The Minnesota Timberwolves have been the loudest team in this first-round series, and they have backed every word up. In Game 4, Jaden McDaniels took the needle one step further, and Nikola Jokic completely snapped.
The video was shared on X by @ohnohedidnt24. With Minnesota leading 110-96 and three seconds left on the clock, McDaniels scored a bucket with the game already decided. Jokic charged straight at him. Both players grabbed each other’s jerseys, benches emptied, and the refs ejected both men before it was over.
There is an unwritten rule in basketball: when the game is well in hand, you do not keep scoring. It is a respect thing, and it has been around forever. McDaniels chose to ignore it, and Jokic, who treats every possession like it is Game 7, was not going to just walk away.
This was not the first time McDaniels got under Denver’s skin either. After Game 2, he called out the entire Nuggets roster by name, labeling all of them “bad defenders.”
Jokic, Murray, Gordon, everyone. Then he went out in Game 3 and put up 20 points and 10 rebounds to back it up. The Nuggets came into Game 4 desperate for a response. Instead, they got embarrassed on their own terms.
Timberwolves Dominate Nuggets in Game 4 to Take 3-1 Series Lead
Minnesota won 112-96, and the game was not close. Ayo Dosunmu was the story offensively, dropping 41 points off the bench to carry the scoring load after the Wolves lost both starting guards. Gobert controlled the paint, held Jokic in check again, and Minnesota never let Denver find a rhythm after the first quarter.
What made it harder to watch for Nuggets fans was that none of it felt like a fluke. Minnesota has now won three straight in a series that most people thought Denver would handle easily. Jokic and Jamal Murray have not been themselves, the role players have not filled in the gaps, and the Wolves keep finding new ways to make them uncomfortable.
The Timberwolves are now one win from eliminating the third-seeded Denver Nuggets. But the game did not end cleanly, and it was not just the altercation that left questions hanging in the air.
Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo Both Exit Game 4 With Serious Injuries
Just 79 seconds in, DiVincenzo went down with a non-contact leg injury while chasing an offensive rebound. He walked off under his own power, but ESPN’s Shams Charania later confirmed it was a torn right Achilles tendon. His season is over.
Then, late in the second quarter, Edwards jumped to contest a shot, landed awkwardly, and his left knee buckled. He slammed the floor, was helped to the locker room, and was ruled out for the rest of the game shortly after halftime. He is set to undergo an MRI to determine the severity.
Losing both starting guards before halftime, against a team fighting for its playoff life, would have finished most rosters. The Timberwolves kept going anyway and still won by 16. That says everything about where this group is mentally right now.
The Wolves are one game from the second round, but the health of Edwards and DiVincenzo now hangs over everything. How Minnesota manages without them could define the rest of their postseason.
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