Five Takeaways From Nuggets’ Shameful Game 3 Mega-Fail Versus Timberwolves

The Denver Nuggets should have come into game three of its opening round NBA playoffs series against the Minnesota Timberwolves with furious anger and a sense of resolve that was fearsome to behold. After all, the squad had wasted its double-digit victory in the first matchup (achieved despite subpar play) by generously giving away the second in embarrassing, nineteen-point-lead-blowing fashion.

But instead of bouncing back, the Nugs left behind such a stink in Minneapolis en route to a 113-96 defeat — it was much worse than the final score indicates — that the entire Midwest should probably be fumigated, stat.

What went wrong? The following list could easily be several-hundred digits long, but out of sheer kindness (and a desire not to trigger our regurgitation impulse), we’re going to limit it to five.

But not on Thursday night. Apparently stung by criticism that he began the previous pair of tests against COVID-yukster Rudy Gobert too passively, he came out flinging the ball at the hoop with a sort of brain-dead aggressiveness that was jarringly incompatible with his longtime image. He wound up missing his first six shots and going one-for-eight overall in the first twelve minutes, which saw Denver record a mere eleven points to the Wolves’ 25 — and things didn’t get much better from there.

By intermission, Nikola’s plus-minus ranking was an absolutely jarring -22, and while he eventually totaled 27 points and fifteen rebounds (a stat line that most professional centers would covet), he only made seven shots from the field all night, routinely settled for terrible threes as if trying to prove that the time-honored definition of insanity had been suspended for the night (it hadn’t been), and committed four turnovers so inexcusable that he should spend today writing an apology note to every member of Nuggets Nation.

David Adelman Badly Mishandled a Miserable Situation

The main storyline at tip-off for Denver was the unavailability of Aaron Gordon, who was sidelined with a problematic calf — the sort of injury that should raise alarms for anyone who witnessed Kevin Durant try to play through that the same kind of pain, only to suffer a shredded Achilles.

Even though Gordon’s assorted wounds have prevented him from playing up to his own standards of late, his absence from the court was troublesome. But Adelman, who should know this drill by now given how much of the regular season AG was out, seemed absolutely baffled about how to move forward. His substitution patterns involving the likes of Spencer Jones, Zeke Nnaji, Julian Strawther and Tim Hardaway Jr. regularly defied anything resembling logic, and the offensive sets he called were, more often than not, offensive in a very bad way.

In short, Adelman looked out of his depth as he watched his team sink.

Jamal Murray Didn’t Come to the Rescue

On nights when things aren’t going well for the Nuggets, Murray often attempts to save the day singlehandedly — and the madder he becomes, the better he usually is. But this time around, he swapped a pissed-off killer instinct for a kind of frustrated resignation.

Like Jokić, he shot poorly, making just five of seventeen attempts on the night. He didn’t try to take over. He just gave in.

Denver Let Jaden McDaniels Have the Last Laugh

In the days leading up to the Timberwolves initial home tilt, McDaniels casually branded the Nuggets overall as “bad defenders.” That should have energized the Denver crew, and they actually D-ed up decently at the outset; holding Minnesota to 25 points in the first would have been laudable had Denver not struggled to rack up fewer than half that much over the same span. But the intensity lapsed in the second, as Anthony Edwards and company canned 36 and turned the crowd into gleefully howling banshees.

Somehow, though, none of the Nugs tried to make McDaniels pay for his insult, kindly letting him rub a twenty-point, ten-rebound night in their collective faces, capped by a resounding slam with just over four minutes remaining that belatedly convinced Adelman to empty his bench.

The resulting ignominy was palpable.

Is This the Way It Ends?

The Nuggets’ lack of fight, coupled with the question mark hovering over AG, hardly suggests that Denver will be able to steal game four on Saturday night — and another loss makes season-ending doom extraordinarily likely.

What needs to change between now and then to prevent such an outcome? In a word, everything.