{"id":1903095,"date":"2026-04-26T03:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T00:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1903095"},"modified":"2026-04-26T03:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T00:30:28","slug":"anthony-edwards-donte-divincenzo-go-down-timberwolves-still-take-3-1-lead-over-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1903095","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Edwards, Donte DiVincenzo go down, Timberwolves still take 3-1 lead over Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Despite losing two starters in the first half, the Minnesota Timberwolves moved within one win of advancing to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.<\/p>\n

Behind a career-high 43 points from Ayo Dosunmu, the Timberwolves pulled away for a 112-96 win over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. The sixth-seeded Timberwolves will take a 3-1 series lead over the No. 3 Nuggets into Monday\u2019s Game 5.<\/p>\n

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Dosunmu made 13 of 17 shots, including all five of his 3-point attempts, and was 12 of 12 from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

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The Timberwolves were hit by disaster early on. Anthony Edwards, a four-time All-Star and the team\u2019s leading scorer this season, left the game in the second quarter with a knee injury<\/a>. Barely a minute into the game, fellow guard Donte DiVincenzo left with what a team source told The Athletic<\/em> was a torn right Achilles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Nikola Joki\u0107, the Nuggets\u2019 seven-time all-NBA center, had 24 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists. He was 8 of 22 (36 percent) from the field, his third consecutive game shooting worse than 40 percent.<\/p>\n

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Ayo Dosunmu, playoff hero<\/h2>\n

The Timberwolves were running right up to the trade deadline in February when president of basketball operations Tim Connelly pulled off a last-second trade for Dosunmu.<\/p>\n

He gave up Rob Dillingham and Leonard Miller, two players out of the rotation, and four second-round picks to pry Dosunmu from the Bulls. It was a masterstroke move that paid off enormously for the Timberwolves on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

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Dosunmu scored 43 points on 13-of-17 shooting, the second straight game he has posted a career playoff-high. He scored 25 points in the win over Denver in Game 3.<\/p>\n

With Edwards and DiVincenzo out with injuries, the Wolves were in desperate need of scoring. Dosunmu filled the bill, peppering the Nuggets with floaters, drives and 3s to carry the Minnesota offense. The Nuggets\u2019 slow-footed defenders could not stay in front of the blazing fast Dosunmu all game.<\/p>\n

Once he got past the perimeter defense, Joki\u0107 had no chance at the rim. He sealed the win with 2:33 to go, when he lowered his shoulder, went straight through Murray and scored for a 101-92 lead.<\/p>\n

Connelly has a history of terrific trades since coming to Minnesota, and Dosunmu may have been his most important one yet. Dosunmu\u2019s timing couldn\u2019t be better for himself, either. He is a free agent this summer.<\/p>\n

Dosunmu heard \u201cMVP!\u201d chants as he finished his night at the free-throw line, a performance for the ages. \u2014 Jon Krawczynski<\/em><\/p>\n

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Disaster for Denver<\/h2>\n

Four games in, and the Denver Nuggets still don\u2019t have an answer for how to handle Minnesota\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

The long arms. The annoying bumping. The never-give-an-inch tenacity of the Wolves has aggravated and distracted what was the NBA\u2019s best offense in the regular season. Plain and simple, the Wolves have stripped more than balls away from the Nuggets: They\u2019ve stolen their soul.<\/p>\n

The most fight the Nuggets showed was with 1.3 seconds left in the blowout when Joki\u0107 and Jaden McDaniels got into a skirmish. Joki\u0107 and Julius Randle were ejected after the scrum of pushes and shoves.<\/p>\n

Even with the Wolves\u2019 starting backcourt out of the game with serious injuries, the Nuggets were never in rhythm, never in control and never comfortable in Game 3 or Game 4. Joki\u0107 was once again average. Jamal Murray put up points, but not efficiently. And the Denver bench offered only 16 points.<\/p>\n

It was no secret that this has been happening to the Nuggets. They talked between Games 3 and 4 about setting better screens, about hitting the Wolves with force, but there was little evidence they made any adjustments.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets will say they have been here before \u2026 winning two series in 2020 after trailing series 3-1, and beating the Clippers last season after trailing 2-1. But they have never been so stifled, so void of answers as they have been to these Wolves.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets might be getting wing Peyton Watson back for Game 5 \u2014 he went through an extensive pregame routine Saturday for the first time in the series, but it will take more than a good defender to overcome this series deficit. Perhaps coach David Adelman also turns to Julian Strawther \u2014 whose spark last season led a Game 6 win over Oklahoma City \u2014 but the first order of business will be finding a way to get space to operate. \u2014 Jason Quick<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite losing two starters in the first half, the Minnesota Timberwolves moved within one win of advancing to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. Behind a career-high 43 points from Ayo Dosunmu, the Timberwolves pulled away for a 112-96 win over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. The sixth-seeded Timberwolves will take a 3-1 […]<\/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-1903095","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\/1903095","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=1903095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1903095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1903095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1903095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}