DENVER _ Minnesota Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau called Thursday night's crucial visit to Denver "go time" for a team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2004.
The only place his Timberwolves went in a 100-96 loss was onto Los Angeles for Friday's game vs. the Lakers with the Wolves' postseason chances never more in doubt.
The Wolves started the game with four-time All Star Jimmy Butler active and technically available, but he did not play for a 17th consecutive game. They finished it without young star Karl-Anthony Towns, who fouled out with 1:45 left after a 26-point, 13-rebound night.
With Towns gone, the Nuggets scored five of the next six points and just hung on when Nikola Jokic's put-back tip with four seconds left preserved the victory after the Wolves had pulled within two points.
The Wolves built leads of eight points in both the second and third quarters, but the veteran guard Devin Harris and his Nuggets refused to go quietly in the night.
Both times they answered, the second time with an 18-4 burst that ended the third quarter and swiftly took the Nuggets from trailing 68-61 midway through the quarter into a 79-72 advantage by third quarter's end.
Harris' three consecutive three-pointers in the third quarter's final 1:25 fueled both the Nuggets' comeback and a big Pepsi Center crowd.
Denver made seven three-pointers and outscored the Wolves 28-18 in the third quarter alone.
The Wolves responded by scoring seven of the fourth quarter's first nine points and four times they pulled within a mere basket before Towns tied the score at 90 with 3:16 left and Nemanja Bjelica followed with a three pointer for a 93-90 lead with 2:45 left.
But Nuggets guard Jamal Murray lured Towns into his sixth and final foul of the night with 1:46 left and Murray made both free throws for a 94-93 lead with 1:46 left.
The Wolves started the night in seventh place _ thanks to tiebreaker with New Orleans _ in a Western Conference where eight teams make the playoffs.
The Nuggets were on the outside looking in, a game behind both the Wolves and the Pelicans.
"I've never seen it in all my years in the league," Denver coach Michael Malone said before the game. "This late in the year, four games, three games to go, this many teams still having a chance to be in the playoffs. It's going to be a wild seven days and I look forward to see how it all pans out."
With three games now left in the regular season, the Wolves remain in a fight for their playoff lives.
"Everyone can see everyone's fighting it out," Thibodeau said. "You're one game from fourth and one game from being out. Unusual, but it does happen. You have a bunch of teams and it's been going this way for a long time now. You have to fight it out."
Wolves point guard Jeff Teague returned to the starting lineup Thursday after he missed Sunday's home loss to Utah because of a sore knee, but Butler didn't.
The Wolves on Wednesday upgraded Butler from out to doubtful. On Thursday morning, Thibodeau said Butler would warm up before the game and called him a game-time decision. By an hour before game, he was listed as active and available to play, even if he didn't.
Just don't buy anything from Nuggets coach Michael Malone, who before Thursday's game sounded certain Butler would play in a game with such playoff implications.
"He's playing," Malone said. "C'mon, man, he's playing. I don't care what the game notes say. Believe that if you want, I have a bridge to sell you. The guy's playing. He knows what's at stake. We're preparing for all their guys to play, him, Teague."
Instead, Butler watched the game in uniform from the bench while Teague returned to the starting lineup and former Chicago Bulls teammate Derrick Rose played in his first game since he sprained an ankle March 20 against the Los Angeles Clippers.
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