Nikola Jokic delivers in late-night Christmas win over Timberwolves

Edwards continued by scoring seven of the first nine points of OT before Jokic hit two threes and scored eight points of his own to tie the game. Then, after Jokic lost the ball, Rudy Gobert tried to steal the Christmas game, jumping in to steal the ball from Jokic on a busted play where Jokic was called for a foul.

But referee Scott Foster made the call, and when he checked it twice on replay, he reversed the decision. Gobert fouled out, Jokic made two free throws and everything fell apart for the Wolves in the final minute while Jokic poured in 18 overtime points.

Anthony Edwards got tossed after his heroics

Edwards finished with 44 points, with the final two coming on a massive dunk 25 seconds to go. Hyped up, he tried to knock the ball away from Jokic on the inbounds pass, drawing a delay-of-game technical foul.

Seconds later, Foster gave Edwards another technical and ejected him, essentially acting as the Ebenezer Scrooge of the final Christmas game. Gobert, Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo all fouled out or were ejected in the last minute.

It put a sour ending on a classic Christmas thriller, especially since the Timberwolves had already proved they could make dramatic comebacks. When the Wolves closed the gap, the Nuggets had to be flashing back to Game 7 of their second-round series in 2024, when Minnesota erased a 16-point second-half deficit.

This time, Jokic and Jamal Murray put the Nuggets on their backs, with Murray drilling nine threes and scoring 35 points. The Nuggets went to the Jokic-Murray two-man game over and over down the stretch, and the two combined for 64% of Denver's points.

The Nuggets moved to 3-0 against the Timberwolves this season, giving them the head-to-head tiebreaker in playoff seeding. Given how Thursday's game went, the NBA should be asking Santa for a playoff rematch between the two teams, even if the drama happened when people on the East Coast were nestled all snug in their beds.