DENVER — In one corner of the Minnesota Timberwolves locker room sat Julius Randle, ice bags on both knees and eyelids at half mast, his body in shambles and the words coming slowly after he spent 50 minutes on the Ball Arena court wrestling a 6-foot-11, 284-pound Serbian bear.
“I feel terrible. I feel absolutely awful,” Randle said. “My body is in shock.”
On the other side of the room sat a dumbfounded Anthony Edwards, who once told a documentary crew that “I don’t look up to anybody in the league right now, currently, not at all. Not in the slightest.”
After watching Nikola Jokic put up 61 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists against his Wolves, Edwards’ seemingly endless supply of bravado evaporated in the mile-high air.
“Nikola Jokić, bruh, oh my God,” Edwards said, a flabbergasted grin on his face. “He might be the best basketball player I’ve ever seen close up. Besides myself to myself. Bro, he’s incredible.”
After coming out on top in a 140-139, double-overtime victory over the Nuggets on Tuesday night, one of the wildest and most memorable games of the 2024-25 season, the Timberwolves gave a candid glimpse into what it is like to go into battle against the league’s most unsolvable puzzle.
With three MVP awards, a championship ring and an endless array of impossible-to-stop shots, impossible-to-cover passes and impossible-to-explain physical endurance for a player of his size and body type, Jokić has all the answers for anything an opponent throws at him.
“He’s shooting turnarounds off the wrong foot, fading to his right,” Randle said. “He’s doing all type of crazy sh-t out there, bro. I don’t even know how to explain it.”
JOKIĆ HAS A CAREER-HIGH 60 PTS 🃏
UNREAL. pic.twitter.com/t4SJHlJDeA
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 2, 2025
These are not just any players openly gushing about Denver’s three-time MVP. Randle and Edwards have six All-Star appearances between them. They have both served as faces of a franchise, the focal point of an offense and know what it feels like to carry the burden of being a team’s best player. And yet they were in awe of peak Jokić on Tuesday. He played the last 40:38 of game time without coming out (aside from the halftime break), made six 3-pointers, got to the free throw line for 24 attempts and put an entire roster on his sprawling shoulders, a performance impressive enough that even one of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s biggest supporters in the season-long debate over who should be league MVP, SGA or Jokic, almost had to rethink things.
“He’s making a good run for MVP. You guys know who I got,” said Wolves guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Gilgeous-Alexander’s cousin. “He’s making it tough, for sure. The star player he is, always making the right plays. I gotta tip my hat to him.”
Jokić went behind-the-back to Braun 🫣 pic.twitter.com/laB57TbmT3
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 2, 2025
The 61 points are the most any player has scored in a game this season. He joined James Harden and Luka Dončić as the only players with 60-point triple-doubles.
“I think that’s another thing for after,” Jokić said of the superlative. “Sitting on the couch, drinking beer, and lying.”
When told of the praise the Timberwolves were heaping upon him, Jokić gave a sheepish chuckle.
“It shows the respect and I appreciate it,” he said. “I really don’t know what to say.”
The Timberwolves have beaten Jokić six straight times now, including all four games this season and the last two of their seven-game Western Conference semifinals series last season. They came back from 20 points down in Game 7 to eliminate the Nuggets on their home floor, but that win somehow did not feel as improbable as the one on Tuesday night.
As amazing as Jokić was, his night was spoiled by Alexander-Walker, a bench player in Minnesota who was concerned he could be out of the league just two years ago. He had 26 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and two blocks in 45 minutes. His fifth 3-pointer of the night put the Wolves up 138-137 with 32.2 seconds to go in the second overtime. A mere 32.1 seconds later, trailing 139-138, Edwards found Alexander-Walker in the corner. He was fouled on a 3-point attempt and knocked down two shots to give the Wolves (44-32) the win, giving them the same record as the Memphis Grizzlies.
When the second shot fell, NAW let out a howl of celebration for his first career game-winner.
“I don’t even know why I did that,” he said. “It’s so out of my character. Just making that shot. The emotions … my body was on the ground, but I felt like I was floating in that moment.”
That’s how good it felt to get a much-needed win as the Wolves try to avoid the Play-In Tournament. It also showed the Wolves could face down the most dominant offensive force in the game as he was putting up a historic stat line and come out on the other side.
Jokić was playing without two of his best teammates — Jamal Murray was out with an injury and Michael Porter Jr. missed the game for personal reasons — but that just made him find an even higher level of the beast mode that has him as one of the leading candidates for his fourth MVP. The Timberwolves, particularly Edwards and Jaden McDaniels, love tormenting Murray and Porter with ferocious defense, so coach Chris Finch was concerned about where their focus would be with them out of the lineup.
“We’ve got to guard against a letdown, certainly, and that’s been one of our Achilles’ heels this year, is having those letdowns sometimes like that,” Finch said before the game.
Jokić was ultra-aggressive early, scoring 16 points and shooting eight free throws in the first quarter. The Nuggets led by as many as 14 points, an ominous sign for the Wolves because they were missing their two top bench scorers in Donte DiVincenzo and Naz Reid, who were suspended for their roles in the fight with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday.
