The Denver Nuggets face the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 4 tonight, in a series that feels like it has 80 installments already. Unfortunately it also looks like the Nuggets are tired of this matchup, as they haven’t found their groove in any way and had one of their worst playoff failures in team history – a fate also shared by other past games against the Wolves. Minnesota doesn’t fear Denver obviously, but the Nuggets also seem to have trouble bringing the requisite energy and attention to detail to these games, and that was evident in that disastrous Game 3 outing where the Nuggets shot just 34% from the field, stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray combined to go 12-for-43 and no other starter scored more than 6 points. The Nuggets lost their grace period after blowing a 19 point lead in Game 2, and never showed up for Game 3, so Game 4 is crucial for both teams. Anthony Edwards is off the injury report, Rudy Gobert is on Cloud 9 after dominating the matchup with Jokic so far, and the Wolves are free to talk as much smack as they want. It’s Denver’s job to be about it, not just talk about it, or they’ll be going home to Denver down 3-1 and in danger of getting tossed unceremoniously from the playoffs by a division rival they are not taking seriously. May the seriousness begin tonight.

The Basics

Who: Denver Nuggets (1-2) vs Minnesota Timberwolves (2-1) When: 6:30 PM MST Where: Target Center, Minneapolis MN How to watch/listen: ABC (National) and ESPN Deportes Rival Blog: Canis Hoopus Injury Report | Nuggets: Aaron Gordon—questionable (calf); Peyton Watson—out (hamstring) Timberwolves: Nobody
Apr 23, 2026; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon (32) watches from the bench as his team plays the Minnesota Timberwolves in the third quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

The Three Things

The thing to watch for: The Aaron Gordon conundrum. The Nuggets have a future first-ballot Hall of Famer to center their attack around in Nikola Jokic. They have one of the biggest playoff risers in history and fellow champion in Jamal Murray. But what they have been lacking in this series is heart, and unfortunately the heart of the Nuggets was sitting on the bench in a red Denver Nuggets hat with an Arizona emblem on the side: Aaron Gordon. This is not purely a defensive thing. Denver came out with good defensive intensity to start Game 3 even if they couldn’t buy a single shot for most of the game. It’s not a scoring thing; AG can score but that’s not his thing. Denver has what should be a mature team but Jokic doesn’t set the tone as he may choose to play passively or pass the ball around in what feels like a group warmup session despite the seriousness of the situation. Jamal Murray can get hot and raise the competitiveness of everyone on the floor – but if he starts off bricking shots then he has a tendency to fade into the background for a while too. Cam Johnson and Christian Braun didn’t make a sound in Game 3, and Spencer Jones was on a two-way contract last month. The vocal leader and titular Mr. Nugget is Aaron Gordon, and they desperately need to channel his ferocious competitiveness from the jump regardless of whether he can actually play in this game. Denver cannot afford to mess around any more. The cute perimeter passing and purely outside jump-shooting is over. The Nuggets are in a physical contest and have stopped cutting and moving, are not running their offense, and have not had the will to attack through pressure. Aaron Gordon is not a finesse player and Denver needs more than a little bully ball like that to even this series, even if it’s Tim Hardaway Jr. doing the bullying. The Wolves have their teeth bared! Gobert and Edwards and McDaniels welcome the smoke and the Nuggets haven’t even been able to light a match. The Nuggets have accepted the terms of engagement set by the Timberwolves all series – it’s way past time to set their own, or the offseason will be here very soon for them. The thing to remember: Rudy Gobert has often played Jokic well, but has not always turned Denver into counterpunchers. Gobert has been tremendous in this series. Joker is having one of his worst shooting performances ever, and whether that is some undisclosed health concerns or a voodoo curse, Gobert is forcing this whole Denver squad to do some cursing of their own. Denver only had 34 paint points in Game 3, with the Wolves doubling that. Normally when Denver takes care of the ball, they win – but Gobert is turning missed shots into functional live-ball turnovers and apparently scaring Denver away from the rim. If they were making outside shots that would be one thing, but they have not made those shots for most of two games now. Denver has refused to take advantage of getting Gobert in foul trouble, however, showing that their approach is not suited to the matchups in the moment. They still don’t attack the paint with him out, settling for outside shots and letting McDaniels turn them away from the paint. In that Game 2 loss down the stretch, coach David Adelman relegated Cam Johnson to the bench and left Jamal Murray as essentially the only ball handler, and together McDaniels and Gobert beat them up for a full quarter to wrap up the Wolves win. Denver is going to need to be willing to scale Mount Gobert and fight through the overly-aggressive pressure of McDaniels – or scheme around it – if they plan to take the win. Gobert can play well and still be solved; Jokic has done it before plenty of times. But refusing to address the problem at all won’t solve anything. The thing to bet: Jokic triple-double. The Nuggets are going to need it, because he can’t take the win home for them single-handedly so some guys will need to make buckets off his passes, but he’s going to get his and be around the rim for plenty of shots and rebounds. If you’re feeling optimistic you can go for the triple-double and the win, but this team is making optimism tough with their flat play for most of the series. Here’s hoping Denver decides to meet the Wolves on their energy level, because if not then nothing else matters.