MINNEAPOLIS – – Nikola Jokic had 35 points and 16 rebounds and Michael Porter Jr. scored 13 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter as the Denver Nuggets held off the undermanned and undersized Minnesota Timberwolves 115-112 on Tuesday evening.
Jamal Murray added 18 points and 11 assists and Aaron Gordon had 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Nuggets, who blew an 18-point lead less than 12 minutes before finishing a four-game road trip strong.
“We’ve got to put the teams in order,” coach Michael Malone said. “That’s something we really need to get better at.”
The Nuggets (48-21) closed in on Oklahoma City (47-20), inactive, to take the lead in the Western Conference. The Timberwolves (47-22) fell a game into third place.
Anthony Edwards had 30 points – his fourth straight 30-point game – along with eight rebounds and eight assists. The clean look from the wing he created with a crossover dribble for the tying game at the buzzer hit the front of the rim, leaving him scoreless in the fourth quarter after the Nuggets initiated double teams. The shot was similar, Jokic noted, to the one Edwards missed for the tiebreaker late in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series last year.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was knocked down trying to defend Edwards on the final play and was relieved to see the ball fail as he lay flat on his back.
“It went through me, that’s for sure,” Caldwell-Pope said. “I’m glad he missed it.”
Edwards followed a nifty Euro-step layup with a 3-pointer that put the Wolves up 84-82 late in the third quarter and sent the crowd into a frenzy. Neither team had a lead of more than two possessions until Jokic scored a 3-pointer to make it 107-99 with 1:45 left.
Mike Conley, who had all 13 of his points in the fourth quarter, launched an off-balance heave from deep with 11.5 seconds left that brought the Wolves within two points. Jaden McDaniels — who tied his career high with 26 points — hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game to cut the lead to one with 4.2 seconds left.
But the Nuggets made all the free throws they needed to seal it.
The Timberwolves played at home for the first time in 15 days and without their three best men, a case of bad timing against the defending champions and Jokic.
With Karl-Anthony Towns (knee) out indefinitely and Rudy Gobert (ribs) out for a third straight game, Naz Reid (head) joined them on the inactive list after being injured the night before during a win at Utah. Jokic had 40 pounds and three inches on Kyle Anderson, who, along with Luka Garza, did most of the work defending the two-time NBA MVP.
“It’s really tough to play against a team that’s missing a lot of guys,” Jokic said. “Of course the other guys play hard.”
The Nuggets had a 15-point lead at halftime while shooting 60 percent from the floor against the league’s top-ranked defense, which looked much different in the paint without Gobert’s long arms.
“For us to have a performance like we did tonight against one of the best teams, it shows a lot of courage, shows what we’re made of,” Conley said.
FOLLOWING
Nuggets: Host New York on Thursday.
Timberwolves: Host Cleveland on Friday.
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