The Timberwolves defeated the Nuggets, 110-98, to win the series, 4-2, and advance to the Western Conference Semifinals.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Download the NBA App<\/a><\/p>\n Whether true or concocted, the Minnesota Timberwolves used some mental gymnastics to heighten their motivation against the Denver Nuggets, a legit championship contender the Wolves just ousted in the first round<\/a> Thursday night.<\/p>\n Neither Nikola Joki\u0107 nor Jamal Murray played up to the postseason levels to which they and the Nuggets had grown accustomed. Credit Minnesota\u2019s defense for much of that. The Nuggets\u2019 limitations were exposed in a variety of ways, up to and including their 110-98 Game 6 loss<\/a> at Target Center.<\/p>\n It was the third game in the series, all in Minnesota, in which the league\u2019s most prolific offense \u2013 the Nuggets averaged 122.1 points in the regular season \u2013 couldn\u2019t even reach 100. And whatever talent gap might exist between them in normal circumstances did not apply Thursday, given the injuries through which the Wolves played and won.<\/p>\n But Minnesota coach Chris Finch ladled on helpings of \u201cUs vs. Them\u201d in what has been a pretty hot rivalry in recent seasons. The Wolves found some Denver disregard in the West\u2019s final seedings.<\/p>\n \u201cOur guys took it personal,\u201d Finch said. \u201cDenver had the chance to pick who they wanted to play coming down the stretch and they chose us. We used that as a motivation all through preparation and the series. Our guys were up for the challenge of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Denver won its final 12 games to finish third, so it didn\u2019t exactly back its way into the No. 3 vs. No. 6 matchup. But whatever edge the Wolves got from that, it surely didn\u2019t hurt as they advanced to face San Antonio in the conference semifinals.<\/p>\n Here are four takeaways from the Game 6 finale:<\/p>\n 1. McDaniels talked it, walked it<\/p>\n Jaden McDaniels scores a game-high 32 points to help seal the Wolves’ Game 6 clincher.<\/p>\n The Wolves\u2019 leading scorer in the clinching game also took on the challenge of guarding the other team\u2019s most explosive weapon. That\u2019s a throwback approach in this league, old school mano a mano, and Jaden McDaniels stuck the landing.<\/p>\n McDaniels essentially used Game 6 to get the last word in a series he agitated both with words and deeds. After Game 2, he went public with his disrespect<\/a> \u2013 by name \u2013 for Denver\u2019s defenders. At the end of Game 4, his needless layup triggered Joki\u0107 into a skirmish that amped up the jeers he heard back in Denver on Monday and the love he felt at Target Center on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cI just didn\u2019t care, I said what I said,\u201d McDaniel said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to stay it again.\u201d<\/p>\n The blanket McDaniels threw over Jamal Murray should have surprised no one. The Denver guard\u2019s history of big scoring performances in elimination games ran smack into the reality of McDaniels\u2019 length, quickness and body control, the Wolves defender proving himself both taller and faster than Murray. Murray\u2019s career season was punctuated by a frosty 4-for-17, just 12 points and a team-worst minus-18 in 40-plus minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cNo love lost between the teams,\u201d said Wolves coach Chris Finch. \u201c[Jaden] takes the challenge to guard these guys. He knew he was going to be in a ton of action, he\u2019s going to be hit by a ton of screens, and he\u2019s got to keep chasing and keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n McDaniels\u2019 offense has been growing the past couple seasons, but he overachieved out of need in this one. His 32 points were a career high, and with 10 rebounds, he joined Kevin Garnett, Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns as the only 30-10 guys in Minnesota history. He has had only one other game like that in his six NBA seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not tired at all,\u201d McDaniels said.<\/p>\n 2. All hail Minnesota\u2019s \u2018others\u2019<\/p>\n The Wolves\u2019 usual starting backcourt was lost in Game 4, when Donte DiVincenzo ruptured his right Achilles tendon and Anthony Edwards suffered a bone bruise and hyperextended left knee. Then Ayo Dosunmu, the breakthrough 43-point scorer that night, popped up on the injury report Thursday and was held out with right calf soreness.<\/p>\n Denver was shorthanded, too, missing both Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson. But the Wolves\u2019 absences were on a different level. And yet they became the first team in NBA playoff history to win a game while missing three players who were averaging 10 points or more in the series.<\/p>\n Without Dosunmu (21.8 ppg), Edwards (18.5) and DiVincenzo (10.8), Finch to shuffle his deck more slickly than a backroom gambler. One of his counters was a \u201cbig\u201d lineup planting Julius Randle, Naz Reid and Rudy Gobert together on the front line. He got some solid minutes from that crew.<\/p>\n Finch also started and played veteran point guard Mike Conley for 26 minutes and used deep reserve Jaylen Clark for 12 minutes. Most notably, he told Terrence Shannon Jr. he would be starting.<\/p>\n Shannon, a 6-foot-6 guard from Illinois wrapping up his second season of understudy work, wound up scoring 24 points in 35 minutes. His bursts of speed had the Nuggets on their heels all night, and rim attacks helped the Wolves outscore the visitors in the paint, 64-40.<\/p>\n A backup Finch had pointedly criticized earlier in the series for some game-plan lapses came up big in boosting them into the next round.<\/p>\n \u201cI found out I was starting when I got into the building,\u201d Shannon said. \u201cI still had the same mindset: be aggressive and be better on the defensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Denver stung by early exit<\/p>\n Just three years removed from their NBA championship, the core of this Nuggets team expected better. They had closed the regular season with 12 consecutive victories and angled to face Minnesota, a budding rival with whom they were overly familiar.<\/p>\n Then they never found their \u201cA\u201d game, got exposed defensively as McDaniels had predicted and head into summer with a deeply flawed roster.<\/p>\n \u201cDefinitely if we were in Serbia,\u201d Joki\u0107 cracked, \u201cwe would all get fired.\u201d<\/p>\n There will be calls for change, including the simplest one of blaming the coach. David Adelman said he accepted full responsibility for the playoff fizzle, but Joki\u0107 wasn\u2019t having it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not his fault that we couldn\u2019t rebound,\u201d the Denver center said. \u201cIt\u2019s not his fault that we could not catch the ball. There is nothing to blame David Adelman [for]. It was all us.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. Gobert draws another not-so-short straw<\/p>\n If McDaniels was Minnesota\u2019s MVP in the series, Rudy Gobert was NMVP, as in next-most. Accepting and often handling individual defensive chores against Joki\u0107 enabled the Wolves to guard the other Nuggets straight up.<\/p>\n Gobert was effective especially in the first four games, helping the Wolves stake that 3-1 lead. And in the clincher, he played like a pocket Joker with 10 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists.<\/p>\n \u201cRudy was fantastic. I mean, Hall of Fame player, Hall of Fame defender,\u201d McDaniels said. \u201cIt\u2019s just on to the next round and he\u2019s got another challenge. I know he\u2019s going to succeed. I know I\u2019m ready to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n A West semifinal matchup<\/a> with San Antonio locks Gobert into a duel with his fellow Frenchman, Victor Wembanyama. There might be a little extra juice in the matchup for Gobert, since the Spurs\u2019 young center won Kia Defensive Player of the Year<\/a> unanimously \u2013 on a ballot Gobert felt snubbed in not making the Top 3.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him\u00a0here<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n