Nuggets-Timberwolves takeaways: Ayo Dosunmu joins NBA playoff lore while Denver stares down elimination

Saturday night in Minnesota was a lot.

Ayo Dosunmu’s star turn was unexpected, but there he was carrying the Timberwolves on his back without two of their best players. With Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo both ruled out, Dosunmu went off for a career-high 43 points off the bench. The Wolves gutted it out for a 112-96 win and now the Denver Nuggets are staring down elimination.

Advertisement

Let’s get to some takeaways.

AYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!?!?!?!

Based on my (quick) research, coming in to Saturday night there had been three players who scored 40+ points in the playoffs coming off the bench. Downtown Freddie Brown had 45 points for the Seattle Supersonics in the 1976 Western Conference finals. Nick Van Exel had 40 points for the Dallas Mavericks in the 2003 Western Conference semifinals. Stephen Curry had 40 points off a four game absence against the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2016 Western Conference semifinals.

It’s time to add Ayo Dosunmu to the list. That’s right, Ayo Dosunmu.

It was one thing in Game 3 when he was able to find a level of aggression, to mix in drives to punish the Denver Nuggets defense. It’s another thing in this game where, with the absence of both Donte DiVincenzo and Anthony Edwards (prayers up), they needed every single one of his buckets: 13 of 17 from the field, 5 of 5 from 3, 12 of 12 from the line, an incredible career-making moment. His command and control, pushing the pace for Minnesota, attacking the space of Nikola Jokić’s drop. If it was 1v1, he was getting in the paint. If you cut him off, he was letting it fly. It was the pullups, it was the floaters, it was the paint touches but it was the total comfort he displayed. Twenty-seven of his 43 points came in the second half when both Donte and Ant were ruled out.

Advertisement

To put it in perspective, in the second half, Jokić/Murray combined for 27. That’s what Ayo did by himself

Dosunmu now becomes the third Minnesota Timberwolves player to score 40 or more in a playoff game (Anthony Edwards, Sam Cassell) and they needed every single bucket to pull this one out.

Minnesota gutted this one out

In all of the hoopla…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/nuggets-timberwolves-takeaways-ayo-dosunmu-joins-nba-playoff-lore-while-denver-stares-down-elimination-044527335.html

Author : Steve Jones

Publish date : 2026-04-26 04:45:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.