Nuggets comeback not enough in sweep chance, Wolves force a Game 5

The Denver Nuggets have never swept a playoff series, and they still haven’t; they can settle for their first win of a playoff series in Denver since Round 1 in 2017.

Thanks to a harsh whistle again and just overall sloppiness the Nuggets gifted the dying Minnesota Wolves life, handing them Game 4, 114-108 in overtime.

But the Wolves tried to give it right back to Denver, blowing a 12-point lead with just 2:52 to play. Denver sped out on a 12-0 finish to regulation to force overtime. Thanks to a banked corner three from Mike Conley and two triples from Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Minny got right back on top in overtime. But again, Denver fought back. Unlike regulation, when the defense stifled Anthony Edwards’ final shot, Edwards was defended poorly on his overtime dagger, finally putting the Nuggets away.

“No defense in overtime,” Malone remarked. “You look at just the fourth quarter compared to overtime, you know, and to close out a game 12 zero when you got the necessary stops and you got the necessary baskets on the other end to force over time. And you know, you’d hope that there’d be some momentum carrying into that and we didn’t get that and that’s disappointing.”

The officials reared their ugly heads into the possible close-out game early, handing Nikola Jokic, Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards two fouls early in the first quarter. The situation with Jokic, who picked up a soft third foul in the first half, forced the Nuggets out of their defense and into zone. The whistles also pushed Michael Malone into some odd rotations, setting the tone for an out-of-rhythm performance out of Denver.

“We just had a couple of costly mistakes at big times,” Malone said. “And you can’t do that when you’re trying to close out a team.”

The Nuggets couldn’t guard Anthony Edwards, especially during his pivotal third quarter where the Wolves outscored the Nuggets by 10 and led Ant to 34 points.

Denver struggled to get their offense going and when they did, couldn’t get shots to fall.

And for the first time in the series Minnesota out-rebounded the Nuggets, 51-47, and tied the pickaxes in the paint at 54 a piece.

“We can be a lot better on both ends of the floor, we gave ourselves a chance tonight and came up a little bit short,” Malone said. “Our guys played hard, I was really proud of that effort to close out the fourth quarter but we did we just didn’t sustain it for that in overtime. And that’s what you need in a closeout game. That’s why these close-out games are the toughest games in a series.”

Despite the foul issues, Jokic did show up, tying his playoff career-high with 43 points. He became the first center in NBA history to go for over 40, with 10 or more boards and five or more threes in a postseason game, he grabbed 11 off the glass.

But he split free throws at regulation’s end which could’ve given the Nuggets their first lead since late in the third quarter and completed the crazy comeback. Plus Joker’s sidekick the Blue Arrow struggled. Jamal Murray did score 19, with seven boards and five helpers but he was held to eight makes of 21 shots from the field.

“They just made more shots than us, we didn’t get enough stops,” Murray said.

Michael Porter Jr. propelled the comeback then didn’t see the ball in overtime and finished with 15 on a mostly quiet night. While the bench followed suit, outscored 22-12.

Karl-Anthony Towns fouled out in overtime and only scored 17 but he and Rudy Gobert seemed a tad bit better in Game 4 than they had at any other point in the series.

The Wolves wild game of ups and downs pushed them to a Game 5 in Denver on Tuesday at 7 p.m. on NBA TV. Minny fans ended the game chanting Wolves in seven, as their team hopes to become the first in NBA history out of 148 who have tried to overcome a 3-0 series deficit.

“We’re gonna go back to our place and do what we need to do,” Murray said.

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