Critical Injury Update Gives Wolves the Edge in Game 3 Against Denver

After rallying from 19 points down to beat the Nuggets on Monday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves are at home for Game 3 Thursday night — and Denver will have to find a way to avoid going down two games to one without one of its best players.

Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon (calf) will not play tonight in Game 3 against the Minnesota Timberwolves, league sources tell me.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) April 23, 2026

Aaron Gordon has been ruled out with a calf injury. It's been a dark turn of events for the Nuggets, who listed Gordon as probable on Wednesday's injury report, only to reduce his status to questionable on Thursday morning, ultimately leading to him being ruled out just under four hours before the scheduled 8:42 p.m. CT tip time.

The Nuggets will also be without top bench option Peyton Watson for a third straight game. Watson could miss the entire first-round series, and with Gordon's calf now problematic, Denver will need heroic efforts from Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Cam Johnson, and Tim Hardaway Jr.

Gordon had 17 points, eight rebounds, and three assists in Game 1. He followed with a pedestrian eight points, seven rebounds, and four assists in Game 2, and he's a combined 2-of-10 from three-point range through the first two games of the best-of-seven series.

Gordon played in just 36 games during the regular season. Denver went 27-9 with him in the lineup, and 27-19 without him. That reveals a winning percentage that goes from .750 with him to .587 without him. Denver's offensive rating was largely unchanged (123.0 with him, 122.6 without him), but their defensive rating went from a rather pedestrian 116.6 with him to a putrid 118.4 without him.

The Nuggets have options to replace Gordon in the starting lineup, and it'll likely be 6-foot-7 forward Spencer Jones, who started 37 games during the regular season. He averaged just 5.5 points per game this season, but he showed an ability to fill it up with 28 points against the Mavericks on Dec. 1.

Bruce Brown and Hardaway Jr. could enter the lineup, but that instantly makes Denver smaller and more vulnerable as a rebounding team.

As for Minnesota, the team issued a fresh injury report just after 5 p.m., and Anthony Edwards was still questionable with "right knee injury maintenance." Every expectation is that Edwards will play.

Minnesota is without Jaylen Clark and Terrence Shannon Jr., who have been ruled out due to illness. Neither Clark nor Shannon played in Games 1 or 2, but if an illness is sweeping through the locker room, there could be downstream impacts as the series advances to Game 4 on Saturday.

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