A dinged up and dysfunctional Minnesota Timberwolves let the first game of their playoff series with the Denver Nuggets slip away Saturday afternoon, erasing a stupendous start with some second quarter slippage and then a horrible third quarter that was a textbook example of the steadfast immaturity that has afflicted this team like a stubborn virus over the course of the 2025-26 season.
Let’s begin at the beginning, where the good stuff stirred belief that a week’s preparation had the underdog Wolves primed to snatch home-court advantage with a Game One ambush.
Denver’s Big Three of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon had zero field goals after nearly seven minutes of play. Over that span, four-time defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert clamped down three-time most valuable player of the year Jokic, who averaged a triple-double this season, to the statistical trickle of one rebound, one assist, zero points and three turnovers.
At the other end of the court, the Wolves were shrewdly taking what the Nuggets defense was giving them, which was mostly free rein for players other than Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle. Donte “Ragu” DiVincenzo scored the team’s first six points off dimes from Gobert and Ant within the first 90 seconds, then Jaden McDaniels delivered 10 of the next 12, mostly through aggressive baseline drives that yielded layups and Denver fouls.
For three minutes midway through the first quarter, the Wolves dictated the terms of the game, generating three steals and outscoring the Nuggets 11-3 via two transition dunks, an Ant step-back three-pointer and finger-roll layup and an Ant feed to a cutting Gobert for a third dunk in that span. It was 27-15 and Denver called time.
After the first period the lead was still double digits, 33-23, but the Nuggets gnawed half of that away in the opening minutes of the second period. The gap held until the midpoint of the quarter when Randle proceeded to lead the way in sabotaging the Wolves offense.
After being forced to the bench with two fouls within the game’s first five minutes, he came in for his second rotation at the 8:42 mark of the second quarter, he used a Gobert screen to dribble left, where he was picked up by seven-footer Jonas Valanciunas. Ignoring an Ayo Dosunmu open for a three-pointer in the right slot, he pulled up for a long midrange, a 17-footer that caromed off the back iron. Even so, an excusable attempt to work himself into a rhythm after an atypically long stint sitting.
A minute later, a layup that hit off the side of the rim fell into his hands for a rebound and he quickly dribbled up the court, encountering the smaller Tim Hardaway, Jr. in the low left block. Again, a trio of teammates were open for three-pointers but a Randle spin move drew the foul and he canned both free throws. Fair enough.
But then Randle upped the ante. Receiving a pass from Ant out on the perimeter, he put Jokic on roller skates with an upfake, a deked drive and finally a wide-open step-back trey from 26 feet that was offline and short, clanking the front iron. The very next offensive possession he took a perimeter pass from Ragu. Granted there were only 5 seconds on the shot clock. But he was closely guarded, to the point where he leaned forward and put his head into the chest of the Nuggets Cam Johnson. Options were available — McDaniels to his right, Ragu to his left — but after the forehead push he elected to extend an arm while stepping back and launched a well-contested three-pointer that clanked again.
A total of 161 players made at least 82 three-pointers this season and thus are listed in official accuracy numbers from long range — the standard is a make for every game on the schedule. Randle ranks 159th among those 161 players at 31.5% from behind the arc, well below the league average of 36%.
Randle’s next shot after those wayward threes was two-and-a-half minutes later — a tough, successful, turnaround hook shot in traffic that is more his style. But the possession right after that, just 13 seconds after the Nuggets had scored, there he was again, clanking a step-back trey from 25 feet.
Ten seconds later, with 1:54 left in the half, Finch removed him from the game. The Wolves scored on their final four possessions. McDaniels hit a cutting Gobert for a layup, then Ant bestowed three dimes: To McDaniels driving for a reverse layup; to Ragu for three-pointer; and then Gobert for another driving layup.
On balance, the first half featured a successful offense. The Wolves shot 53.5% from the field, 43.8% from deep and 81.8% from the foul line in generating 63 points.
Then it fell apart. The pack mentality on play creation disappeared for the Wolves. The three precepts of offensive continuity — move the ball, move without the ball, make quick decisions — disintegrated into stagnant, stupid, selfish hoops.
In the first eight minutes of the third quarter, the team made two of eighteen shots, one of seven from long range, and got to the free throw line twice, making one. Six points. Meanwhile, the Nuggets scored 20 and that halftime tie became an 82-68 disadvantage. The Wolves offense straightened out some from that point forward.
On Sunday afternoon after the team’s game-one film session, Mike Conley was made available to the media and I asked him why this team can go from classically beautiful basketball to blatant ineptitude so abruptly.
“I wish I had the answer, then we wouldn’t be doing it,” he replied. “I think it becomes part of the game where at some point you want to get your shots; you know, ‘We’re up, everybody’s rolling, the defense will play us differently now.’ But they don’t play you differently. The team (opponent) will play exactly the same way and we’ve got to continue to make the right read and the right play.
“I say it all the time,” Conley continued. “If we make the right play every time we can’t be beat. Denver is forcing you into a certain way of playing and you either play that way or you don’t. You have to adjust to that and then do it for four quarters, not just when it is convenient. It is about winning; at the end of the day we have to do it.”
Related: To beat Nuggets, Wolves need Ant to be a superstar, and Finch to make the most of newfound depth
Finch was also part of the media availability and explained the process between Game One on Saturday afternoon and Game Two on Monday night: “Today (Sunday) we told the story of the game in film; tomorrow, we put the adjustments in place.”
