\n Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) \u2013 The Minnesota Timberwolves knocked Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets out of the NBA playoffs with a 110-98 win Thursday to claim their first-round series 4-2. <\/p>\n
Issued on: 01\/05\/2026 – 06:42<\/p>\n
1 min Reading time\n<\/p>\n
Sixth-seeded Minnesota will play the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semi-finals after completing an upset defeat of third-seeded Denver, who won the 2023 NBA championship.<\/p>\n
Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic top-scored for Denver with 28 but it was not enough to fend off the dogged Timberwolves, who were playing without star man Anthony Edwards due to injury.<\/p>\n
The clash in Minneapolis was tight throughout, with no team gaining a double-digit lead until the game’s dying moments. The Timberwolves edged the first half, leading 57-50 at the break.<\/p>\n
Jokic roared to life. The Serbian superstar scored 14 points in the third quarter alone to ensure a nail-biting finish.<\/p>\n
Having already been ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct from game four after a shoving match, Jokic enraged the home crowd by sparking another brawl with Jaylen Clark. <\/p>\n
With his Timberwolves leading by five with 90 seconds remaining, Jaden McDaniels sank a long jump-shot for two to rouse the home fans and force a Nuggets timeout.<\/p>\n
But when play resumed Denver could only turn over the ball again.<\/p>\n
McDaniels closed out the win with two free throws, ending his night with a career-high 32 points, to top-score overall.<\/p>\n
Edwards — out with a bone bruise and hyper-extended left knee — could return for the Timberwolves’ series with the high-flying Spurs.<\/p>\n
Fellow Minnesota star Donte DiVincenzo will miss the remainder of the playoffs with a ruptured right Achilles tendon.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) \u2013 The Minnesota Timberwolves knocked Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets out of the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-640442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}