{"id":610928,"date":"2026-04-28T08:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610928\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T08:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:50:11","slug":"jaden-mcdaniels-embraces-the-villain-role-in-denver-after-game-5-loss-to-nuggets-brings-boos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610928\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaden McDaniels embraces the villain role in Denver after Game 5 loss to Nuggets brings boos"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER (AP) \u2014 Jaden McDaniels got more pushback from the Denver Nuggets and their<\/a> fans as he heard constant boos from the crowd all evening.<\/p>\n

All it did was embolden McDaniels, the antagonistic Minnesota Timberwolves forward who\u2019s worked his way under the skin of Nuggets Nation through his words and his actions. <\/p>\n

Following a 125-113 loss to<\/a> Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series on Monday night, McDaniels insisted he wouldn\u2019t be back in Denver anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just ended up losing the day, but we\u2019re going to win the next one,\u201d said McDaniels, whose team leads the best-of-seven series 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Thursday night in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

McDaniels labeled the Nuggets \u201c all bad defenders<\/a> \u201d after Minnesota won Game 2. Denver didn\u2019t have much of a response in the lead-up to Game 3 \u2014 or during the game itself. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, McDaniels again drew the ire of the Nuggets \u2014 more specifically, Jokic \u2014 after violating an unwritten rule by scoring on a layup with the game already conceded. Jokic raced down the court and confronted him as players gathered around. The dustup resulted in e jections and fines<\/a> but no suspensions.<\/p>\n

This time, the Nuggets had a response. So did the Ball Arena crowd, which booed McDaniels each time he touched the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this environment, everyone hating me,\u201d McDaniels said. \u201cI feed into it. It just brings the best out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDaniels finished with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting in just more than 27 minutes of action. He also had four of the Timberwolves\u2019 25 turnovers. The miscues may be understandable, though, as the team works on playing without Donte DiVincenzo (ruptured right Achilles tendon) and Anthony Edwards<\/a> (knee).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really just the gravity they carry,\u201d McDaniels said. \u201cI feel like we still did a good job.\u201d <\/p>\n

At times, the game got a little chippy \u2014 and he was sometimes at the center of it. Such as in the fourth quarter with some pushing and words with Jonas Valanciunas, who\u2019s 60 pounds heavier than McDaniels. <\/p>\n

There was also Christian Braun hanging on the rim after a dunk and pointing in the direction of McDaniels. That drew Braun a technical and revved up the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all fun to me. I don\u2019t really care. I feed into it,\u201d McDaniels said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to get the job done next game, and then there\u2019s no more talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (AP) \u2014 Jaden McDaniels got more pushback from the Denver Nuggets and their fans as he heard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[31513,402,1751,3829,3832,1840,1753,56232,114221,4137,6429,11951,6661,355,1063,1756,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-610928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-anthony-edwards","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-christian-braun","11":"tag-co-state-wire","12":"tag-colorado","13":"tag-denver","14":"tag-denver-nuggets","15":"tag-donte-divincenzo","16":"tag-jaden-mcdaniels","17":"tag-jonas-valanciunas","18":"tag-minnesota","19":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","20":"tag-mn-state-wire","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-nba-basketball","23":"tag-nikola-jokic","24":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}