The Timberwolves essentially could’ve clinched the No. 1 seed in the West and home court for the duration of the conference playoffs with a win Wednesday in Denver.

They didn’t get it.

Instead, Minnesota was turned away by the defending champs, falling 116-107 to the Nuggets.

Denver (56-24) now holds a one-game lead over the Wolves (55-25) with just two games to play, and the Timberwolves are tied with Oklahoma City in the standings. Minnesota holds the tiebreaker over both teams, but the Wolves now have to win each of their final two games to guarantee a top-two seed.

Minnesota isn’t dead in the race for the top seed in the Western Conference, but it now needs Denver and Oklahoma City to each lose once, or the Nuggets to lose both of their two remaining contest. That appears highly unlikely given Denver’s final two games are against cellar dwellers in San Antonio and Memphis.

Minnesota simply didn’t rise to the occasion in the fourth frame Wednesday.

For the first two and a half quarters, the Wolves looked like the better team, as they’ve looked throughout much of the previous three meetings this season. Minnesota matches up well with Denver.

But Denver knows how to execute to close out big games late. The Nuggets had to do it numerous times en route to their championship last spring. After the Wolves defense appeared to give Denver trouble at various moments on Wednesday, Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic shredded Minnesota time and time again over the final eight minutes in Denver.

The Nuggets got whatever shot they wanted. Jokic was the catalyst. Even against Rudy Gobert — the presumptive Defensive Player of the Year — Jokic scored with ease. The best player in basketball finished with 41 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists while going 16 for 20 from the field.

And when Minnesota had to compensate for his dominance, Jokic simply used his gravity to find teammates for open jumpers or cutting finishes.

The game was tied 84-all with fewer than 10 minutes to play, only to see Denver go on a 26-10 run to put the game away.

Minnesota’s Achilles’ heel all season has been clutch-time performance, and the Wolves were taken to school in late-game execution by Denver down the stretch. By game’s end, Minnesota misses were routinely resulting in Denver dunks on the other end. What looked like a title bout quickly devolved into a laugher.

Wolves coach Chris Finch emptied Minnesota’s bench with 2 minutes, 40 seconds to play and the Wolves down 16.

That late-game weakness likely cost Minnesota the No. 1 seed in the West. The challenge now is for the Wolves to make sure it doesn’t cost them a playoff series.

That will be the narrative moving away from Wednesday’s contest. All season, the Wolves — even amid their success — have been doubted at the national level. They’ve been lauded for their success, but never taken seriously as a title contender.

No one who watched the fourth quarter Wednesday on ESPN will think any differently.

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Pitching for the Schaumburg Boomers, an independent team in the Frontier League, in 2021, Burnsville native Aaron Rozek was resigned to the fact that his dream of reaching the major leagues had reached a critical stage.

If he still found himself in independent ball at season’s end, he was prepared to call it a career, one that included pitching for Minnesota State-Mankato from 2014-18.

Everything changed on June 24, 2021, when he signed as a minor-league free agent with the Twins. Less than three years later, he’s back in his hometown, pitching for the Saints.

“As far as I’m concerned,” the 28-year-old Rozek said, “I’m playing with house money.”

Rozek was all smiles prior to the Saints’ 4-1 loss to the Iowa Cubs on Wednesday at CHS Field as he detailed the journey that brought him back to the Twin Cities. He joined the Saints four days ago, called up from Double-A Wichita to take the place of right-hander Jeff Brigham, who is sidelined with a left oblique strain.

While playing with that house money, Rozek has beaten the odds.

“Knowing where velo stands with pitchers, I thought that there was a very small chance that this was going to happen,” Rozek said. “When I went to indy ball, it was just to
extend being a kid without many responsibilities for as long as possible.”

Not a hard thrower, the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Rozek has relied on good control, keeping hitters off balance by changing speeds — and family — to make it to the Triple-A level.

“I’ve been really blessed to have a great support group,” he said, “With my wife, Cassidy, and my parents, to be able to continue to pursue my dream.”

Rozek, who attended Burnsville High School, grew up a Twins fan. His favorite player was left-handed pitcher Johan Santana, whom he was thrilled to meet after joining the Twins
organization.

“He’s the reason I fell in love with pitching,” Rozek said. “He’s why I love the change-up; that’s my go-to pitch. He’s the reason I wore No. 57″

Now that he’s one step away from the majors, Rozek said he has allowed himself to think about what it would be like to put on a Twins uniform.

“But I’m just taking it day be day,” he said. “There’s so much that goes into being called up, I don’t want to have that take away from the day-to-day thing.”

Rozek’s parents are still in Burnsville, and he has extended family in Fridley and Columbia Heights that he looks forward to seeing at CHS Field. Now that he’s here, he knows he has to show that he belongs.

