Among the matchups in the first round of the NBA Playoffs is a familiar meet-up between two division rivals: the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets. There is a respectful level of competitiveness between these two teams and they both know how to frustrate each other in the best ways, which, of course will lead to an entertaining matchup in the opening round.
Both teams are at somewhat of a prove-it spot. The Nuggets are looking to make a run back to the Finals after winning it in 2023 and to prove it wasn’t a fluke. Then you have the Wolves, who have reached back-to-back Western Conference Finals. Some say they both had lucky paths to those destinations, and this is a good opportunity to prove them both genuine.
With that said, Minnesota is a giant in the shadows. No team in the league has made it to back-to-back conference finals in several years, let alone three straight. The Wolves’ road to three in a row starts Saturday, with the Nuggets sitting as the first objective in that goal.
Head to Head Matchup
All-Time Head-to-Head: Nuggets over Wolves 92-61
Playoff Head-to-Head: Wolves over Nuggets 9-8 (Wolves own 2-1 series advantage)
2026 Season Head-to Head: Nuggets over Wolves 3-1
Rankings Overview
Top Rated Lineups
Minnesota:
Denver:
Offensive Gameplan
What to Know About Minnesota’s Offense
Minnesota’s offense has evolved over the last three seasons. The Wolves boasted one of the top four offenses in the league at different points during the 2025-26 season. Minnesota’s shooting cooled down big time after the All-Star break, which considerably lowered the ceiling for the big-picture assessment of their offense.
Minnesota has a great offensive identity, but its success in this series is going to come down to two things: Taking high quality shots and protect the basketball. Overall, if the Wolves can limit turnovers and value every possession, they will be in every single game. If they rush the process, like you have seen the Wolves do a ton this year, then it could be a long, frustrating series.
Trust the process.
Minnesota’s Offensive Strategy
- Be decisive off the pick-and-roll and take care of the basketball: Denver is going to throw different looks at you throughout the game, so Minnesota needs to read and react at a decisive speed to punish the lack of on-ball defenders. The Wolves need to use the pick-and-roll to their advantage and punish with their size. This requires being strong with the ball and understanding what Denver wants to do defensively, which is keep it packed in the paint and make you shoot a ton of threes.
- Find ways to get it to the paint at a high volume: Denver’s goal defensively is to keep you from getting to the rim by packing the paint. Minnesota needs to find ways to get to Denver’s weak spots — the middle of the floor or baseline drives. The Wolves need to be willing to cut backside if the defender turns their back or over-helps.
- Crash the glass at a high level: Minnesota has the size advantage in this series, so it needs to take advantage of every opportunity to clean up its misses. That will wear Denver down and slow down it down in transition.
What to Know About Denver’s Offense
The Nuggets are the godfathers of the modern NBA offense in this current era of basketball. We left the heliocentric offense and transitioned to the five-out motion offense in the early 2020s — in large part due to the success of Denver. Its five-out motion offense, centered around an all world facilitator in Nikola Jokic, is nothing new, but how the Nuggets execute it is different. Many have tried to replicate it, none quite get to their level. The one factor — nobody is as good at reading and manipulating a defense like Jokic is. But it takes certain types of players to make this work the way it has this year.
Their offense includes a variety of five-out side-to-side on-ball and off-ball actions. Dribble handoffs (DHO’s), zooms, splits, drags and backside stagger actions are just the base concepts. From there, the possibilities are endless, which makes them the toughest offensive team to stop in the league (it helps having Jokic, too).
To slow them down, you need to be versatile, smart and communicate at a high level. The Wolves have the versatility and the IQ, but there have been times this year when Minnesota’s defense looks bad, and 99% of the time it’s because of communication. The good thing with that is that it is something you can turn on and off (or is it?).
Denver’s Offensive Strategy
- Create advantages: By setting a ton of off ball screens and cutting at a high level, defenses tend to start hugging their man which opens up the middle of the floor on the backside.
- Create mismatches: To guard this type of offense, you either have to do a great job of getting over screens or you have to switch
- Forced to communicate at a high level: They capitalize on miscommunication. If you don’t communicate or get lazy, they have easy buckets.
Defensive Gameplan
Minnesota’s Defense
The Wolves will be challenged to communicate at a high level throughout this series.
On the plus side, the Wolves should be very familiar with how the Nuggets play. There won’t be a need for a feeling out process. Minnesota knows what it does and what it does well — it will come down to the little things and execution.
Minnesota’s Defensive Strategy
- Play with active hands: Denver is not a strong ball handling team besides Murray and Jokic. When Minnesota plays with active hands and create turnovers, it wins more than not. When the Wolves force 14 or more turnovers, they are 27-6. When they force 15 or more, they are 23-3.
- Contain players 3-15: What makes Denver so good is its ability to find the value in role players. When you take those players out of the game and force Jokic and Jamal Murray to do it all, you at least slow the Nuggets down. They are most comfortable when everyone is getting theirs.
- Play straight up: Denver’s goal every possession is to get you to switch and then attack that advantage. If you can stay with your matchup, it forces a game of one-on-one. The Wolves are going to trust their player identities on defense. There might be some mix and matching, but their goal is to not give up easy looks for role guys.
Denver’s Defense
The Nuggets have a huge achilles heel and it’s their defense, ranking in the 20’s in overall defensive rating. They don’t have guys who are strong on the ball and they lack consistent and solid rim protection.
Denver’s goal defensively seems to be protecting the rim by way of pack defense — forcing teams to take a ton of kick-out threes or off dribble pull-up threes. The Nuggets mix between a ton of coverages and junk defenses with the goal to force turnovers and quick shots has not worked well for them this year. They will look to do what they have done against Anthony Edwards and make everyone else beat them by putting two on the ball on ball screens and mix up coverages.
Denver’s Defensive Strategy
- Minimize ball screens: Look to get the ball out of Anthony Edwards’ hands by hard trapping.
- Force turnovers against a turnover prone team: The Nuggets are kinda like the opposite of the Thunder, but they still make you uncomfortable at times by playing so packed and conservative that you can overthink.
- Force Wolves to take threes: That has been their strategy all year against Minnesota. The Wolves don’t like to shoot a ton of threes, so the Nuggets will look to pack it in and dare the Wolves to keep shooting.
Stats and screenshots provided are courtesy of wolfwisestats