Is Nikola Jokic playing tonight against the Timberwolves? Latest injury update on Nuggets' star ahead of matchup (25th April 2023)
Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets will have a shot at sending Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves home with Game 5 at the Ball Arena.
Even with a nagging wrist injury that isn't considered that serious, Nikola Jokic will remain available for Game 5 as he looks to lead his Nuggets past the first-round and await the winner between the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Clippers.
In Game 4, the Nuggets had a chance to finish the series with Nikola Jokic at the free-throw line to give them a 1-point lead. However, Jokic only ended up going 1-2 from the charity stripe as the game went into overtime. During overtime, the Nuggets had many chances to put the Timberwolves away but Anthony Edwards' 34-point performance was too much to handle for the visiting team.
Aside from Edwards, the Timberwolves got steady contributions from Karl-Anthony Towns' 17 points and 11 rebounds, Rudy Gobert's 14 points and 15 rebounds along with Mike Conley's 19 points and eight assists.
So far into the series with four games down, Nikola Jokic is averaging 25.8 points on 57.1% shooting, including 57.1% from three-point range, 11.3 rebounds and 8.3 assists. He recently had a 43-point explosion in Game 4, wherein, he went 15-26 shooting, including 5-8 from three-point range, secured 11 boards and dished out 6 assists.
Nikola Jokic on disappointing Game 4 loss
With a missed opportunity of a series sweep and an early break before the semifinals round, Jokic and the Nuggets are back home in Denver where they will look to finish and move on from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
After the loss, Jokic talked about what happened in the game that led to a loss.
"We had an opportunity, even in regulation, and I missed a free throw,” Jokic said. “Then, in the end, they were scoring a lot, and we didn’t. I think I missed a couple of easy ones."
Closing a playoff series is a challenge of its own as Nuggets' coach Michael Malone realizes the kind of mentality the team needs to finish a team off.
"I do think that he was trying to be very, very aggressive," Malone said.
In overtime, the Nuggets only scored 12 points in five minutes of extra regulation, while the Timberwolves ended up outscoring them with 18 points on 75.0% shooting, including 66.7% from three-point range.
Aside from the missed free-throw by Jokic in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets hit the snooze button at the defensive end of the game, resulting in an efficient shooting output for the home team in overtime.
With home-court advantage in favor of Jokic and the Nuggets for Game 5, they must come out with the proper energy to set the tone at the start of the game as the Minnesota Timberwolves will look to make a push to extend the series to Game 6 on their home-court.