“Hitters are hitters,” said Rozek, who will work out of the bullpen after primarily being a starter. “The best still get out seven out of 10 times. So I just have to remember that. As long as I put the ball over the white, house-shaped object in front of me, good things are going to happen, more than likely.”

Rozek, who has yet to appear in a game for the Saints, has six pitches in repertoire: a four-seam and two-seam fastball, a cutter, a sweeping slider, a curve and a change-up.

“I’m not going to blow anyone way with velo,” he said, “But hopefully command is going to be where it’s been in the past.”

Briefly

Saints starter Randy Dobnak cruised through four innings on Wednesday before giving up a three-run home run to Patrick Wisdom, who is on rehab assignment from the Chicago Cubs.

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By STEFANIE DAZIO and CHRISTOPHER WEBER (Associated Press)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who authorities say fatally stabbed her partner at their Los Angeles apartment Monday then threw her two children from a moving SUV onto the freeway, killing her infant daughter, was an astrologer who called the impending solar eclipse “the epitome of spiritual warfare” in an online post days earlier.

Los Angeles police believe Danielle Cherakiyah Johnson, 34, posted on X as an astrology influencer and recording artist with the moniker “ Ayoka,” in the days leading up to the violence, which began hours before the eclipse peaked in Southern California, said Lt. Guy Golan.

While detectives have reviewed Johnson’s posts, police are not considering the eclipse to be a precipitating or contributing factor to the slayings “because we just don’t know why she did what she did,” Golan told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

“We’ve taken all the facts we can, but without being able to interview her and without having something more tangible than a post on X, I don’t know how much weight you can give to somebody (saying) there’s an apocalypse and attribute it to one of the most horrific murders we’ve had in LA,” Golan, who is head of the homicide unit investigating the case, said.

Authorities say Johnson and her partner, 29-year-old Jaelen Allen Chaney, had an argument around 3:40 a.m. Monday in their apartment in Woodland Hills, about 25 miles (42 km) northwest of downtown LA. Johnson stabbed Chaney and fled with her kids, an 8-month-old girl and her 9-year-old sister, in a Porsche Cayenne.

Johnson then drove along Interstate 405 in Culver City and threw her daughters out of the moving SUV around 4:30 a.m., police said. The baby was pronounced dead on the road, but the older daughter — who witnessed the stabbing — survived with moderate injuries.

Johnson traveled southwest to Redondo Beach, where a half-hour later she was driving over 100 miles per hour (160 kph) and crashed into a tree. The LAPD is investigating whether the solo crash was an apparent suicide.

The Los Angeles Times first reported on Johnson’s social media activities in connection with the killings.

“Get your protection on and your heart in the right place,” she posted April 4 to more than 105,000 followers on X. “The world is very obviously changing right now and if you ever needed to pick a side, the time to do right in your life is now. Stay strong you got this.”

On April 5, she posted in all caps, “Wake up wake up the apocalypse is here. Everyone who has ears listen. Your time to choose what you believe is now.”

Her social media also included a mix of antisemitic screeds, conspiracy theories about vaccines and warnings about the end of the world alongside astrological predictions and positive affirmations. Also on April 5, she posted the word “LOVE” dozens of times. Her personal website offers a variety of services including “zodiac healing work,” “alcohol balancing system” and an “aura cleanse.”

Johnson’s internet presence and online following dates back years. The Fader, a music magazine, interviewed her in 2016 as an astrology personality.

Golan said there were no calls for police to respond to the couple’s apartment prior to Monday’s killing, when neighbors called 911 after seeing the door open. Johnson did not have a felony criminal record in California and there were no indications of reported domestic violence.

Detectives did not immediately link the Woodland Hills slaying to the daughters, Golan said. He was in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood when he started getting push alerts from news organizations on his cellphone about the infant’s death on the roadway in Culver City. Investigators realized there might be a connection between two missing children from the family’s apartment and the tragedy on the interstate.

“I was like ‘Oh, there’s two young girls who were stranded on the 405 Freeway.’ That is such a random and terrible thing to hear about. And we knew there were two young children,” Golan continued. “We were setting up an Amber Alert.”

Golan said detectives discovered candles and cards inside the apartment, but he was not sure whether they were tarot cards.

“They didn’t look like your standard deck of cards that you would play poker with,” he said.

The solar eclipse’s path of totality stretched from Mazatlán, Mexico, to Newfoundland, Canada, a swath approximately 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide. Revelers were engulfed in darkness at state parks, on city rooftops and in small towns when the moon blocked out the sun, though Southern California only saw a partial eclipse that peaked at 11:12 a.m.

Across the globe, the celestial event spawned fears of the apocalypse and other suspicions rooted in religion and spirituality. But Golan noted that others who posted online about their eclipse-related worries did not commit violence like Johnson.

“How many people wrote about it,” he said, “and didn’t go out and murder somebody?”