OVER & OUT
NUGGETS LOSE 112-106 IN OVERTIME, MISS PLAYOFFS
Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns, left, is congratulated by Nuggets center Nikola Jokic after Denver’s 112-106 overtime loss to Minnesota in Minneapolis on Wednesday night. The defeat, in the regular-season finale for both teams, dashed the Nuggets’ playoff hopes and ended a string of six consecutive victories. Minnesota advanced to the postseason.
MINNEAPOLIS» When Nuggets coach Michael Malone met with each player during last season’s exit interviews, making the playoffs in 2017-18 became the most prominent topic. Similar conversations will take place Thursday in Denver. The Timberwolves outlasted Denver 112-106 in overtime Wednesday night inside an electric Target Center, delivering a crushing end to the Nuggets’ impressive stretch-run surge that put them on the verge of their first postseason appearance since 2013.
“This should sting,” coach Michael Malone said. “This should bother us. Hopefully, we can use this experience towards next year.”
The disappointing finale snapped Denver’s improbable six-game winning streak to force the rare winner take-all scenario. It caps a regular season in which the Nuggets (46-36) matched Las Vegas’ projected win total, even with key injuries that knocked flashy free-agent signing Paul Millsap (torn wrist ligament) out for three months and second-leading scorer Gary Harris (knee sprain) for 25 days down the stretch. But in a playoff race appropriately dubbed the
Wild West, Denver needed one more victory in a rare play-in game against a division foe.
After using a fourth-quarter spurt to force overtime, the Nuggets faded in the extra five minutes. Minnesota outscored Denver 11-5, taking the lead for good when Jeff Teague hit a floater just before the shot-clock buzzer to put his team up 107-106 with 1:19 to play.
The Nuggets never scored after that. Nikola Jokic missed a layup. Will Barton missed a runner in the lane. Jamal Murray missed a 3-pointer. In between those misfires, Jimmy Butler and Andrew Wiggins combined to go 5-of-6 from the line to finish off the victory.
“(We struggled in overtime with) getting the shots that we wanted, stepping up and making big plays,” Malone said. “The offensive execution has to be a lot better in crunch time.”
Yet like so many games during this streak, Denver made a late push in the fourth quarter. Trailing 99-91 with 2:26 to play, Denver answered with an 8-0 run capped by a Murray step-back 3pointer to tie the score with 2:52 to play. The Nuggets’ second-year point guard knotted it again at 101 when he converted inside with 1:59 remaining. Neither team scored again, with a Butler jumper clanking off the rim with seven seconds remaining, before Jokic lost the ball out of bounds in the corner with one second remaining thanks to swarming defense by Taj Gibson.
The outcome spoiled Jokic’s latest masterful effort, scoring 35 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. Barton again provided a spark with 24 points, eight rebounds and five assists. But the Timberwolves all-star tandem of Karl-Anthony Towns (26 points, 14 rebounds) and Butler (31 points, five rebounds, five assists) were too much to handle.
The chance to play for a postseason berth looked bleak two weeks ago, when Denver dropped back-to-back games at Philadelphia and Toronto to slip to 2-4 on the longest road trip in the NBA this season.
But an off-day meeting between Malone and his players following the Raptors game reaffirmed belief they could still make a postseason push, sparking a season-best six-game winning streak -against teams with records north of .500 -- to keep the Nuggets in contention on the final day. They topped Oklahoma City and Milwaukee in improbable overtime thrillers, used an offensive flurry to run the Clippers out of their home gym and ground out home victories against Indiana, Minnesota and Portland.
In the immediate aftermath of the emotional defeat, Harris was already reflecting on the bad losses that “came back to haunt us.” During a two-week stretch in January, the Nuggets fell to lottery-bound Sacramento, Atlanta and Phoenix. They lost twice at Dallas, including a March 6 defeat in which Jokic and Murray were benched for the entire fourth quarter. They began that brutal seven-game road trip with a stunning defeat at a Memphis team that had dropped its previous 19 contests. But even when shorthanded, Denver often thrived against its toughest competition, beating Golden State, San Antonio, New Orleans and Utah twice, and Portland and Oklahoma City three times apiece.
“We shouldn’t have even been in that position at all,” said Harris, who scored 10 points in 20 minutes in his second game back from his knee injury.
After securing a rebound on a Barton missed floater with 22 seconds left in extra time, Towns pumped his fist and let out a yell in front of his raucous home crowd. He captured the feeling of his franchise and city after finally snapping Minnesota’s 14-year playoff drought.
Minutes later, Towns passed Malone in the hallway. The Denver coach gave Towns a hug and wished him luck in the playoffs, saying “I’m rooting for you.”
The Nuggets, meanwhile, boarded a flight back to Denver late Wednesday knowing they’ll need to wait at least one more year for their first taste of postseason basketball. Their late-season surge fell one victory short of the playoffs.
“To go through it and come up short is hurtful,” Malone said. “We’ve got a lot of dejected guys in that locker room, but I’m proud of every one of them. They gave everything they had. There’s a lot of people, after that loss to Toronto, that gave up on this team.
“The guys that didn’t give up, the players and the coaches, continued to believe and we gave ourselves a chance. There’s a lot to be said for that.”