MINNEAPOLIS — On their way to the NBA title last season, the Denver Nuggets won 16 of their 20 playoff games and were hardly challenged. The one time they lost a home game at Ball Arena, which came against an overmatched Miami Heat team in the finals, the Nuggets faced pressure to go on the road and win at least one game. We know how that turned out as they did themselves one better and won Games 3 and 4 in Miami, and wrapped the title in five games.
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No two series are the same but when Nuggets veteran DeAndre Jordan told his teammates last week they had needed to win on the road before, the Nuggets players nodded in acknowledgment. At the time, their situation was dire as they knew they needed to win both games against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis, instead of like last season’s NBA Finals where two wins were a luxury. If nothing else, the confidence was there because they had done it before, they knew what it took and they were able to draw on that experience.
The Nuggets aren’t anywhere near out of danger in this series, not even after their 115-107 win in Game 4 at the Target Center sends this Western Conference semifinal back to Denver tied at 2-2. The Timberwolves are a much better team than the Miami Heat. The Nuggets are a different team than they were last season, and not quite the same juggernaut although their performance in two games this weekend was nothing short of sublime. This Denver team saved its season this weekend. The Nuggets showed a toughness and a swagger worthy of a champion, and when their proverbial backs were against the wall, the Nuggets played their two best games this postseason.
“I love how our group responded when we really needed it,” Denver forward Aaron Gordon said. “We put ourselves in a good position, so now we have to go out there and take advantage of it.”
As the series shifts to Tuesday’s Game 5, the first four games have been physical and emotional. The Nuggets and Timberwolves have reached a 2-2 split in unconventional fashion — a home team has yet to win a game in this series. Before the series, if you said there would be a split of the first four games, that would sound about right. Now, though, you can’t deny the Nuggets have an advantage, no matter how slight.
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Denver has found some things over the last two games that seem sustainable. Using Gordon as a release against Minnesota’s pressure defense was a genius move by Nuggets head coach Michael Malone. Taking Gordon out of the dunkers spot on the baseline and making Minnesota star Rudy Gobert chase him on the perimeter further goes to show how good a series Malone has had and how deep he has gotten into his coaching bag.
Nikola Jokić, after that Game 2 disaster, has looked like Nikola Jokić again. Jamal Murray’s left calf is holding up well enough for him to be playing good basketball, and the Nuggets defensively have made Minnesota’s offense a lot more pedestrian than it was in the first two games. Sunday night’s win was marked by Jokić and Gordon dominating their counterparts in the frontcourt.
As good as Jokić was, Gordon was the player of the game for the Nuggets. His impact went beyond the 27 points, or his seven rebounds or his six assists. It was his defense on Karl-Anthony Towns that eventually changed the game. He could advance the ball and get Denver seamlessly into its offense. He was accurate from the field as he made 11 of his 12 shots, which included 2 of 2 from the 3-point line. Most importantly, he anchored the lineup at the top of the second quarter that took control of the game, and he kept the Nuggets afloat when Jokić sat for much of the third quarter after he encountered foul trouble.
“He was our best player tonight,” Jokić said.
A difficult truth for those who love and defend Gobert is the Nuggets are taking advantage of him on both ends of the floor. Those adjustments have turned this series. When the Timberwolves are on offense with Gobert, Denver is getting away with switching everything because Gobert isn’t able to take advantage of having a smaller guy on him. When the shot goes up, Jokić is hustling to the basket to help with defensive rebounding.
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Gobert is the best screener in basketball, but the Nuggets have found a way to thwart that action between him and all-world guard Anthony Edwards. Denver is blitzing most screen and rolls between Gobert and Edwards, forcing Edwards to surrender the ball and challenging Gobert to make decisions out of the short roll in four-on-three situations. In the fourth quarter on Sunday night that led to some loud mistakes by Gobert, including a travel that ended up being an important turnover.
Gobert missed Game 2 for the birth of his child. In that game, the Timberwolves had their best offensive spacing of the series. In fairness, it should be noted that Gobert was a plus-9 on Sunday night, but the Nuggets finding a way to be effective against him on both ends of the floor is putting Minnesota in a difficult position.
Defensively, the Nuggets put Gobert in no man’s land. Gordon’s night — one of the best of his career — forced Gobert out of the paint and away from being able to help on Jokić. But when he guarded Jokić, well, he wasn’t able to guard Jokić, who scored 35 points, grabbed seven rebounds and handed out seven assists. Denver looked rushed and out of character offensively in the first two games of the series. Over the weekend, the Nuggets looked like the Nuggets. They have adjusted in multiple ways, and if Minnesota isn’t able to find any counters, Denver has a big advantage heading into Game 5.
“We came up here to get two, and to take home court back,” Malone said. “And now that we were able to do that, we have to go back to Denver and protect our home court. We have already lost two games there, so we can’t afford to lose a third.
“That’s a message to our fans to come on Tuesday night and make that place an absolute zoo. This was a good win for us, but we can’t celebrate because we have a long way to go.”
(Photo of Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokić: AAron Ontiveroz / The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Tony Jones is a Staff Writer at The Athletic covering the Utah Jazz and the NBA. A native of the East Coast and a journalism brat as a child, he has an addiction to hip-hop music and pickup basketball, and his Twitter page has been used for occasional debates concerning Biggie and Tupac. Follow Tony on Twitter @Tjonesonthenba
