Timberwolves eliminate Nuggets in Game 6

Minnesota didn’t just survive Game 6 — it made Denver look old, thin, and weirdly out of answers. The Timberwolves beat the Nuggets 110-98 on April 30, closed the series 4-2, and did it without Anthony Edwards plus two other key scorers. That’s the part that changes the feel of this result. A normal closeout win is one thing. A closeout win while missing that much offense tells you the team has something sturdier than star power. ### How did Minnesota pull this off? It started with defense and didn’t really let up. Minnesota dragged Denver into a slower, more physical game, then kept winning the possession battle anyway. The Nuggets had their usual bursts, especially when Nikola Jokic started cooking in the third quarter, but the Wolves never looked rattled. They kept getting stops, kept getting enough secondary scoring, and turned the night into a test of depth that Denver failed. (nba.com) ### Why is the injury angle such a big deal? Because this wasn’t just “next man up” in the usual playoff cliché sense. Edwards was out with a left knee bone bruise and hyperextension. Donte DiVincenzo was out. Ayo Dosunmu was out too. Those weren’t fringe minutes. Those were real rotation scorers, and in Dosunmu’s case a huge(nba.com)t teams remember when a playoff run gets harder later. (sports.yahoo.com) ### So who carried the scoring? Jaden McDaniels had the headline game. He scored a playoff-career-high 32 points and gave Minnesota the kind of two-way performance that swings a series-closing game. This mattered because Denver could(sports.yahoo.com) Jamal Murray can solve a lot, but not if the other team keeps finding fresh contributors. (nba.com) ### What went wrong for Denver? The cleanest answer is that Denver’s margin got too small. Jokic still had stretches where he bent the game. Murray still had the ball enough to matter. But the Nuggets didn’t get consistent support, and the shooting wasn’t sharp enough to make Minnesota pay for crowding the stars. When a serie(nba.com)ibility, all of it. Minnesota had counters. Denver kept reaching for the same ones. (denverpost.com) ### Did the Wolves have extra motivation? Yeah — and they weren’t subtle about it. Chris Finch said after the game that the Wolves used the idea that Denver “chose to play us” as fuel. Whether that was literal disrespect or just playoff mythology doesn’t matter much now. Minnesota clearly treated this series (denverpost.com)ated. (denverpost.com) ### What happens next? Minnesota moves on to a second-round series against San Antonio, with Game 1 set for May 4. That matchup now comes with a very different frame. Instead of asking whether the Wolves can survive without Edwards for a bit, the question is how dangerous they become if he gets back at all. The Spurs get a team that just learned it can win ugly and short-handed. (landofbasketball.com) ### What’s the real takeaway here? This wasn’t just an upset or a bad Denver night. It was a stress test. Minnesota passed it without its biggest star, and that says something real about the roster. Denver, meanwhile, exits with the opposite feeling — still dangerous, still built around Jokic, but no longer able to assume that formula covers every crack. (sports.yahoo.com) The bottom line is simple: Minnesota’s season got bigger on Thursday night. Denver’s got smaller. And the reason is not just who played — it’s who still functioned when the obvious options disappeared.