MINNEAPOLIS — There is a coldness to Jaden McDaniels that borders on frightening.
When he sat in front of his locker after Game 2, hoodie pulled over his head, and started reciting the names of Denver defenders for whom he has no respect, he did so with an icy, emotionless look in his eyes, like Arya Stark listing the names of targets she intended to vanquish in “Game of Thrones.”
Advertisement
Hot heads are easy to dismiss. The volume of the message often stands in inverse proportion to the threat posed by the messenger. If Spinal Tap turned the volume dial up to 11, McDaniels never rises above a 4. That is why he must be taken seriously. He sat there and listed the Nuggets one by one, using their full names, and telling the world that the Minnesota Timberwolves did not fear them. He did not raise his voice because he didn’t have to. The words packed enough of a punch on their own.
“They’re all bad defenders,” McDaniels said.
The uncommonly blunt trash talk put the typically media-averse McDaniels in the spotlight for two straight days. He tried not to sweat the hornet’s nest he’d kicked up, but even he acknowledged that it was hard to avoid the swarm when it was constantly popping up on his phone. Wolves coach Chris Finch said he spoke to McDaniels about the remarks and challenged him to rise to the occasion that he created.
“Now you gotta go back them up,” Finch said before the game.
For those who know McDaniels, it was never a question. He is at his best when there is a personal vendetta involved. Fueled by Gatorade, fettucine Alfredo and pure disdain for the Nuggets, McDaniels walked the walk all over Game 3 on Thursday night. He scored 20 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and locked up Nuggets star Jamal Murray all night long, leading the Timberwolves to a 113-96 victory that put them up 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.
This was McDaniels at his merciless best, injecting pettiness and grievance into a rivalry already brimming with both. He was the tip of the spear for a defense that rediscovered its menacing form from two years ago, when the Wolves beat the Nuggets in seven games in the Western Conference semifinals. Minnesota held Denver to 11 points and 14-percent shooting (3 for 21) in the first quarter, led by as many as 27 points in the third and never trailed in the game. He also did exactly what he said he was going to do on offense, attacking the rim over and over again, going 8 for 10 inside the 3-point arc and cooking Nikola Jokić anytime he got near the paint.
When the Timberwolves were struggling to hit shots in the first quarter, McDaniels went 4 for 6 for nine points, getting a raucous Target Center crowd on its feet. And when the Timberwolves needed stops, McDaniels picked up Murray 94 feet and held him to 16 points on 5-for-17 shooting.
Advertisement
“Jaden is one our intense and most ornery competitors,” Finch said. “I didn’t have any worry that he wasn’t going to come out and try his darnedest to back up whatever was said. But ultimately, saying things is neither here nor there. Gotta go out and play the game. He was special tonight.”
{“endpoint”:”https://api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com/graphql”}
Throughout his six seasons in the NBA, McDaniels has developed a proven formula: the more he dislikes his opponent, the better he seems to play. He dominated Devin Booker in the first round of the playoffs in 2024. Facing Oklahoma City always gets him riled up. But Murray and the Nuggets may be No. 1 on his diss list.
“Just playing Denver really motivates us,” McDaniels said. “That’s enough, for real, just playing against them. We don’t really care what they say, just the number and the name across their chest make us play like this.”
McDaniels missed the teams’ first playoff meeting in 2023 after he broke his hand by inadvertently punching a wall in the regular season finale, and there is a part of him that has never forgiven himself for it. Denver beat Minnesota in five games, and McDaniels vowed afterward to never let his team down like that again. Now, every time he sees the Nuggets jersey, his blood starts to boil.
When McDaniels is wreaking havoc, the Timberwolves reach their zenith. He is beloved in the locker room, a player who never calls attention to himself in the public sphere, works as hard as anyone on the roster and someone his teammates know would follow them into a dark alley anytime. So when he put himself out on that limb, garnering disapproval from none other than Mr. Straight Talk himself, Charles Barkley among others, his teammates rallied to his side the same way they know he would rally to theirs.
“He’s crazy. We love him,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “But no matter what he says, he’s going to come and compete and backup whatever he says.”
Advertisement
Ayo Dosunmu had 25 points and nine assists off the bench, DiVincenzo had 15 points, seven assists and four steals and Rudy Gobert had 10 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots, while forcing Jokić into 7-for-26 shooting with four turnovers and only three assists in another superb defensive effort. To a man, the Wolves said McDaniels got them going with his ferocious first quarter and they weren’t going to leave him hanging out there all by himself.
“What he said in the media, at the end of the day we’re in the locker room with him,” Dosunmu said. “We’re going to war with him. He led the way, he did a great job guarding Murray the whole game, full court. The main thing we want to let him know is we got his back.”
McDaniels may have done more than just deliver an important victory on Thursday night. He may have taken a little bit of the Nuggets’ soul. He sat there in his chair after Game 2 and, essentially, challenged the manhood of the Nuggets roster. He did it on the record, calling out Jokić, Murray, Cam Johnson, Tim Hardaway and Aaron Gordon, who did not play in Game 3 because of a calf injury, and promising to keep coming at them until they could do anything about it.
If ever the Nuggets, proud former champions that they are, were going to respond, it had to be on Thursday night, right? Instead, they proved McDaniels correct, at least for a night. They gave up 68 points in the paint, 21 fast-break points and were outrebounded 53-40. Jokić was helpless against the onslaught of Wolves drivers, but he also got no help from the traffic cones on the perimeter who could not stay in front of their men.
For the second straight game, Murray and Jokić looked tired, unable to meet the energy of an opponent with a gas tank full of hate. Denver was outscored by 21 points in Jokić’s 35 minutes, while Christian Braun (0 for 4), Johnson (2 for 6) and Spencer Jones (six points, one rebound, four fouls) looked unprepared for the moment.
The Wolves shot 26 percent from 3 and got subpar offensive nights from their top two scorers. Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle combined to shoot 12 for 30, with Edwards limited to 24 minutes because of foul trouble. But it didn’t matter. Anytime the Nuggets threatened to get back into the game, McDaniels or Dosunmu would grab the ball, get downhill and score at the rim with ease.
It wasn’t until he was finished taking the Nuggets apart that McDaniels finally showed some fire.
Advertisement
Jokić hit three free throws to pull Denver within 14 points with five minutes to go. With the Wolves wobbling a little bit, McDaniels hit a 3-pointer at the top of the arc, then took the ball on the left wing, put it on the floor and elevated right over Jokić and Jones for a soaring dunk and a 17-point lead. Target Center shook so violently as Nuggets coach David Adelman called timeout to pull his starters with 4:10 to play.
For the first time all game, McDaniels’ ruthless glare gave way to unbridled emotion. He howled at the moon and snarled at the Nuggets, dismissing them for the evening as his teammates lost their minds on the bench.
In reality, McDaniels had already dismissed them three days ago.