Denver at Minnesota
THE STORY: The Denver Nuggets control their own destiny for the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. The Nuggets hold a one-game lead over the Dallas Mavericks with one to play and are coming off an impressive win at Oklahoma City. The Minnesota Timberwolves are in full-on self-destruct mode, having dropped 12 of their last 13. They even blew a 21-point lead in a home loss to the lowly Golden State Warriors on Sunday.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, ALT (Denver), FSNO (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE NUGGETS (37-28): Denver is fighting for the right to open the playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers, who will be without Metta World Peace, instead of the second-seeded Thunder. Should the Nuggets fall to the Timberwolves on Thursday and the Mavericks win, at least Denver is secure in the knowledge that it can win at Oklahoma City. The Thunder gave regular minutes to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on Wednesday and still could not hang with the Nuggets, who put seven players in double figures in the 106-101 triumph. Denver has won three straight and seven of nine.
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (26-39): The season had so much promise, with Ricky Rubio coming to join Kevin Love and a young nucleus. Minnesota was even briefly in the top eight in the Western Conference at the beginning of March when Rubio was lost to a torn ACL and the season began to fall apart. J.J. Barea took aim at his teammates after Sunday’s loss, saying, “We’ve got problems here. We’ve got guys that don’t care. When you’re a basketball team that has a bunch of players that don’t care, it’s hard to win basketball games.” It was announced before that game that Love, who has been out with a concussion since the last time the Timberwolves faced the Nuggets, on Apr. 11, would not appear again this season. Luke Ridnour (ankle) likely won’t play either.
BUZZER BEATERS:
1. The Timberwolves do not have their own first-round draft pick this season but will have Utah’s since the Jazz made the playoffs.
2. The Nuggets have taken eight of the last nine in the series.
3. Denver G Ty Lawson is averaging 23.2 points over the last five games.