The Denver Nuggets have an opportunity to force a Game Seven in their building. Not too long ago, their situation seemed hopeless, but an inspiring Game Five victory could be cause for some optimism. Here’s what they need to do.
The Minnesota Timberwolves and that raucous crowd are going to try to knock out Denver early. With a chance to advance to the next round, the energy is going to be palpable. It will not be shocking to see the Timberwolves jump on the Nuggets early.
The key for Denver, though, is to stay poised. That has been a struggle on the road so far this series. In Game Three, Nikola Jokic came out and missed his first five shots, and the team spiraled. The first quarter was 25-11 in favor of Minnesota, and they never looked back.
In Game Four, the Nuggets started much better. They were up 76-74 with about two minutes left in the third quarter. Denver then had a couple of turnovers to close the quarter, which led to the Timberwolves going up 82-78.
From that moment on, it looked like the Nuggets lost their composure. They ended up losing the final quarter 40-18. That is something they cannot afford in Game Six.
Minnesota may jump out on top 11-5 or 13-6, just out of pure adrenaline from the crowd noise. Denver has to make sure that it doesn’t get out of control early like it did in Game Three and slowly chip away. They need to make this game a series of half-court executions.
One side has Jamal Murray and Jokic, while the other side in Minnesota lost their best ball handler in Anthony Edwards.
Defensively, that means keeping the Timberwolves players in front on the perimeter. The Nuggets struggle with keeping other teams out of the paint. In this series alone, Minnesota outscored Denver 228 to 158 in paint points over the first four games.
It was a different story in Game Five. The Nuggets were the more aggressive team, outscoring the Timberwolves 62 to 50 in the paint. A lot of Minnesota’s points came in the fourth when Denver was up by 25 points in the early stages.
If the Nuggets keep their focus, they can restrict easy drives to the basket. Offensively, the aggression is dependent on Jokic. If he’s active early, that opens it up for the rest of his teammates.
The Joker needs to find a fine line between forcing shots and being aggressive. That’s what he did in Game Five. His first two shots were midrange floaters off of passes over Rudy Gobert. They were good confidence-building shots.
Minnesota soon realized that Jokic was going to be active under the three-point line, so they mixed some coverages. That is when the Joker works his magic, and he ended the game with 16 assists, which was his most by a wide margin this series.
The Nuggets win 75% over thier games when Jokic has 10+ assists. They are going to need him to replicate that performance. Staying aggressive while taking smart shots is the biggest key.
Once the three-time MVP is aggressive, the rest of the troops will follow. In the last game, Denver had four players who scored 18+ points. They’ll need that again and possibly more.
The Nuggets once again will likely be without Aaron Gordon. Their mindset, though, has to be that they can get the job done with Spencer Jones filling in. Jones had an incredible Game Five, scoring 20 points, and is capable of doing it again.
Denver needs Gordon in the next round, should they get there. With the Timberwolves missing key pieces, it allows the Nuggets to stay conservative with Gordon for the rest of the series.
Denver should win this series based on talent alone. The biggest question is how they will be mentally when things go sideways.
Will the Nuggets force a Game Seven?
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