The Minnesota Timberwolves’ length and defensive pressure finally cracked the NBA’s top-rated offense led by Jokic on Thursday night. Yankee Scores reports…

Nikola Jokic had arguably one of his worst nights shooting on Thursday in Game 3, as he went just 7-of-26. For the Nuggets, who Jokic played an instrumental role in scoring a lot of points during the season, it marked their first game below 100 since January.

Jokic’s Historic Shooting Struggle

“I’ve never seen him shoot what he shot today,” guard Jamal Murray said. “That’s an outlier type of game.”

That allowed the Timberwolves to claim an 113-96 victory, putting Denver in a 2-1 hole in the series, which makes Jokic even more desperate to find a way to score past Rudy Gobert and Minnesota’s defense and help the Nuggets end their season.

“They’re big, tall, long,” Jokic said. “They’re really good defensive players.”

The Nuggets held a lead in the series throughout. They claimed Game 1, as well as a 19-point advantage at halftime of Game 2. However, Minnesota came back strong in the second quarter by going on an 11-0 run with Jokic on the bench, which gave them the momentum and has carried into Thursday’s game.

There were opportunities to wrap up the series in Game 2 with a huge lead, as the Nuggets got outscored by 10 over the final seven minutes. To make things worse for Jokic, he shot only 1-of-8 from the field against Gobert, which followed him to Minnesota.

Jokic and the Nuggets went 3-of-21 shooting in an 11-point first quarter, their lowest-scoring quarter of the season. Minnesota built a near immediate double-digit cushion, upped its lead to 27 points and never let it slip below 10 in the final three quarters.

Wolves’ Defense Shuts Down Record-Breaking Offense

“When you open the game like that, the easy ones don’t go,” Jokic said. “Really good defensive [first] quarter by them, really bad offensive quarter by us.”

The Nuggets finished the regular season with an NBA-best 121.2 offensive rating, the second highest in NBA history. They failed to score 100 points in only two of 82 games, and Jokic was sidelined in both of them.

Coach Adelman Confident in Jokic’s Bounce Back

This was the first time in Jokic’s career that he attempted at least 26 shots in a game and made only seven or fewer of them. He also had four turnovers and three assists, the first time all season he had more turnovers than assists in a game.

“He had a tough night,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “It happens to players. This guy’s played a million playoff games. There’s nights that are poor. He’ll bounce back. Everyone needs a day to understand we didn’t play well offensively.”