The Denver Nuggets won a sloppily-played Christmas classic over the Minnesota Timberwolves 142-138 in overtime. The Nuggets squandered a 14-point fourth quarter lead and went down by 9 in overtime but Nikola Jokic would not be denied. Jokic was the fifth player ever to score 50+ on Christmas and Denver needed every bit of his monster performance to eke out that win. Nikola finished with 56 points, 16 rebounds and 15 assists for the first 50-15-15 game in NBA history. Jamal Murray was 12-for-32 to get his 35 points, but every one of his 9 threes were necessary. Tim Hardaway Jr. and Spencer Jones combined for 31 as starters, which offset the Nuggets bench only scoring 11 points. The Timberwolves got 44 points from star Anthony Edwards including the the tying three-pointer to send the game to overtime, but he was ejected on technicals in the extra frame. Julius Randle had 32 points and 7 boards and Jaden McDaniels added 21 but it wasn’t enough to chase down one of the greatest performances of Jokic’s career, and the 50 combined overtime points were the most in an overtime in NBA history. The Nuggets got their Christmas win at home and now get to start a seven-game road trip with good vibes.
Game Flow
Nikola Jokic opened the game’s scoring with a rare stepback corner 3. Denver and Minnesota exchanged some turnovers before Donte DiVincenzo finished in transition off a Peyton Watson turnover. Spencer Jones was blocked at the rim by Rudy Gobert, but Jokic nailed one-handed turnaround the next time down. Denver forced another turnover but Watson gave it right back. Anthony Edwards hit a three, Jamal Murray nailed a free-throw jumper but slipped next time down for Denver’s fourth turnover, and Jokic’s free throws offset Gobert’s tip finish. Spencer Jones fouled Ant on a three, then Ant followed up his free throws with a transition bucket to put Minnesota up 14-9 early. Mal answered with a Jokic-assisted 3, but Gobert got to the line on a bad foul call and Naz Reid hit a deep three for the eight point lead. Bruce Brown finished a drive, Jokic made free throws and then Gobert had to sit with two fouls. Jokic finished a traditional three-point play, and Edwards hit a step-back that Watson answered with a Jokic-assisted triple. Randle hit a three, Jokic made a floater, then followed it up with a transition layup. Denver forced a 24-second turnover, and Tim Hardaway made a nice paint layup that Randle answered with one of his own. Jokic tipped in his own miss on a drive to put up 18 points in the first, Ant had a great finish and THJ dunked a Jokic pass emphatically to put Denver up 32-29 after one.
Hardaway started the second quarter scoring from the line for Denver, then hit a nice pullup. Zeke Nnaji’s layup was countered by a dunk from Jaden McDaniels, who then also made a pullup jumper of his own. Bruce Brown got shoved across half-court to force ann over-and-back with no whistle blown, followed by Reid hitting another three for the Timberwolves that forced a Denver timeout with Denver up 38-36. The timeout didn’t help though as the Timberwolves made another four unanswered buckets before Jokic came back in to make it 44-38 Minnesota. Randle then finished a layup after a Jokic turnover when the 17-0 Timberwolves run was finally stopped by a Murray 3 for Denver. Randle and Jokic exchanged layups, then Jokic finished through contact in the paint. Spencer Jones had a dunk called off for offensive basket interference but Jamal hit a free throw and then a three-pointer to cut the deficit to one at 48-47 Wolves. Jokic had another nice finish for his second traditional 3-point play of the game, and Jaylen Clark’s layup was answered by THJ. Randle attacked the rim for a finish but Spencer Jones made a three as Jokic kept others involved with his passing. THJ missed several good looks for Denver, Randle hit a three-pointer in the final minute, and Murray hit a pull-up in response to send Denver into the half up 57-55.
Peyton Watson made the first bucket of the third quarter in the paint while Randle’s three point attempt went off the edge of the backboard, and Jokic immediately got himself to the free throw line. Spencer finished at the rim but then fouled Ant on the other end for three throws. Jokic looking for him for a three (that Jones made) was a great comeback. Ant got to the line for a couple of made shots, but Jones got the steal from Ant the next time and Jamal Murray buried a three to put Denver up 69-59 and forced an early Timberwolves timeout. Gobert finished at the rim, Jokic missed his reply attempt, and then both teams missed a couple of shots and Watson got bodied trying to catch a Jokic transition pass with no call. Denver challenged a foul call on a clean block of Ant’s shot by THJ and won, then after another replay review to confirm Gobert’s 4th foul, Jokic and Murray each finished aggressive layups at the rim through Minnesota’s defense. Randle hit a two for Minnesota but Mal and Hardaway answered with a pair of Jokic-assisted threes to stretch Denver’s lead to 79-63. Minnesota fought back with a 7-0 run on dunks from Randle and Edwards, as well as a Bones Hyland 3. Jamal answered with one of his own, but missed a couple other shots and Bruce Brown made one free throw while Bones nailed another 3. Jokic made two from the charity stripe but Randle dunked again to keep the deficit at 10. Joker nailed a three, and Randle’s layup couldn’t keep up with Brown’s finish and Watson’s emphatic dunk to put Denver up 92-78 after 3.
