Timberwolves eliminate Nuggets 4-2

Minnesota just did the hard thing twice. The Timberwolves closed out Denver 110-98 on Thursday, April 30, and ended the Nuggets’ season in six games despite being short-handed and facing the team that still had Nikola Jokić. The stakes were big — Denver entered as the No. 3 seed, Minnesota as the No. 6, and this was supposed to be one of the nastier first-round tests in the West. Instead, the Wolves turned it into another statement win and moved on to face San Antonio in the conference semifinals starting Monday, May 4. ### How did Minnesota finish the job? By making the game ugly for Denver and clean enough for itself. Minnesota won 110-98 at Target Center, took the series 4-2, and never really let the Nuggets find an easy rhythm late. The game stayed tight for most of the night, but Denver never got the kind of avalanche quarter it usually leans on when Jokić starts bending everything around him. Minnesota defended, rebounded, and then stretched the margin in the closing minutes. ### Who swung Game 6? Jaden McDaniels was the headline. He scored a playoff career-high 32 points, and that matters because his job was not supposed to be “carry the offense.” Terrence Shannon Jr. added 24 after moving into the starting lineup, which is the kind of emergency production that flips a playoff game. Rudy Gobert also did the Gobert part of this — glass, rim protection, general annoyance. On Denver’s side, Jokić had 28, but it didn’t feel like one of those nights where 28 means control. ### Why was this win more impressive than the score says? Because Minnesota was depleted. Anthony Edwards was out. Donte DiVincenzo was already unavailable. Then Ayo Dosunmu and Kyle Anderson were ruled out before the game, leaving the Wolves down four rotation players. That usually sounds like the setup for a Game 7, not a series-clincher against a contender. But turns out Minnesota’s depth held, and its defense gave the game a shape Denver never liked. ### What went wrong for Denver? The simple version is that the Nuggets never looked fully comfortable in the series once Minnesota’s size and wings got into them. Jamal Murray was hounded, Denver’s offense got sticky, and too much of the burden kept drifting back to Jokić to solve everything. That can work for a game. It’s harder across six when the other team keeps changing the angle of the pressure. The Nuggets also came in as the higher seed, so this lands as a real upset, not just a close matchup breaking one way. ### Is this becoming a real Wolves-Nuggets thing? Yeah — that’s the interesting part. This is the second time in three seasons Minnesota has ended Denver’s playoff run. So this no longer looks like a one-off bad matchup or a weird week. It looks more like the Wolves have built a roster and defensive identity that genuinely bothers Denver’s stars. Not every rivalry needs seven games and a buzzer-beater. Sometimes the pattern is the point. ### What changes in the bracket now? Minnesota advances to the Western Conference semifinals, where the Wolves will play the Spurs. Game 1 is scheduled for Monday, May 4, in San Antonio. That’s a big bracket shift because Denver was still one of the scarier names in the field, even as a 3-seed. Now that path is gone, and Minnesota gets a chance to prove this was more than one good matchup. ### So what’s the real takeaway? This wasn’t just a survive-and-advance win. It was a depth win, a defense win, and a “we can beat this team even without our usual script” win. Minnesota didn’t need a perfect night or a superhero performance from its biggest star — because that star wasn’t even available. That’s why this result lands harder than a normal 4-2 first-round upset. It says the Wolves are sturdier than people thought, and Denver is out much earlier than expected.