship ambitions.
Those are no more after a 98-90 Game 7 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 7, bringing a shocking end to Denver’s all-too-short reign over the NBA. The Nuggets climbed back in the second-round series after losing the first two games at home, then blew a 3-2 series lead, including that franchise-worst 45-point playoff loss in Game 6. Jokic responded with a labored performance that mirrored his team’s — 34 points, 19 rebounds, seven assists but on 28 shots. Jamal Murray scored 35 to lead all scorers, but Michael Porter Jr. was held to seven.
The Timberwolves will advance to host the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals. The Nuggets, who fought hard down the stretch in the regular season to earn home-court advantage over the entire West, also would have hosted that series. Instead, they lost three of four games at Ball Arena in this series.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaden McDaniels scored 23 points each for Minnesota while Anthony Edwards was kept in check on 6-of-24 shooting. The series finale mimicked the opener, with the Timberwolves’ offense coming alive in the second half and Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid delivering in the clutch.
Before the game, Nuggets coach Michael Malone went back and looked at the box scores from previous Game 7s in his tenure. There had been four — three of them decided by four or fewer points.
“There’s a good chance that this game goes down to the wire,” he said before opening tip, basing the hunch on that precedent. “Maybe not, because this is one of the strangest series I’ve ever been a part of. Only Game 1 has been close with three minutes to go in the game. Every other game was over pretty much in the fourth quarter, early.”
The Nuggets might have thought this one was over early in the third quarter, based on that trajectory. They had dominated the hustle stats in the first half, out-rebounding the Timberwolves 31-21 for 14 second-chance points and outscoring them 24-10 in the paint. Excluding Towns’ excellent half, Minnesota was shooting 7 for 32 from the field. Denver’s rotations and recoveries behind its double-teams of Edwards were sharp and disciplined. Edwards was 1 for 7. And Murray was improbably ascending to the moment once again, getting hot for 24 points. He had 29 a minute into the second half after a 3-pointer gave the Nuggets a 58-38 lead.
But Denver underestimated the Timberwolves’ toughness. Jokic, who played all but 84 seconds of the first half, started settling for jump shots that weren’t connecting. Before long, one of the best-conditioned bigs in the NBA appeared exhausted. Role players started punishing the Nuggets’ double-teams at the other end. Jaden McDaniels and Mike Conley made 3s. Towns was steady. Edwards’ defensive intensity never wavered. He turned steals into dunks. Then he finally saw a difficult three go in before the third-quarter buzzer, the last thing Denver needed. It was 67-66 Denver going to the fourth. Malone could no longer afford to give Jokic another break.
The Nuggets’ narrow lead no longer mattered, because it felt like they were playing from behind even before they actually were. Minnesota suddenly had the appearance of a team of destiny after Rudy Gobert lofted a Sombor Shuffle shot before the 24-second buzzer. With seven minutes and change remaining, it gave the Timberwolves a four-point lead that was six one possession later. Denver fell behind 10 with three minutes to go.
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