{"id":715317,"date":"2026-04-21T17:58:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715317\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T17:58:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:58:34","slug":"timberwolves-jaden-mcdaniels-takes-jab-at-nuggets-saying-they-are-bad-defenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715317\/","title":{"rendered":"Timberwolves&#8217; Jaden McDaniels takes jab at Nuggets saying they are &#8216;bad defenders&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As if the rivalry between Denver and Minnesota needed anyone to throw gasoline on the fire, Jaden McDaniels stepped up and did just that after a <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nba\/news\/edwards-randle-combine-to-spark-another-timberwolves-comeback-win-vs-nuggets-tie-series\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">come-from-behind win by his Timberwolves Monday night evened the series<\/a>. He took aim at the Nuggets stars, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGo after Jokic, Jamal, all the bad defenders,\u201d McDaniels said, via the Associated Press. \u201cTim Hardaway (Jr.), Cam Johnson, Aaron Gordon, the whole team, just go at them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The whole team is bad defenders?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, they\u2019re all bad defenders,\u201d McDaniels said, doubling down.<\/p>\n<p>For the record, the Nuggets had the 21st-ranked defense in the NBA during the regular season, although that defense looked much better in Game 1 of the series, a Nuggets win. <\/p>\n<p>In Game 2, McDaniels had 14 points on 7-of-15 shooting, on a night where Anthony Edwards had 30 points and 10 rebounds, and Julius Randle had 24 points, leading the way.<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"AnchorLink\" id=\"hls-twolves-rally-against-nuggets-to-even-series\"\/><\/p>\n<p>HLs: T\u2019Wolves rally against Nuggets to even series<\/p>\n<p>The Minnesota Timberwolves mounted a 19-point comeback against the Denver Nuggets to even the first-round series.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota had a 116.8 offensive rating in Game 2, which is right at the team\u2019s regular-season average. What won the Timberwolves the game was its defense, which wore down Jokic and Murray and kept the Nuggets to a 111 offensive rating, more than six points per 100 possessions below their season average. <\/p>\n<p>McDaniels will be celebrated at home, with the series shifting back to Minnesota for games three and four. However, when the series shifts back to Denver for Game 5 next week, he can expect a very special welcome from the Nuggets faithful. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As if the rivalry between Denver and Minnesota needed anyone to throw gasoline on the fire, Jaden McDaniels&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,301,187,3943,6,302],"class_list":{"0":"post-715317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-nuggets","11":"tag-denvernuggets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nuggets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116444005596570906","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}