For the Nuggets to advance past the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, they had to turn one of their greatest perceived weaknesses into a strength.
During the regular season, the Nuggets struggled to maintain leads whenever two-time MVP Nikola Jokic wasn’t on the floor, orchestrating the offense and being a magician with the basketball. Minnesota was hoping to exploit that in its best-of-seven series against Denver. Instead, the Nuggets’ bench turned out to be a net positive in the series — a development that bodes well for their next series against the star-driven Phoenix Suns.