DENVER — Trailing by six at half, Minnesota went on an 11-3 run to claim a two-point advantage early in the third frame of Game 5 on Tuesday. The table appeared to be set for a classic second half featuring two of the best teams in the NBA trading blows.

Then Nikola Jokic happened.

On the night when the Nuggets’ center was awarded his third MVP trophy at center court prior to opening tipoff, Jokic again proved himself worthy of the designation. With the game tied at 55-all, Denver proceeded to score on four consecutive possessions. Jokic assisted on every single bucket.

From there, he took over with his scoring. Karl-Anthony Towns, Naz Reid, Kyle Anderson, Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert — it didn’t make a difference. No matter which bodies, nor how many, Minnesota threw at Jokic, he found a way to score.

In the third quarter alone, Jokic finished with 16 points, four assists and three rebounds to help Denver build a 14-point advantage.

For the night, the current best player in basketball tallied 40 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds to power the Nuggets to a 112-97 victory.

The Nuggets lead the Western Conference semifinals series 3-2. Game 6 is Thursday in Minneapolis.

Jokic, fittingly, delivered the dagger Tuesday, a triple over the outstretched arm of Gobert to put Denver up 14 with 3 minutes, 9 seconds to play as Minnesota was trying to mount a late charge.

For the first time this season, the Timberwolves have lost three consecutive games. It couldn’t have come at a worse moment. Three games ago, the Wolves looked to be cruising into the West finals. Now, they’re facing elimination.

The offense has largely been to blame. It was especially anemic for much of Tuesday’s contest.

Without Mike Conley — who missed the game with a sore calf — Minnesota couldn’t find a consistent offensive rhythm. Denver consistently doubled Anthony Edwards, who was swarmed all evening, and also didn’t seem to have the same offensive burst he possessed in Game 4. Edwards finished with just 18 points on 5 for 15 shooting.

Karl-Anthony Towns appeared to tweak his knee in the first quarter in a collision with Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Towns briefly left the contest and hit the exercise bike before returning to action. He finished with 23 points and six rebounds.

The Wolves committed 14 turnovers that led to 18 Denver points.

The defending champion Nuggets tallied 60 points in the paint. They had 16 fast break points to Minnesota’s four.

In all the ways you could be out-played, Minnesota was on Tuesday. It’s led for less than a minute total in the second half over the last three games.

The Wolves have one more chance to turn the tide back in their favor on Thursday. If they don’t, a team with championship aspirations will be done in Round 2.

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Before her team’s season opener Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve spoke about the “great challenge” in facing a Seattle team she believes will be a top three team in the WNBA this season.

“I like the opportunity to be really thrown into the fire and see us get hit with some adversity because that will happen tonight,” Reeve said.

Reeve had to like what she saw.

Napheesa Collier finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds and Minnesota pulled away late to beat Seattle 83-70 Tuesday in the Emerald City.

The two teams meet again in Minnesota’s home opener Friday at 8:30 p.m.

Collier’s stat line is to be expected of one of the league’s top players, but a couple of Lynx newcomers quickly made their presence known.­­

Alanna Smith scored a career-high 22 points, and Courtney Williams added 14 points, seven assists and five steals, one off her career high.

Minnesota had 15 steals and eight blocks. It shot 45.3% from the field.

“There were some shots that we missed that we should have made. But I think we stayed really consistent, consistent in our emotions,” Smith said on the team’s radio postgame.

Smith, a 6-foot-4 free-agent signee, is expected to provide some more offensive versatility from the post. She made three of her four shots from outside the arc, an area where Minnesota finished 7 of 23 as a team. Solid around the rim, Smith grabbed eight rebounds and had four blocks.

Minnesota outscored Seattle 20-10 in the final quarter.

Collier’s 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter gave Minnesota a 70-62 lead. After a block by Cecilia Zandalasini, Collier drained a jumper at the other end, and added a layup less than a minute later to cap a 25-8 Minnesota spurt and provide a 12-point cushion.

A long jumper by Williams and 3-pointer was followed by a trey from Kayla McBride and the Lynx were up 79-64 with 4:13 left.

“We’ve got a lot of weapons and I think it’s gonna be anyone’s night throughout this season,” Smith said.

Down by eight points early in the second quarter, Minnesota scored the final seven points of the first half for a 45-44 lead. The final from a trio of guards that could very well see some significant court time together this season.

Natisha Hiedeman forced a turnover with 17 seconds left, Williams missed a layup, but McBride followed for a tip.

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Given that rapper Megan Thee Stallion has loomed large as one of hip-hop’s biggest stars in the time since her 2019 breakthrough hit “Hot Girl Summer,” it was a bit of a surprise that her concert Tuesday at Target Center was the first show of her first-ever tour as a headliner.

Not to say she doesn’t have experience working a crowd, as Megan has toured as the opener for Future and Dua Lipa and played pretty much every festival out there. But she wasn’t the main attraction — not until Tuesday night at the downtown Minneapolis basketball arena in front of a capacity crowd.

She opened with her recent single “Hiss,” her third Billboard Hot 100 chart topper and the first-ever solo female rap song to debut No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200. And from there, she worked in eight more songs — “Thot S—,” “Freak Nasty” and “Hot Girl” among them — along with an extended dance break in a mere 25 minutes.

With energy bursting from both the stage and the audience, that first act proved to be one of the most unabashedly fun and almost comically profane openings of an arena show in recent memory. Her large, but relatively simple, stage helped amp up the party energy. The circular stage had cutouts on either side for VIP sections filled with fist-pumping and twerking fans.

After a brief break to change costumes, Megan returned for a strong run of “Plan B,” “Cognac Queen,” “Big Ole Freak” and “Girls in the Hood” that ended with her most recent single, “Boa.” Both “Hiss” and “Boa” are from her upcoming third album, which seems to be snake-themed. (Serpent imagery also showed up on the big screens throughout the evening.)

But midway through the show, Megan slowed things down, almost to a crawl. She stopped rapping and began wandering aimlessly and chatting with the crowd. She goofed around with folks in the VIP sections in a manner that didn’t really play to the rest of the arena. At one point, she pulled said fans onto the stage to dance in a segment that somehow managed to feel chaotic and dull at the same time.

Things picked up considerably for her third act, which opened with “WAP,” her notoriously racy 2020 Cardi B collaboration that topped the charts around the world. After “Cash S—,” she stopped the action once again. Although this time it was because she needed help with her in-ear monitors and her playful banter with both the crowd and the blushing crew guys proved Megan Thee Stallion can be a real charmer when she wants to be.

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