Naz Reid started the final quarter with a traditional three-point play for the Timberwolves. Bruce Brown tipped in THJ’s missed layup for Denver, but McDaniels had a nice floater as Minnesota stayed in touch. Spencer’s turnover didn’t hurt the Nuggets, but Rudy Gobert blocked Jonas Valanciunas. Hardaway got a steal and Spencer cleaned up Bruce’s miss, but McDaniels hit another finish then got to the line the next time down to close the gap to 96-87. Murray came back in for Denver and immediately assisted a THJ three, then passed to Jonas for a layup. Gobert had a dunk on a rebound but Jamal hit a three out of a timeout and a finish by McDaniels had an immediate answer from a Jokic paint bucket as he returned to the game. The Timberwolves tried to shoot their way back into it from deep but missed a few, but Randle kept pressure on the rim and also made free throws, and a McDaniels paint finish cut it to 106-99 with four minutes left. Jokic missed a three-pointer out of a timeout, and Randle finished with a turnaround through a Spencer foul but Jokic’s stepback kept Denver up six at 108-102.
Ant buried a three to cut the lead in half, Hardaway missed an answering three, but Jokic grabbed the rebound. Murray also botched a three, Ant finished a nice drive, but Jamal’s stepback 3 on a Jokic assist was critical to keeping the lead. After an unsuccessful Wolves challenge on a foul, Gobert blocked Watson’s layup but Spencer got the rebound and putback. Murray then fouled Ant on a three though, and Ant made all three. Murray then turned the ball over in the waning seconds for a McDaniels layup and Denver was clinging to a 113-112 lead. Jokic got fouled with 3.6 seconds left and made both for the three-point lead, but Anthony Edwards hit an incredible corner turnaround three to beat the buzzer and send the game to overtime.
Edwards banked in a 16-footer to open the overtime for Minnesota, then got to the line for two more points. Spencer Jones and THJ both missed threes, and DiVincenzo made more free throws as Denver had nothing in the opening minutes of the extra period. Gobert blocked Murray’s layup attempt, Hardaway missed another three pointer after the refs refused to call a shooting foul on Joker’s attempt and Ant buried a three. Denver fired back with three pointers from Jokic and THJ to cut the Minnesota lead to 124-121, but the Timberwolves got back to the line. Jokic would not be denied though, as he buried another three and hit a layup, then the refs called a terrible foul on Jokic as Rudy tried for a steal. Denver challenged with under a minute to go in a tie game at 126, the call was overturned and Rudy Gobert fouled out as a consequence. Jokic buried both free throws, Ant hit a paint finish, and Jamal buried a crucial three pointer to put Denver up 131-128. Watson had a great steal that led to Jokic going 1-of-2 from the foul line. Ant hit a dunk but then got called for a technical foul for delay of game for messing with Jokic’s inbound attempt. Jokic made the free throw for 50 points for the Joker, then on the next inbounds Jokic got fouled, Ant was thrown out for technicals and Jamal made 1-of-2. Jokic then made another pair. McDaniels made a three, Watson made 2 more free throws for Denver, and then Jokic iced it from the line with four more makes. Spencer fouled Bones on a three but Bones only made one free throw, and after a tough choke to end the fourth and an even tougher start to overtime, Jokic put Denver on his shoulders and carried them to victory, 142-138.
Final Thoughts
-Jokic is life. Denver’s sloppy play almost caught up to them in the last-minute choke attempt. Denver was up 14 going into the fourth, they were up 6 with 47 seconds to go. But then Jamal Murray fouled Anthony Edwards on a three-pointer, had a horrific entry pass to Joker that was turned into a dunk by the Wolves, and Ant made the three over Murray to end the quarter (not Jamal’s fault) and send the game to overtime. The Wolves continues rolling into overtime, but then Denver remembered Nikola Jokic existed and the best player in the world scored 18 overtime points, the second-most in NBA history.
Jokic overcame the turnovers for points, the struggling defense, the lulls from the third game in four nights and the bench inconsistency due to missing so many starters that much of the rotation shifted. Jokic overcame a Timberwolves team that is incredibly familiar with him, that fouled him so much in the overtime they were daring him to miss like it was a hack-a-Shaq performance. Jokic missed just one of his 23 free throw attempts on the night, showing absolute ice in his veins. He continued to look for his teammates as evidenced by his 15 assists. He cleaned the glass against a good rebounding squad. He set screens in overtime to get Jamal open for needed points.
Jokic did everything. Jokic is everything. For Christmas, there is no greater gift as a basketball fan than getting to watch him perform on the big stage, in moments like this, to will Denver to victory. Enjoy this one, Denver fans. It made for a very late night, but it was worth it.
