Somewhere between Game 2 and Game 3, the Denver Nuggets found solutions for many of the problems the Timberwolves presented in the Mile High City.

Denver relied on its bigs to bring the ball up the floor to alleviate Minnesota’s full-court pressure. It tightened its defensive game plan to clog up the interior, while maintaining perimeter pressure on the Timberwolves’ top-tier scorers. The Nuggets have identified when to double, when to pre-switch, and when to help, recover and rotate.

They’ve found different ways to get Jamal Murray some room to operate, so the point guard can find his rhythm.

Suddenly, the tables were turned on the Timberwolves.

“They’re smart. They know what they’re doing,” Wolves guard Mike Conley said. “We can’t throw the same thing at them two, three games in a row. They’re going to figure it out.”

The three days between Game 2 and Game 3 likely helped the Nuggets drill into what was ailing them, then find and implement solutions.

Minnesota is now in a similar boat — beat rather convincingly in consecutive games at home. The difference is the Wolves had just one day between Game 4 and Tuesday’s Game 5 in Denver. Can changes really be made?

“There’s always different counters. There’s always different lineups, matchups, different schemes,” Conley said. “Now we have to try to make some changes, figure it out from our end. Something that’s a little bit different, tweak something that maybe they haven’t seen yet with our lineups and roster and kind of go from there. Hopefully we can do that in the next day”

Here’s a look at potential adjustments Minnesota may make:

AARON GORDON

Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic have certainly been the focal points of the Denver’s recent offensive success. Justin Holiday continues to hit outside shots for the Nuggets.

But Aaron Gordon’s emergence has done as much to unlock Denver’s offense against Minnesota’s vaunted defense as anything else.

The power forward is generally helped off of by the Wolves. But he knocked down three triples in Game 3, and then went 11 for 12 from the field in Game 4.

He made tough shots, but also was a key lob threat and had four second-chance points.

“We’ve got to go back and guard him a little more honestly right now,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said.

Yes, Gordon is shooting the 3-pointer at a higher clip than he’s accustomed, but they are generally wide-open looks. He’s currently serving as a release valve that negates all of Minnesota’s defensive pressure.

“The narrative on him is that he’s not a great offensive player. But I don’t care who you are in this league, there’s a reason why you’re a part of the 450 best players in the world,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “We’ve got to put an honest contest. We’ve got to make his shots difficult. So just got to do a better job of contesting him, making his shots harder, making his shots more difficult to take and to make. And that falls on us.”

Perhaps Minnesota will deploy a scheme where Gordon isn’t ignored, and see how the Nuggets respond.

FINDING GOBERT/MCDANIELS

Like Minnesota is often doing with Gordon, the Nuggets are ignoring Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert when the Wolves are on offense.

McDaniels is left in the corner, with his man standing next to the paint as the last line of defense at the rim. And every time Gobert rolls on a ball screen toward the rim, he does so freely with no one going with him.

Denver has decided to deploy all defensive resources to slow Anthony Edwards, Mike Conley and Towns.

While there is no real answer for Edwards at the moment, the added attention certainly bothered Towns on Sunday. Man to man, Denver has a hard time matching up defensively with Minnesota, as the first two games of the series showed. But Denver has found ways to guard the Wolves 5-on-3, and Minnesota has largely allowed it to happen.

The Wolves need to find a way to make Denver pay for blatantly ignoring 40% of its lineup.

“We as handlers, and the guys who are going to be on the ball, have to find those guys when they’re open. We have to trust each other, like we did all season long, like we did earlier in the playoffs. It’s the only way through,” Conley said. “You can’t just try to beat around this defense any other way than take what they give you. If that’s Rudy on the roll or Jaden on the kickouts and his decision-making, driving and making plays and knocking down shots, then we’re going to have to do that, and be confident with it and figure out ways to manipulate it.”

Gobert said hitting him on open rolls is something the Wolves “gotta work on.”

“I think it’s hard sometimes for the guards to see me because they’re big, they have a lot of length. I truly believe that we’re getting better at it, but we gotta find ways, obviously, to get it to me or whoever the rolling big is rolling to the basket,” Gobert said. “That’s one of their weaknesses. Usually it ends up being a foul, and then we get in the bonus and it puts a lot of pressure on the defense. And I think we’re also capable to make the kick-outs as bigs, make the right play. We work on it every day, and we’re gonna keep working on it.”

BALL PRESSURE

Minnesota hounded Murray up the floor in the two games in Denver, forcing turnovers, eating shot clock and, most importantly, wearing the Nuggets’ No. 2 scorer down. But Denver’s answer of having Gordon or Jokic bring the ball up instead has worked wonders for the Nuggets’ offense.

In Game 4, the Timberwolves adjusted by having a wing hound Gordon as he dribbled up the floor.

But the pressure didn’t bother Gordon and left Minnesota with a few unfavorable defensive matchups once Denver crossed half court.

“But he handled it well,” Conley said. “He’s played very well. He’s been there, done that.”

So the Wolves will either have to find a different way to rattle Denver coming up the floor, or maybe sacrifice the full-court pressure in favor of setting up its half-court defense.

SECOND UNIT STRUGGLES

Generally, the key to defeating the Nuggets is winning the minutes in which Jokic is not on the floor. The Wolves have had a tough time doing that so far this series. That was especially true in game 4, as Denver opened the second quarter on a 12-2 run with the three-time MVP on the bench.

To open that quarter, Minnesota rolled out a lineup of Conley, Naz Reid, Kyle Anderson, Jaden McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker — marking the first time that five-man grouping has been utilized. It didn’t work.

The unit struggled to score and, with the lack of offensive success, was never able to set up to play to its supposed defensive strengths.

Frankly, Anderson has struggled in this series outside of Game 2, when he was able to play at more of his natural positioning in the absence of Gobert. Alexander-Walker has also struggled to make an imprint on the last couple games.

Minnesota’s bench was supposed to be a major boon for the Wolves in this series. Thus far, Denver’s unheralded reserves have stolen the show.

“Offensively, it’s a lot related to that second quarter stint for them. That’s where these games have been slipping away for us,” Finch said. “So, we’ve got to look at maybe ways to get those guys going and involved, or shuffle the rotation minutes to see if we can survive that. Two games in a row now when we’ve got to that unit where we’ve cratered.”

Perhaps Finch and Co. will again tinker with lineup possibilities in Game 5 when Jokic is off the floor.

Related Articles

Even after dropping a pair of home games, Timberwolves remain confident heading into Game 5

Dane Mizutani: Timberwolves can blame their immaturity for Game 4 loss to Nuggets

Denver convincingly takes down Minnesota again to even the series

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch wasn’t disappointed in lack of Jamal Murray suspension

Charley Walters: Bill Musselman would love Wolves’ tenacious defense