Jaden McDaniels seems content on getting under the Denver Nuggets’ skin – and it’s working.
The Timberwolves forward clashed with three-time MVP Nikola Jokic in a fiery ending to Game 4 of the two teams’ playoff series, which Minnesota won 112-96 to jump ahead 3-1 in the series.
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The skirmish came as a result of McDaniels scoring a layup with a few seconds left despite the result already being beyond doubt, building to tensions between him and the rest of the Nuggets players.
“I didn’t like what McDaniels did,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said.
“The game was over, it was conceded. In 2026, that stuff just doesn’t happen anymore that’s something that happens in the 80s where teams would continue to score but that’s who he is.”
While Denver’s poor finishing at the rim on Sunday saw the offence stagnate on multiple occasions, the defence continues to be a big issue, particularly in the paint without Peyton Watson and a healthy Aaron Gordon.
It comes after McDaniels, who was at the centre of the tussle with Jokic at the end of the fourth quarter, called out Denver’s defence following Game 2 to establish himself as the villain of the series.
“Go at Jokic, Jamal, all the bad defenders,” McDaniels said.
“Tim Hardaway Jr., Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team — just go at them. They’re all bad defenders.”
While Denver’s players seem to have taken exception to McDaniels’ comments, they haven’t responded on the court in any way to disprove him after Sunday’s loss.
That came despite Minnesota losing sharpshooter Donte DiVincenzo to an Achilles tear and superstar guard Anthony Edwards to a knee injury.
The Nuggets aren’t without their own injury concerns, already down their key defensive stopper in Watson while Gordon was clearly not 100 per cent as he played through a calf injury that ruled him out of Game 3.
But the difference was that Minnesota’s secondary players stood up to fill the void, with Ayo Donsunmu exploding for 43 points to put the Timberwolves on the brink of progressing to the conference semi-finals.
Donsunmu, who was a second-round pick by the Chicago Bulls before being traded earlier this year at the deadline, recorded a career-high mark in points on Sunday while his 43 points were the second-most by a bench player in playoff history.
Rudy Gobert continued to cause all kinds of problems for Jokic on defence and was a menace on the boards with 15 rebounds while Naz Reid was a force in the paint with 17 points off the bench.
As for Denver, Gordon was clearly not himself with one rebound and while he had nine points, most of them came off mid-range jumpers with the Nuggets forward unable to attack the rim with his usual ferocity.
The Nuggets looked to be in control entering the second half with Minnesota down two key players, but the Timberwolves rallied on the back of Donsunmu’s career night.
Jokic had a near triple-double with 24 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists while Jamal Murray led the scoring for Denver with 30 points.
Elsewhere, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 42 points to propel the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 121-109 victory over Phoenix and a commanding 3-0 lead in their NBA playoff series.
The Thunder, trying to become the first repeat NBA champions since Golden State in 2017 and 2018, are now one win away from advancing to the Western Conference semi-finals.
But Eastern Conference top seeds Detroit fell 2-1 down to the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic, who fended off a late Pistons rally to secure a stirring 113-105 home victory.
The New York Knicks, seeded third in the East, reasserted their authority with a 114-98 victory over the Hawks in Atlanta and will head home for game five on Tuesday with their series tied at 2-2.
Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player and a finalist for this year’s MVP, connected on 15-of-18 shots from the floor in a ruthlessly efficient shooting display.
He credited an aggressive offensive mindset from the entire team in the face of a solid Suns defence.
“I think we did a really good job tonight of playing to our identity offensively,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
“Everyone was aggressive, everyone was playing within themselves and everyone was moving around the ball.
“It kept their defence as a whole, which is a really good defence, in a bind (as to) what to pick and choose.”
Dillon Brooks scored 33 points for the Suns, who grabbed an early nine-point lead and kept it close in the second quarter but couldn’t find a way to stop Gilgeous-Alexander down the stretch.
Ajay Mitchell scored 15 points and Alex Caruso added 13 off the bench for the Thunder.
They’ll try to polish off a sweep in the best-of-seven series on Monday in Phoenix, where the Suns will be painfully aware that no NBA team has rallied from 0-3 down to win a playoff series.
In Orlando, Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane scored 25 points each for the Magic, whose 17-point fourth-quarter lead was erased in a powerful late showing by Cade Cunningham, who led all scorers with 27 points.
But having nudged into a single-point lead with three minutes remaining, the Pistons didn’t score again and Orlando closed it out with a 9-0 run.
Banchero added 12 rebounds and nine assists, while Bane matched the Orlando franchise playoff record with seven three-pointers.
“We know how we stack up. We know what we got in this locker room. And so we don’t fear them,” Banchero said, adding that the Magic are “looking forward” to hosting game four on Monday.
Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff, whose team comfortably topped the East with 60 wins, said it was now a matter of taking it “one game at a time.
“If we win on Monday, we take home-court advantage back,” Bickerstaff said.
That’s exactly what the Knicks did with their big win in Atlanta after dropping two straight games by just one point each.
Karl-Anthony Towns had his first career playoff triple-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
OG Anunoby scored a game-high 22 points with 10 rebounds and Jalen Brunson added 19 points, staying in after appearing to tweak an ankle in the third quarter of a bruising contest.
“We understood the magnitude of the moment,” Towns said.
“It’s going to take an effort like this every game if we expect to come out with a win against a team that’s hungry and has a lot of athleticism, youth — and they want the moment.
“We’ve got to exceed the moment.”