The film session scrutinized what Finch called, “A lot of self-inflicted wounds. We missed a lot of easy plays that were in front of us and settled for a lot of tough shots when we could have made another play. We didn’t play very composed in the last 5-6 minutes of the game.”
I brought up Randle’s shot selection. “It wasn’t the greatest,” he replied dryly. “Again, I thought there were some tough shots early and then he settled for threes later on. He finally found some rhythm off the elbows (Randle was 4-5 from the field in the fourth quarter and dealt his only two assists in the period) and we’ve got to get him there more.”
The ace Wolves podcaster Dane Moore asked Finch about striking a balance between moving the ball and taking advantage of the apparent mismatch when the Nuggets put smaller or slower players on Ant or Randle.
“Sure, but you have to recognize that they aren’t going to let you go one-on-one without bringing layers of help,” Finch said, detailing three places where that help could arrive. “So when that happens, you’ve got to read the floor and make the right play. That was something we didn’t do consistently very well.”
As for “the adjustments” for Game Two, expect a more deliberate emphasis on a quicker pace, with perhaps some schematic tweaks to foster it. “When we did push it, we didn’t get much out of it,” Finch said, adding that “when we had a numbers advantage, we let them come back and get sized up against us too.”
In my playoff series preview a few days ago, I urged Finch to be more freewheeling and experimental with his player rotations, both in terms of who plays and how long they play, depending on efficacy. The coach demonstrated that willingness in Game One — ten different Wolves saw time in the first quarter — but my suggestion of allowing successful bench personnel greater run when they were effective became irrelevant. The most effective sub wasn’t Naz Reid or Ayo Dosunmu or Kyle Anderson; it was Conley.
Along with practicing what he preached about “right read, right play,” Conley splashed an important corner three late in the third quarter and made the most impactful single play of the game when, caught in a mismatch guarding power forward Aaron Gordon down near the hoop, he managed to draw a charge on Gordon. The whistle drew a technical foul and a challenge from Nuggets’ coach David Adelman, but the review deemed that the call was accurate, meaning that the Nuggets couldn’t challenge anything else the rest of the game and Gordon was saddled with three fouls in the first period.
But Conley was also the “best sub” by default. Ayo Dosunmu hit some shots but missed some too — one a 30-footer outside his range and a couple of others that were wide open. He seemed to be trying too hard to make an impact for his new team during his first postseason game in a long while, although both Finch and Ayo disagreed with that assessment. What can’t be argued is his absence of impact on the stat sheet — he finished with one assist and didn’t grab a rebound in 27:53 of action.
Bones Hyland was the odd man out, banished from the rotation after his first stint of 5:30 yielded three missed shots, a rebound and a personal foul. And Anderson got two stints but logged just 7:07, which included some promising defense on Jokic when Gobert wasn’t there to nail the assignment.
If the Wolves do lean into a faster pace more in Game Two, expect the bench to play more, including Naz, who played just 17:16. Unfortunately, Naz deserved the quick hook, committing four fouls, scoring only five points on 2-for-6 shooting and seeming way out of sync.
When I asked Finch about Naz’s struggles on Sunday, he said, “He’s trying so hard on offense. A lot of the shots he’s taking are really hard, a lot of contested stuff in and around the paint. I’d like to see him get back to playmaking and his all-around game.”
A grimmer view of this series would be that maybe some things can’t be adjusted. Naz is not operating like a player who is 100 percent healthy, and, when asked about it during the week of practice between the end of the regular season and the playoffs, wouldn’t say how his chronic shoulder and ankle woes are faring, while seeking to downplay any impact that might be having.
Then there is Ant. He did fill the stat sheet, grabbing 9 rebounds and issuing 7 assists while getting to the free throw line 7 times en route to a team-high 22 points. But he wasn’t the explosive “playoff Ant” everyone is accustomed to reigning over postseason games. There were aftermaths of plays where he was notably wincing. His troublesome knee is mostly beset by inflammation, which comes from usage, and it is ominous that he was listed as “questionable” to play on Saturday — as the Wolves are officially bound to report if the condition warrants it — after reportedly going hard in practice to get back to a natural rhythm.
After the game, players and coaches said the right things with what sounded like genuine sincerity; how a loss on the road in the first game is nothing to panic about and that everything is more than right if they manage to even up the series before heading home to Target Center. Nobody seemed worried, and Jaden McDaniels stated that if Gobert continues to guard Jokic that well, then the Wolves would win the series.
It is crazy that Jokic was indeed reduced by Gobert’s glorious game and yet still managed a 25 point, 13 rebound, 11 assist triple double (albeit with five turnovers). But even if Gobert does continue to shine (Finch called him the Wolves best player on Saturday, and it is hard to argue with that), Denver is not likely to miss 16 of 17 three-pointers in the second half again; especially Murray who missed all eight of his treys in the series opener.
The Wolves, too, have room for improvement. They could be smarter and more selfless in their offensive execution. They could reduce what Conley noted were film session items: “We didn’t finish possessions on defense, we lost our minds a few times. Late in the fourth (quarter) we had a stretch where we fouled and gave them free throws, turning a two-possession (deficit) into a four-possession (deficit). We gave up on some plays in transition. Little mistakes.”
Mistakes that add up. The Wolves are dinged up and dysfunctional in a half-dozen ways they just watched on film. Of course they’ve seen it before, as have we. And they need to even the series Monday night, or face the prospect of beating an opponent with a 14-game winning streak four of the next five games in order to keep their season alive.
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