Wolves-Nuggets has everything. Still, it could use a little more Jaylen Clark.
The rivalry has history. Game 6 was the 34th meeting between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets in the last four seasons, and the Wolves hold an 18-16 edge.
These teams don’t like each other. Jaden McDaniels is the most hated man in Colorado for calling out the Nuggets — who finished the regular season 21st in defensive rating — bad defenders, and daring to score as time was running out in Game 4. Wolves fans still have hate in their heart for Jamal Murray and will never forgive him for throwing the heating pack on the court in the second round in 2024.
Things are so heated that media members on both sides are threatening to meet up offline and get physical. And the rivalry has great moments. Rudy Gobert hitting the turnaround jumper that only Michelangelo could have sculpted, and Anthony Edwards telling Charles Barkley to ‘bring ya ass’ to Minnesota after the Game 7 victory in 2024. Nikola Jokic put up 56 points, 16 rebounds, and 15 assists in the wild Christmas Day game this season. And Ayo Dosunmu made himself so much money in the offseason with 43 points in Game 4.
It’s the best rivalry going in the NBA. But this series is missing one thing. Jaylen Clark entered Game 6 having played only 11 minutes in the playoffs. The second-year guard from UCLA was inactive or a DNP-coach’s decision in each of the first four games of the series before being thrust onto the court in garbage time in the Game 5 loss in Denver.
However, he played 12 minutes, scored 3 points, and played lockdown defense in Game 6. He also got into a scuffle with Nikola Jokic.
Jaylen Clark has been in and out of the rotation down the stretch in his second NBA season. With Donte DiVincenzo out for the next year, and Anthony Edwards sidelined for weeks, Chris Finch needed to turn to Clark to turn up the heat on Denver’s ballhandlers to finish off the Nuggets for the second time in three seasons.
Clark has established a role in the NBA by being a lockdown perimeter defender. The reason the Timberwolves were able to open a 3-1 lead against the favored Nuggets is the ragged defense Rudy Gobert has played on Nikola Jokic. Jaden McDaniels has forced Murray into an inefficient 26 points per game in the series. And the rest of the Wolves have done their best to limit Denver’s role players. The Nuggets’ recipe for success in Games 1 and 4 has been to get contributions from anyone other than Jokic and Murray.
In Game 1, Aaron Gordon scored 17 points and had a physical 8 rebounds. Cam Johnson and Christian Braun both scored 12 points in the starting lineup. And Tim Hardaway Jr., Spencer Jones, and Bruce Brown each hit a three-pointer off the bench. In Game 5, Jones was heroic with 20 points on 4-5 from three. Cam Johnson had 18 points, six rebounds, five assists, and three steals. And Braun thought he had 45, but the box score shows he had 9 points and 3 steals, and he was a plus-18 in his 31 minutes.
Jaylen Clark helped shut down Jokic’s accomplices, making it harder for him to dictate the flow of the game while he still struggles to find his own scoring in the series. Spencer Jones isn’t shooting 7-9 with Clark in his airspace. Cam Johnson isn’t scoring 18 with Clark suffocating him all night.
Finch could also have alternated McDaniels and Clark, checking Murray for 40 minutes per game. McDaniels picked up two fouls in the first three minutes of Game 5 and was playing catch-up the rest of the game, occasionally laying off Murray so as not to get deeper into foul trouble. Adding Clark’s six fouls would have given McDaniels a break so he could have gone at Murray at 100 percent whenever he’s matched up with the first-time All-Star. And Clark adds quickness, physicality, and a slightly different defensive look that could keep Murray guessing all night.
Presumably, Finch has kept Clark on the bench to infuse more offense into the bench lineup. Bones Hyland has done his best to bomb away when Ant, Julius, and Ayo sit to keep the offense running. Conley has had a moment or two. Still, at age 38, he’s no longer a viable playoff series-winning player. Dosunmu, McDaniels, Randle, Gobert, and Naz Reid can only do so much for so long without the two-way punch that Edwards and DiVincenzo provided every night.
Clark isn’t known as an offensive player. But he’s not bad enough on that end to warrant being stashed on the bench during the most pivotal games of Minnesota’s season.
Jaylen Clark hasn’t seen consistent playing time all year in their second season under Chris Finch. But his defensive energy and tenacity are exactly what the battered Timberwolves need to stave off collapse and advance to the second round of the playoffs. He’s not going to go nuclear for 43 points and save the season as Dosunmu did in Game 4. But if deployed correctly, Clark could make the defensive plays necessary to make an impact against the San Antonio Spurs.
