Anthony Edwards scored 24 points over the final 16 and a half minutes of basketball. Nikola Jokic scored 61 points while playing 34 straight minutes. Minnesota trailed by eight with five minutes to play in regulation, then led by six with two minutes to play in the first overtime. And all of that pa led in comparison to the chaos that took place over the final 18 seconds of the second overtime in Denver in Tuesday’s nationally-televised affair. Minnesota inbounded the ball, trailing the Nuggets 139-138. Edwards got the ball and was almost immediately doubled, a look Denver employed often down the stretch. Edwards made a number of nice reads out of the double team Tuesday, but this bounce pass went to no one. Russell Westbrook scooped up the loose ball and off he and Christian Braun went on a 2-on-1 fastbreak. They passed the ball back and forth until Westbrook had a wide-open layup at the rim that should’ve put Denver up three with nine ticks to play … but he came up well short and it clanked off the bottom of the iron. Nickeil Alexander-Walker grabbed the rebound and back Minnesota went the other way. Mike Conley got the ball to Edwards, who encroached the paint as the final seconds waned off the clock, and kicked out to an open Alexander-Walker. Alexander-Walker was brilliant Tuesday, knocking down five triples while also tallying eight assists and seven rebounds. But his attempt at the buzzer hit the front iron. It appeared as though the Wolves had dropped a thriller … until they hadn’t. The ref standing right next to Alexander-Walker signaled a foul. Sure enough, a hard-charging Westbrook hit Alexander-Walker’s arm and body as he frantically tried to close out on the shooter. So, with 0.1 seconds to play in the second overtime, Alexander-Walker went to the line for three free-throws. He swished the first two, securing Minnesota’s 140-139 victory, the Wolves’ fourth-straight victory in perhaps the wildest game of the entire NBA regular season. Minnesota was without Donte DiVincenzo and Naz Reid, who were suspended as a result of their roles in the fight with Detroit on Sunday. Denver was sans Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., both of which were surprising absences. Murray experienced hamstring tightness on Tuesday, while Porter Jr. missed the game for personal reasons. Denver doesn’t possess anything resembling Minnesota’s depth. So its short-handed roster had to be carried by Jokic and Aaron Gordon. The Serbian MVP candidate had 10 rebounds and 10 assists to go with his gaudy point total, which was a new career high for him. Jokic didn’t sit a second minute after halftime, as Denver coach Mike Malone went all in on trying to pull off the victory. Yet Jokic never seemed to fatigue. He continued to generate good shots for himself and his teammates. Unfortunately for him, the only teammate knocking any of those looks down was Gordon. The forward, who was absent for last month’s meeting in which Minnesota thrashed the Nuggets in Denver, finished with 30 points and eight rebounds. He and Jokic sparked a flurry to open the fourth quarter that quickly moved the Nuggets from down five to up two. Minnesota was stuck in neutral for the next four minutes of action, until its best player finally came to life. Edwards was largely a bystander for the first 40-plus minutes of Tuesday’s affair. But he nailed a triple to trim Minnesota’s deficit to eight with fewer than seven minutes to go in the fourth. Then he used his gravity to set up teammates for a series of plays. He then hit a triple to knot the game at 108-108 with 2:34 to play, and hit another to put Minnesota up 25 seconds later. At that point, it appeared as though the Wolves were set to put away the Nuggets. But that never happened. Minnesota had chances to win the game at the end of regulation and overtime. But the final offensive possessions left much to be desired. With the game tied at 112-112, Julius Randle’s triple try at the end of the fourth was no good. With 24 seconds to play in overtime, Minnesota forced a rare Jokic miss to get the ball back with a two-point lead. At that point, Denver would’ve had to foul. But Edwards stunningly threw the ball across the court, and the pass was picked off by Braun. Jokic tied the game on Denver’s ensuing possession, and Minnesota’s final shot attempt was an air ball from Jaden McDaniels. The second overtime was the whackiest of all, even before the wild final sequence. There were eight lead changes over that five-minute span. The game was knotted with 20 seconds to play, when officials didn’t get a good view on an out-of-bounds call, and therefore ruled a jump ball. McDaniels fouled Jokic on the resulting jump, and the center hit one free throw to put Denver on top. And the chaos ensued from there. With the win, Minnesota (44-32) completed a season sweep of Denver, and has now topped the Nuggets (47-29) six-straight times dating back to last year’s second-round playoff series. More importantly for the Wolves, they moved into a tie for the all-important No. 6 seed with Memphis. The Grizzlies own the head-to-head tiebreaker, but they’re in free fall at the moment and have a far more difficult schedule than Minnesota with six games to play.Related Articles Can Timberwolves avoid play-in tournament? A guide to Minnesota’s playoff prospects Donte DiVincenzo, Naz Reid suspended for Wolves game Tuesday in Denver March was good to Timberwolves Wolves top Pistons on fight night in Minneapolis Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert driving the bus on Timberwolves’ team success ...read more read less