Jaden McDaniels wasn’t worried about ramifications.
“Go at [Nikola] Jokić, [Jamal] Murray, all the bad defenders,” he said after the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets 119-114 in Game 2 of the first round Monday. “Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon. Their whole team.”
“Yeah, they’re all bad defenders.”
The claim itself is not all that outlandish — Denver ranked 21st in defensive rating this season. But the timing of McDaniels’ claim was. Minnesota evened the series at 1-1 before it shifted to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Thursday, and McDaniels went at the entire Nuggets team.
“We talked about them,” Chris Finch said regarding McDaniels’ statement. “Now we gotta go back ‘em up.”
The Wolves needed to back up McDaniels’ statement with an even louder one. They needed to prove his statement correct. And with a 113-96 win on Thursday, that’s what they did.
Two minutes in, Target Center was already deafeningly loud. Nikola Jokić lost the ball, which McDaniels picked up and triggered a two-on-one fastbreak. McDaniels dumped the ball off to Donte DiVincenzo, who gave it right back to him in midair, giving way to an and-one slam for McDaniels that promptly set the tone for the game.
The Wolves never let up in the first quarter. They kept hammering on the pedal, floating through gears as their motor hummed to a 25-11 lead after 12 minutes.
Eleven points set a new Timberwolves playoff franchise-low for points allowed in a quarter. They forced the Nuggets to shoot 3 of 21 from the floor, 1 of 9 from three-point range, and 2 of 12 on two-pointers.
“Locked in,” Finch said postgame regarding the first quarter. “Everybody kind of went into the battle that was right in front of them. [That] was really big. Challenging everything, making everything hard all the way around. Came out and just set the tone, which is what we wanted to do here at home.”
Offensively, the Wolves again found success by attacking the rim. They shot 9 of 11 at the rim in the first quarter, with McDaniels shooting 4 of 4 at the rim himself.
Far too often in the regular season, this Wolves team came out flat, even with effervescent energy in the stands. Much of that stemmed from deviations from the offensive game plan and an unfocused defensive effort. That’s partially why it was so hard to believe this team could make another run to the Conference Finals, especially because those ailments lingered with the Wolves late into the season.
But the first quarter on Thursday was so loud at Target Center that it completely drowned out the team’s not-so-distant issues. The Wolves brought a forceful defense at the point of attack, rotated on a string defensively, and exploited Denver’s defense by following the game plan and getting downhill with speed.
That continued into the second quarter, where Minnesota gained as much as a 23-point lead. David Adleman called three timeouts in four minutes, screaming at his team for their defensive effort as the Wolves continued to dominate the paint.
The Wolves were likely gearing up to face Denver’s best effort in Game 3. Players were aware of McDaniels’ comments. They were in a hostile environment. If there was a time for Denver’s defense to wake up after allowing Minnesota to score 52 paint points in Game 2, Thursday was the time to do it.
Instead, the Wolves proved McDaniels’ statement to be accurate.
Minnesota finished Game 3 outscoring Denver 68-34 in the paint by shooting 28 of 38 (73.7%) at the rim. For almost the entire night, the Wolves caught the Nuggets on their heels as they drove to the basket. None more so than Ayo Dosunmu, who finished with 25 points on 10 of 12 at the rim, and McDaniels, who scored 20 points on 6 of 6 at the rim.
“Spectacular,” Finch said after the game regarding McDaniels’ performance. “To have that much energy … I mean, his activity offensively in the first quarter was outstanding. Just trying to go get tips, loose balls, offensive rebounds, 50-50 plays, all that kind of stuff, was really good. Defensively, he was outstanding tonight.
“I thought he was inspirational tonight,” he added, “no doubt.”
Denver outscored the Wolves 57-52 in the second half by going to the line for 26 free throw attempts. The Nuggets did just enough to stay between 20 and 16 points, forcing Finch to keep his starters on the court longer than he probably would have liked. Midway through the fourth quarter, Minnesota’s offense was stalling up, Denver had a glimmer of hope, and the crowd was growing restless.
But then McDaniels ended what he started.
He drilled a three-pointer and then threw down a ferocious dunk, which injected euphoria back into the crowd and zapped Denver of all hope. McDaniels has a notorious poker face. Even when he was calling out the Nuggets by name, he did it in a deadpan tone. But under that demeanor is a ruthless competitor who fans saw flex and roar after his late-game dunk.
“Jaden is one of our intense and most ornery competitors,” Finch said. “I didn’t have any worry that he was not going to come out and try his darndest to back up whatever was said. But ultimately, saying things is neither here nor there, gotta go out and play the game. And again, he was special tonight.”
Exploiting Denver’s rim defense was a point of emphasis for the Wolves entering this series. That is gameplan item No. 1 offensively, and it is not particularly complicated. Well, it’s not complicated in theory. But this Wolves team has struggled to follow the game plan all year, and teams usually make desperate adjustments in the playoffs, especially when the fire is stoked.
However, Game 2 proved that Denver isn’t equipped to handle Minnesota’s downhill approach unless the Nuggets completely flip mentally and bring better point-of-attack defense. Both of those things could happen at some point in this series.
But the Wolves have already claimed the physical and mental edge.
McDaniels’ statement was loud. It went viral on social media. But Minnesota’s statement on Thursday was even louder. It backed up McDaniels claim and put Minnesota in the driver’s seat with a 2-1 series lead. Not just because it was a blowout win filled with many loud moments, but because the Wolves did it by executing the game plan and exposing Denver’s bad defenders.
