They needed him, the weight of playoff-level intensity resting on his scratched-up shoulders, and so Nikola Jokic didn’t come off the floor.
Not at the start of the fourth quarter Tuesday night, the Nuggets down five and reeling from a second quarter where they were slaughtered in non-Jokic minutes. Not even after a nine-point lead with eight minutes left, no spell of rest for the Joker, head coach Michael Malone riding with his MVP on a night where he didn’t seem to show a speck of fatigue. And certainly not after a heavyweight grudge match slogged into overtime, the numbers somehow less stunning than the heart he showed on his sleeve.
They’d been haunted by these Minnesota Timberwolves for a calendar year, a losing streak of five that hasn’t been broken. This was a rivalry, Anthony Edwards made clear. Malone, even, finally acknowledged it. And with co-stars Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray scratched, there was no preserving Jokic, in another head-to-head matchup that felt more like a Game 5 than a regular-season affair.
He trudged up and down for 52 minutes, and two overtime frames, and every single second since midway through the second quarter. He dropped a career-high 61 points on drained legs, in perhaps the signature regular-season performance of a Hall of Fame career, nailing a top-of-the-key triple and a baby hook to push one overtime to two. A maelstrom raged in Ball Arena around a man that seemed invincible. Teammate Christian Braun bending over in the corner in sheer exhaustion after one overtime timeout, Jokic somehow wearing no visible signs of sweat.
And somehow, it wasn’t enough, as hearts broke in Ball, a night of hope evaporating in split seconds in an 140-139 2OT loss.
Jokic finished with 61 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the third 60-point triple double in NBA history, per the broadcast.
With seconds left in double-overtime and Denver up one, guard Russell Westbrook stole a pass from Timberwolves star Edwards and streaked to the rim. But his layup, somehow, hung frozen on the rim. And a subsequent Minnesota possession ended in a missed buzzer-beating three three by Nickeil Alexander-Walker — only for a whistle to blow on Westbrook’s closeout.
Nuggets forward Peyton Watson held hands over his face, in sheer disbelief. Alexander-Walker made two free throws, Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon walking off the floor early in sheer disdain. And the wolf on the Nuggets’ back only grew heavier, a heroic effort from Jokic wasted.
This wasn’t quite the full rematch promised after another mid-March loss to the T-wolves, both teams operating with heavy absences. Minnesota was missing two key sharpshooters, in Donte DiVincenzo and Naz Reid, after both were slapped with suspensions for spilling into the stands in the T-wolves’ Sunday night smackdown with the Detroit Pistons. Murray, meanwhile, missed his second straight game with hamstring tightness, and Porter Jr. was a late scratch.
Malone told media pregame that Porter Jr. had a “personal family matter that was really last-minute,” and a source familiar with the situation told The Denver Post that Porter Jr. was dealing with an illness in the family.
“Obviously, our thoughts and prayers are with Michael and his entire family at this time,” Malone said.
Everyone inside Ball Arena — from the fans that roared jeers at the very PA mention of Minnesota to the Timberwolves’ black-suited coaching staff — knew the weight that’d be placed on Jokic’s shoulders this night. And he suited up for war. He began the night bellowing at referee CJ Washington over an early travel call, in his ear consistently from the tip. He continued it grappling with Timberwolves star Julius Randle, the two boxing and bumping and banging on trips up and down the floor.
On one first-quarter sequence, Jokic put Timberwolves forward Jaylen Clark in the torture chamber, leaning in to draw not one or two but three fouls on Clark in the span of 2:30 of game clock as Minnesota sent the long-armed rookie to trap. And Jokic handled the Timberwolves’ sell-out-on-Joker mobs just fine for stretches, with 23 first-half points. But Minnesota begun to frustrate the center late in the half, and the Timberwolves piled on Denver in non-Jokic first-half minutes to pull within one at the break.
With both teams’ depth depleted, the Nuggets hung tough in the second half, stifling pups of third-quarter Timberwolves runs and re-seizing an fourth-quarter lead on an early Aaron Gordon pull-up triple. After a 2-for-10 start, though, Minnesota superstar Edwards went scorched-earth in the fourth quarter, hitting back-to-back threes with less than three minutes to go.
Jokic drew a crucial sixth foul on familiar nemesis Rudy Gobert to both tie the game 112-112 with 13 seconds left and knock out the Timberwolves’ best Jokic stopper. In a miracle, the ball ended up not in Edwards’ hands but Randle’s for a buzzer-beating three, and a stepback clanked off rim and into overtime.
In another miracle — after a Jokic hook to tie with 7.1 left — the ball ended up out of Edwards’ hands with a chance to win in OT, and Nuggets defensive ace Payton Watson swatted a Jaden McDaniels layup as the battle continued into a second overtime. But after Alexander-Walker’s free throws, the Nuggets trudged off the floor, the sixth loss in a row to Minnesota somehow feeling as painful as any before.