{"id":1899840,"date":"2026-04-24T04:15:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1899840"},"modified":"2026-04-24T04:15:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T01:15:27","slug":"jaden-mcdaniels-timberwolves-put-clamps-on-nuggets-to-take-2-1-series-lead-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1899840","title":{"rendered":"Jaden McDaniels, Timberwolves put clamps on Nuggets to take 2-1 series lead: Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jaden McDaniels called out nearly every Denver Nuggets defender after Monday night\u2019s Game 2 win in Denver. Now, the Minnesota Timberwolves forward can take aim at their offense, too.<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves shut down the most efficient offense in the league from the jump Thursday night, holding the Nuggets to 11 first-quarter points en route to a dominating 113-96 Game 3 victory at a raucous Target Center. The win gives Minnesota a 2-1 series lead, with Game 4 set for Saturday night in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

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The Nuggets showed little fight without starting power forward and emotional fulcrum Aaron Gordon, who was in street clothes with a left calf injury. Denver shot just 31 percent from the field (13-of-42) in the first half, with center Nikola Joki\u0107 the only starter in double figures, at 13 points on a dreadful 4-of-14 shooting.<\/p>\n

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In a nod to McDaniels\u2019 trash talk, the Timberwolves attacked the basket with abandon; they made 20 of their first 29 shots inside the 3-point arc. Reserve guard Ayo Dosunmu and McDaniels were especially effective, finishing with 45 points combined on 19-of-28 shooting.<\/p>\n

Here are some takeaways from the Timberwolves\u2019 win:<\/p>\n

McDaniels backs up his words<\/h2>\n

McDaniels talked the talk, and then he walked the walk.<\/p>\n

Challenged by his head coach to put his money where his mouth was, McDaniels led a ferocious Timberwolves defense and attacked the Nuggets defense he derided to fuel Minnesota\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

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McDaniels was at the center of NBA discourse after he gave a stunningly specific critique<\/a> of the Nuggets following Minnesota\u2019s Game 2 win Monday. He called out many Nuggets by name in detailing the Timberwolves\u2019 offensive strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo at Joki\u0107, Jamal (Murray), all the bad defenders,\u201d he said. \u201cTim Hardaway, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team. Like, just go at them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It is rare for a player to be that blunt in the middle of a series, but McDaniels has never worried much about what other people think. It put some pressure on his shoulders, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you gotta go back them up,\u201d Wolves coach Chris Finch said before the game.<\/p>\n

Back them up, McDaniels did. While the rest of the Wolves struggled to hit shots early in the game, McDaniels attacked the rim over and over again. He scored 9 points in the first quarter to fuel Minnesota\u2019s offense, with much of it coming at the expense of the defenders he disparaged.<\/p>\n

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McDaniels finished with 20 points on 9-for-13 shooting with 10 rebounds and three assists. He also locked up Murray on the defensive end. Finch matched McDaniels\u2019 minutes with Murray all night, and the 6-foot-10 defensive specialist was in the Nuggets guard\u2019s grill for 94 feet. Murray scored 16 points on 5-for-17 shooting.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets crept back into the game in the fourth, trimming the lead to 14 with five minutes to play. McDaniels followed with a 3-pointer and a soaring slam, howling at the rafters after throwing it down to turn the Nuggets away.<\/p>\n

It was a dominant performance in a game that needed to be dominant. And thanks in large part to McDaniels\u2019 play, the Wolves now have the lead in the series, with another game at home looming. \u2014 Jon Krawczynski, Timberwolves senior writer<\/em><\/p>\n

Where\u2019s the three-time MVP?<\/h2>\n

The Nuggets are in trouble, and it\u2019s clear where their biggest problem lies: Joki\u0107.<\/p>\n

After a so-so series debut and a bad Game 2, Joki\u0107 had a dumpster fire of a performance in Game 3, with poor shooting and even worse defense. His final stat line (27 points and 15 rebounds on 7-of-26 shooting) was deceiving. The player the Nuggets like to call the best in the world has put this title-hopeful team in dire straits with a virtual no-show through three games.<\/p>\n

Outside of a brief third-quarter flurry in Game 2, Joki\u0107 has never put his stamp on this series. He has bordered on being a detriment with passive offense and stationary defense.<\/p>\n

In the first halves of the first two games, Joki\u0107 looked more to pass than shoot. In each game, he attempted two shots in the first quarter. In Game 3, he came out shooting but missed his first six attempts and finished the first quarter 1-of-8. For the series, Jokic is 3-of-12 in the opening quarter. Over the nip-and-tuck fourth quarter of Game 2 and the all-important first quarter of Game 3, he went a combined 2-of-15 from the field.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, Joki\u0107\u2019s defense has perhaps never been more exposed. Countless times in Game 3, he made no effort to offer help defense, allowing Dosunmu to go in for an uncontested baseline dunk, then standing like a cone while Julius Randle slalomed past him for a layup.<\/p>\n

Of course, much of Joki\u0107\u2019s struggles are due to the defense of Minnesota center Rudy Gobert, who blocked two of Joki\u0107\u2019s shots in Game 3 and altered several others, particularly his floaters in the lane. It\u2019s a strange plot twist in this head-to-head series, as Joki\u0107 has typically dominated Gobert, including posting games of 61 points and 56 points. However, if this continues, it will go down as a defining moment for Gobert and a blemish on one of this era\u2019s most accomplished players. \u2014 Jason Quick, NBA senior writer<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jaden McDaniels called out nearly every Denver Nuggets defender after Monday night\u2019s Game 2 win in Denver. Now, the Minnesota Timberwolves forward can take aim at their offense, too. The Timberwolves shut down the most efficient offense in the league from the jump Thursday night, holding the Nuggets to 11 first-quarter points en route to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1899840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1899840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1899840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1899840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1899840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}