1 Nuggets player most to blame for season-ending Game 6 loss to Timberwolves

After entering the 2025-26 season as one of the favorites to win it all, the Denver Nuggets’ journey in the 2026 NBA playoffs has already come to an end — and in the first round, disappointingly so. The Nuggets could not overcome a Minnesota Timberwolves team that was playing as if it was a shark sensing blood in the water at every turn, and on Thursday, their season came to a premature end after suffering a 110-98 loss on the road in Game 6.

To say that exiting the playoffs in the first round is a major disappointment would be a major understatement. This Nuggets team looked like the biggest threat, outside of the Indiana Pacers, to last year’s Oklahoma City Thunder, and losing in the first round to a shorthanded Timberwolves team that was missing not just Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo, but also Ayo Dosunmu in Game 6, is just flat-out mortifying.

The Timberwolves have talked smack against the Nuggets from the get-go, and they were able to back up their inflammatory trash talk, particularly Jaden McDaniels. Meanwhile, the Nuggets seemed to shrink when they needed to overcome adversity.

Playing the blame game is disingenuous, but the Nuggets have to do some deep introspection as they enter the summer thinking about what could’ve been, especially if they were fielding their complete team.

Jamal Murray gets locked down in the Jaden McDaniels penitentiary

The mere sight of McDaniels has got to be making every Nuggets fan in the world right now fuming. McDaniels called out the entire Nuggets roster for being bad on defense, with Jamal Murray being one of the players the Timberwolves forward called out by name.

So the fact that McDaniels had Murray in lockdown for the entirety of Game 6 has to be that much more painful for Nuggets fans. Murray could not get it going on Thursday night, as he only scored 12 points on 4-17 shooting from the field, with McDaniels being his primary defender for most of the night.

Just to rub even more salt on the gushing open wound, McDaniels put up 32 points and 10 rebounds, backing up his trash talk all the way through.

For Murray, this kind of performance is inexcusable and downright disappointing. He built for himself a reputation for being a big-time performer, as evidenced by his many big games in the playoffs in the past. He also has quite a few clutch shots to his name under the bright lights of the playoffs.

The Nuggets’ offense lives off of the two-man game between him and Jokic, and if one half of that duo is firing blanks, Denver does not nearly have enough weapons on offense to survive a suffocating Timberwolves defense.

Moreover, the Nuggets need to produce on offense (they led the NBA in offensive rating during the regular season) to win, as their defense, as McDaniels called out in rather inciting terms, isn’t good enough to keep them afloat — especially with both Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson out.

Murray being a no-show made it almost impossible for the Nuggets to steal a game on the road, even against the depleted Timberwolves. And his status as one of the team’s stars makes it so that he has to take a huge share of the blame if things go south for his team, which it did.

Nuggets have to think about reconfiguring roster around Nikola Jokic

It’s hard to fault Jokic for the Nuggets’ elimination. He put up 28 points (on 11-19 shooting from the field), nine rebounds, and 10 assists, which is just about as good of a performance Denver could have hoped for against an elite defender in Rudy Gobert.

Cam Johnson also deserves credit for showing up. He did miss a crucial free throw in crunch time, but crunch time would not have existed for the Nuggets in Game 6 if he didn’t show up the way he did — 27 points on 8-15 shooting from the field (5-10 from deep).

But the Nuggets need more in the form of off the bounce creation to make themselves more matchup-proof. The Timberwolves can match up well defensively against the Nuggets, as they have an elite perimeter defender in McDaniels and a top-tier rim-protector and post defender in Gobert — effectively giving them walls against the Jokic-Murray two-man game.

A lot would have been different if the Nuggets had Gordon and Watson healthy. But the Nuggets’ improved depth barely made a difference. Perhaps they might have to rethink the entire roster-building strategy around Jokic and Murray, giving themselves players who can do more with the ball whenever defenses zero in on the two-man game that powers their entire offense.

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