On May 13, Beijing time, the Nuggets defeated the Timberwolves 115-107 away, rewriting the series score to 2-2. The defending champions have won 2 consecutive away games and have won 8 of their last 9 playoff away games, making them the king of the road. The Nuggets regained the initiative in this series.
Jokic turned on the MVP mode, and in this game he was both offensive and defensive, filling up the data column, shooting 15 of 26, 1 of 5 three-pointers, 4 of 6 free throws, and scoring 35 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and 1 block. Jokic is not only ferocious offensively, playing tandem teams, but also working very the defensive end.
You know, Jokic needs to fight the Timberwolves' All-Star twin towers plus a center bench for the new Sixth Man of the Year. Jokic was limited in the first two games of the series, and when asked how to deal with the Timberwolves' three interior big men, Jokic joked about cloning him.
But now Jokic has found a way to crack the most expensive twin towers, and that is to further increase his aggressiveness, both offensively and defensively. In this game, Jokic suppressed the Timberwolves' twin towers. Downs was in a slump on offense, scoring 13 points, 17 rebounds and 3 assists on 5-of-18 shooting. Gobert had 11 points and 14 rebounds, but had five turnovers. Reed had 11 points and four rebounds.
Jokic opened up the game on the inside, forcing opponents to tighten up their defenses against him, and the Nuggets' perimeter players were given more opportunities. In this game, the Nuggets came off the bench to make a meritorious contribution, with Justin Holiday scoring 10 points, Reggie Jackson 6 points, and Braun 11 points. Compared to last season, the Nuggets' bench this season is actually weakened, after all, they are missing Bruce Brown, the equivalent of a sixth-man multi-purpose player, and they are also missing the experienced veteran Jeff Green.
But in this game, the Nuggets' three benches gave strong fire support to the main players, and all three had plus/minus above +5. The Nuggets scored 27 points off the bench and the Timberwolves scored just 13 off the bench. The bench was originally a shortcoming for the Nuggets, but this time it completely blew up the Timberwolves.
Jokic has scored 30+ in a single game in the playoffs 30 times, surpassing the 29 times of Westbrook and Reggie Miller to rank 22nd all-time. So far in his career, Jokic has scored at least 35+5+5 in the playoffs 11 times, compared to the rest of the Nuggets history combined for only nine. Timberwolves legend Garnett tweeted: "It's like reactivating the MVP version of Jokic. Back to 0-0. Let's rush. ”
Some netizens also lamented that Jokic was the MVP for a reason. Some netizens ridiculed that Gobert's Best Defensive Player trophy should be confiscated. Another netizen joked that he hoped that Gobert would have a second son born in two days.
In Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals, Gobert missed the game due to the birth of his second son, but the Timberwolves pulled up the energy to beat the Nuggets. In the two games Gobert came back, the Timberwolves lost instead. The next game will be the Battle of Kings Mountain, with the Nuggets at home.