After the first two matches of the semi-final series between the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves, the reigning NBA champions looked lost and weak.

On the other side of the front line is a young, strong and extremely energetic “wolf pack”, wanting to challenge everything with the mindset “to become a champion, you need to defeat the champion”.

But then in the next 3 matches, the true champion spoke up.

Denver Nuggets won convincingly in Game 3 and Game 4 right in Minnesota, equalizing the series score 2-2.

Returning to the home field to welcome the Timberwolves in Game 5 this morning, Nikola Jokic and his teammates continued to show dominance, winning 112-97 to take a 3-2 lead in the series.

On the day he received the MVP title (Best Player of the tournament) in front of 19,000 home fans, Nikola Jokic proved himself worthy of every single vote of the 99 who voted for him, scoring 40 points with 13 assists and not having a turnover. any turnovers over 41 minutes of play.

Ironically, the person who took on the main responsibility of defending Nikola Jokic in this match was Rudy Gobert, the owner of the title Defensive Player of The Year – Best Defensive Player of the Year.

After the first two rounds, the winner and loser have not been decided yet, with a 6-point advantage belonging to the Denver Nuggets. But in the third quarter, Nikola Jokic “started the engine” by scoring 16 points in 12 minutes with 6-7 FGs, in addition he also assisted 4 times to help his teammates bring in 10 more points.

Jokic’s comprehensive performance made Rudy Gobert almost helpless because even when he made a mistake, Nikola still had an and-1 score.

And starting from the explosive match of “The Joker”, everything opened up for the Denver team. Aaron Gordon scored 18 points and 10 rebounds, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had the best long-range shooting game in this year’s Playoffs, scoring 16 points with 6 successful 3-pointers (6-8 3PT).

Jamal Murray had many difficulties when facing Anthony Edwards, scoring 16 points and 4 assists. But marking Murray also makes Edwards not do well in his main task of scoring points. “Ant Man” only had 5-15 FGs and scored 18 points, far below the average of 33 points/game in the series.

The two teams will meet again in Game 6 of the Western semi-final series taking place on Friday morning, May 17. The Minnesota Timberwolves will have home field advantage, however the Denver Nuggets are the more dominant team with 3 consecutive victories.