Timberwolves, Nuggets scuffle after late layup

MINNEAPOLIS — The Denver-Minnesota rivalry took another dramatic turn in the closing seconds of Game 4 on Saturday, when Nuggets star Nikola Jokic confronted Jaden McDaniels after he took an uncontested layup with the Timberwolves on the way to victory and a 3-1 lead in the first-round NBA playoff series.

After McDaniels made the unsportsmanlike basket with 2.1 seconds left with the Nuggets having conceded the 112-96 decision, Jokic ran from one end of the court to the other to shove him. Players from both teams converged around them to broaden the scuffle before order was restored. Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, who was livid with Jokic, was ejected along with Denver’s centre.

“He scored when we’d stopped playing,” Jokic said. “You guys saw what happened.”

McDaniels, who spiced up the series after Game 2 by declaring Denver’s team was full of “ bad defenders,” said afterward he didn’t know what Jokic said to him during the confrontation.

“I just seen someone who was big as hell,” McDaniels said.

So why did he take the meaningless two points?

“The clock still be running, so I might as well go score,” McDaniels said.

As teams in the same division playing four times each regular season, and facing each other in the playoffs for the third time in four years, the Nuggets and Timberwolves have become quite the archrivals.

“Obviously I didn’t like what McDaniels did,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “The game was over. The game was conceded both ways. In 2026, that stuff just doesn’t happen anymore. That’s something that happened in the ‘80s, where teams would continue to score. But that’s who he is, you know? And so if that’s what they want to do, that’s what they want to do.”