Jaden McDaniels has been needling the Denver Nuggets throughout their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. After Minnesota’s Game 2 win, McDaniels was asked what was working for the Timberwolves offensively. “Go after [Nikola] Jokić, Jamal [Murray], all the bad defenders,” McDaniels said. “Tim Hardaway. Cam Johnson. Aaron Gordon. The whole team. Just go at them. …They’re all bad defenders.”

The rest of the series, to this point, hasn’t exactly disproven his point. The Timberwolves have now won three games in a row in the series and are one win shy of advancing to the second round. On Saturday, the Timberwolves lost Donte DiVincenzo to a torn Achilles and Anthony Edwards to a knee injury, but still managed to win with backup guard Ayo Dosunmu scoring 43 points, the second-most bench points ever in a playoff game. 

NBA playoffs winners and losers: Ayo Dosunmu puts the Nuggets on the brink, Jalen Brunson gets some help

Jack Maloney

To put a capper on the victory, McDaniels went up for an uncontested layup with a 14-point lead and the final seconds ticking off the clock. Jokić took offense to that, and immediately ran down the court to confront him. The two grabbed one another before needing to be separated by teammates and coaches. No punches seem to have been thrown, but Jokić and Julius Randle were ejected after the skirmish.

Jokić wasn’t the only Nugget annoyed with McDaniels’ layup. “I didn’t like what McDaniels did,” Denver coach David Adelman shared. “The game was over…in 2026 that stuff just doesn’t happen anymore, that’s something that happens in the 80s where teams would continue to score, but that’s who he is.”

Jokić, for his part, said he didn’t regret confronting McDaniels.

McDaniels, in defiance with the unwritten rules of the sport, declared simply that the “clock still be running, so I’m going to go score.” When asked what Jokić said to him in their confrontation, he claimed ignorance. “I don’t know what he said, to be honest. I just seen someone who was big as hell.”

It is generally rare for players, especially seasoned veterans like McDaniels, to put points on the board once a game has been decided. It’s treated as a courtesy not to embarrass losing opponents. But if that were a concern for McDaniels, well, he probably wouldn’t have said what he said after Game 2, either. These two teams share a mutual distaste for one another after facing each other in three of the past four postsesaons, and that almost inevitably leads to chippy moments like this. 

McDaniels has the Timberwolves up 3-1 in the series, and he’s clearly gotten under Denver’s skin. Now the Nuggets are on the ropes, and they’re going to have to keep their cool if they’re going to mount a serious comeback attempt in the series.