Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets suffered a heartbreaking 114-119 defeat in Game 2 to the Timberwolves despite a 19-point lead in the second quarter. Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves bounced back after getting punched in the mouth in the first quarter itself.
Following the game, Jaden McDaniels went viral after he revealed that the reason the Timberwolves were able to bounce back in this game was that most of the Nuggets’ players are bad defenders. He name-called several players, including Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon, and Jamal Murray.
However, according to the Nuggets’ legend, Carmelo Anthony, these comments should serve as fuel for Nikola Jokic and the rest of the roster to bounce back stronger in Game 3.
“That’s just grown man talk. You didn’t beat around the bush. You called names out, and Aaron Gordon, you called him a bad defender… He named five names. So you’re calling five names. It ain’t like you saying the Nuggets can’t defend. You said Jamal Murray, you said Joker, you said Aaron Gordon, you said Tim Hardaway.”
“When you have that type of passion about the point that you’re trying to make, it’s on. It was already a rivalry between the Nuggets and the Wolves. It’s personal now,” said the former Nuggets player in his appearance on NBA Showtime.
“Now Joker is sitting back, saying, ‘Okay, I got something for you.’ Now, the other night, last night, Joker, we were sitting here laughing at Joker like ‘Joker going to crash out.’ Hearing this is going to take him to a whole other level.”
“Now, can he and everybody else get to that same level? Because this is war. This is chess, what we’re doing.”
“We came to your house. We took game two. We feel very confident. And this puts us back into the mindset where we were when we did this before against y’all. So now is the time to back that up.”
“If you don’t win game three, though, then we have to have a conversation,” concluded Anthony.
While most might think that this is just the dynamic of the teams, even personally, Jokic and McDaniels do not seem to be on decent terms. In Game 1 of the series, McDaniels shoved Jokic from behind in a battle for a rebound during the third quarter. McDaniels’ shove sent Jokic into the first row behind the basket as the things got chippy between the duo.
Jaden McDaniels just shoved Nikola Jokic in plain sight 😭💀 pic.twitter.com/od7gucs4yt
— HOOPS NATION (@_HoopsNation) April 19, 2026
While Anthony anticipates that Jokic would use McDaniels’ comments as fuel, Aaron Gordon decided to take another route. He was told about McDaniels’ comments after the game, and he simply said he didn’t care what McDaniels had to say.
Of course, it could be a calculated response to not let your opponent see them get to your nerves, but the Game 2 comeback was a statement win for the Timberwolves in their series.
If Jokic, Gordon, and the Nuggets want to bounce back stronger in the series, they need to not let McDaniels’ comments do anything except motivate them to defend harder in the rest of the series. It will be interesting to see how Jokic and the Nuggets respond to these comments from McDaniels on the court as they now head to Minnesota for Games 3 and 4 on April 23 (Thursday) and 25 (Saturday), respectively.