Edwards struggled mightily in the first half with Denver’s gimmick defenses designed to get the ball out of his hands. He scored five points on 2-for-9 shooting and missed six of his seven 3s in the first two quarters.
Then, out of nowhere, Josh Minott and Rob Dillingham entered the game and gave the Wolves a jolt. Both players have been out of the rotation for weeks, but with Reid and DiVincenzo suspended, Terrence Shannon Jr. injured and Jaylen Clark on the bench with foul trouble, they finally got a chance.
Minott knocked down a pair of corner 3s and grabbed three rebounds in eight first-half minutes and Dillingham, stunningly, made his greatest impact on defense against perhaps the league’s most unstoppable player. Jokić piled up 23 points in the first half against Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle, but Dillingham got him twice in the second quarter.
First, Jokić caught Dillingham on a switch and started to back him down. Dillingham stood his ground, slowing Jokić just enough to force him to make a late pass that led to a shot clock violation. A few possessions later, Dillingham sneaked up from behind Jokić, ripped the ball away from him and went in for a dunk and a 52-51 lead.
HELLOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/DVLN6s0DfY
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 2, 2025
“They were incredible,” said Randle, who had 26 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. “They were the energy boost we needed being down a couple guys. They were ready to play.”
It all set up an insane final 34 minutes of game time after the break. The Timberwolves trailed by 11 points with 6:53 to play in regulation before Edwards finally found his heater. He scored 13 of his 34 points in that span, including back-to-back 3s that gave the Wolves a 111-108 lead.
BIG TIMEEEEEEEEEE
🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜 pic.twitter.com/ztIZQ2xocs
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 2, 2025
“That might’ve been the best game of my life that I’ve ever been a part of,” said Edwards, who also had 10 rebounds and eight assists.
But this game was just getting started. Jokić tied the game with a pair of free throws with 12 seconds to go in regulation, and the Wolves botched chances to win the game with the ball in their hands at the end of the fourth quarter and the first overtime. They led by six points in the first OT, but couldn’t hold that lead thanks in part to an awful decision by Edwards to throw a crosscourt pass in his own backcourt while the Wolves led by two with under 18 seconds to play.
There were eight lead changes in the second overtime alone. The Wolves nearly threw away another chance to win the game in the second overtime, when Edwards and Randle had their timing off on a pick-and-roll on the left side of the court that turned into a turnover.
Thankfully for Minnesota, the ball landed in Russell Westbrook’s hands. Out of control for much of the night, Westbrook careened toward the rim with the Nuggets up one point and under 10 seconds to play. The 37-year-old Conley raced back down the court to challenge his layup attempt, and Westbrook just plain missed it.
“That’s bigger or just the same as the free throws,” Alexander-Walker said. “Mike doesn’t do that, we don’t win that game. Simple. That is a fact.”
A FOUL ON THE FINAL THREE-POINT SHOT 😱
THIS SEQUENCE IS INSANE. pic.twitter.com/IBysO7j0Em
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 2, 2025
As the locker room cleared out on the first night of a five-game road trip, Alexander-Walker thought long and hard about how far he has come. He was hanging on to a spot in the league by his fingernails when he came over from Utah at the trade deadline in 2023 because his salary helped facilitate a deal headlined by D’Angelo Russell going from Minnesota to the Lakers and Conley coming from the Jazz to the Timberwolves. In his time in Minnesota, NAW has become a fan favorite and established himself as a top-flight role player, especially on the defensive end.
But the Wolves needed so much more than defense from him on Tuesday night. The monster on the other side of the court was scoring at will, and the Wolves had to find a way to keep up. With Edwards erratic, Randle devoting most of his attention to guarding Jokić after Rudy Gobert fouled out and Conley an uncharacteristic minus-22 on the night, Alexander-Walker needed to score.
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All he has ever wanted in this league is to be needed. The importance of coming through in the moment when that need was most acute was not lost on him.
“You can’t want something, be in that moment and not deliver, not show up,” Alexander-Walker said. “This is what I’m going to be asking for. This is the type of player and role I want to have. I’ve got to do what’s required in those moments.”
For a team that has struggled mightily in the clutch all season, and earlier in this game, it was a monumental victory. Maybe that’s why their postgame locker room celebration could be heard as Nuggets coach Michael Malone gave his postgame press conference in an adjacent room.
Alexander-Walker smiled as he contemplated a wild 72 hours in Wolves land. On Sunday, a throw-down with the Pistons sparked a rally. On Tuesday, they took Jokić’s best punch and lived to tell about it.
“It’s two different types of fights, you know?” Alexander-Walker said. “It’s two different types of fights.”
It took everything the Timberwolves had to overcome Jokić on Tuesday night. They were battered and bruised by the hulking MVP. The scars will heal. The win will endure.
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(Photo of Nikola Jokić and Julius Randle: Isaiah J. Downing / Imagn Images)
