Jaden McDaniels led a spirited defensive effort, reserve Ayo Dosunmu delivered a team-high 25 points and the Minnesota Timberwolves held the Denver Nuggets to a season-low shooting percentage en route to a 113-96 victory in Game 3 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series on Thursday in Minneapolis.
The Timberwolves hold a 2-1 edge in the best-of-seven set that continues Saturday night in Minneapolis.
“This is a playoff series,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “There’s so many ups and downs. Bottom line: It’s a first to four, and we have another opportunity in a couple of days to regain control of it and take it back to Denver the right way.”
McDaniels finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds while Anthony Edwards chipped in 17 points for the sixth-seeded Timberwolves, who scored 14 of the game’s first 18 points and never looked back.
Hounded much of the night by McDaniels, Jamal Murray shot just 5-for-17, missed all five of his 3-point attempts and totaled just 16 points for the Nuggets, who shot just 34.1% overall. Nikola Jokic was the game’s leading scorer with 27 points and leading rebounder with 15, but went just 7-for-26 from the field and missed eight of his 10 attempts from beyond the arc.
The Nuggets’ season low for field-goal percentage in the regular season was 40.2%, which it posted three times. Denver’s 25.0% accuracy on 3-point tries, 8-for-32, was its fourth lowest of the season.
“We came out and played ferocious,” Dosunmu said. “We played together; we played hard. We held them to under 100 points in the playoffs. … They’re the No. 1 offensive team in the season.”
After both teams reached triple figures in scoring in the first two games and McDaniels labeled all of the Nuggets defensively challenged, Minnesota set a defensive tone right from the opening tip of its first home game in the series. The Timberwolves’ defense was particularly impressive in the first half, limiting the Nuggets to 39 points and 3-for-15 success (20.0%) from behind the arc.
Denver had only four points in the game’s first seven minutes, during which Minnesota built its first double-digit lead at 14-4. McDaniels had a three-point play on a dunk and two other interior hoops while singlehandedly outscoring the visitors 7-4 over the run.
Minnesota went on to lead 25-11 by quarter’s end before going up by as many as 23 in the second period. The closest the Nuggets got in the second half was 12, that coming in the final two minutes.
Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert snatched a team-high 12 rebounds to go with 10 points. Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo chipped in with 15 points apiece, with DiVincenzo adding a game-high seven assists.
Tim Hardaway Jr. logged 11 points and Zeke Nnaji 10 off the bench for the Nuggets, who played without Aaron Gordon (tight left calf) and Peyton Watson (strained left hamstring). Denver was held under 100 points just twice during the regular season.
–Field Level Media
