DENVER — Ghosts of Timberwolves games past roamed the rafters of Ball Arena. They were on the loose this Christmas, haunting the halls of the concourse, whispering in the ears of Nuggets players who’ve been around long enough to remember Rudy Gobert’s Game 7 fade-away or Russell Westbrook’s foul at the buzzer. They caused the arena’s tenants to tense up.

Nobody knows how to torment Denver like Anthony Edwards and the Wolves.

But Nikola Jokic is the city’s exorcist.

Edwards resurrected the Timberwolves with a last-second 3-pointer to cap a 15-point fourth-quarter comeback and force overtime, but Denver’s two stars recovered from the gut punch and sent their fans home happy despite a collective holiday heart attack. In a Christmas classic likely to be remembered as one of the great games of his career, Jokic amassed 56 points, 16 rebounds and 15 assists. Jamal Murray added 35 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 35 seconds remaining overtime.

That was enough for a 142-138 Nuggets win without three injured starters and 3-0 season series lead over their division rivals, who’ve handed Jokic and Murray multiple heartbreaking losses at Ball Arena in recent years.

“I had a good game,” Jokic said, downplaying the first 55-15-15 stat line in NBA history.

It was accomplished on 15-of-21 shooting from the field and 22-of-23 shooting from the foul line.

“I’ve been a part of it on the other side of it: They’re gonna show this game 20 years from now,” coach David Adelman said, “and I’ll crack open a beer and watch it. There are other ones I flip on on NBATV and I immediately change the channel.”

The Nuggets (22-8) trailed 124-115 with three minutes left in overtime when Adelman called a timeout to stop the bleeding. Minnesota was on a 17-2 run tracing back to the last 30 seconds of regulation, when Denver coughed up a six-point lead. Edwards, playing through pain in his right shoulder, was having his way with a short-handed Nuggets defense. His unapologetically smug grin felt like a death sentence.

“It sounds crazy, but I didn’t think we were completely out of it, just because the way that game was and the shot-making and the star players doing what they did,” Adelman said. “You just felt like there were more moments to the game, if we could just ourselves back into it.”

Jokic reignited an offense on fumes by using a pin-down screen from Spencer Jones to get open for a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer. Tim Hardaway Jr., starting in place of the injured Cam Johnson, followed with a 3 in transition. Then the Nuggets ran the same play to free up Jokic for a catch on the right wing again. Jones, the starting lineup’s surrogate for Aaron Gordon, recognized an adjustment in Minnesota’s coverage and tweaked the angle of his screen to hold off Jaden McDaniels. Jokic buried the shot again.

“That gave us life,” Jokic said. “We fight. We have injured guys, but we played small probably most of the game. It was a tough game. It was a fight all 53 minutes.”

The Nuggets ended the game on a 27-14 run, all in the last three minutes. Jokic scored 18 of those points, setting an NBA record for the highest-scoring overtime period ever by an individual player. He potted a game-tying floater with 1:26 left after Gobert shanked a put-back dunk attempt — perhaps a moment of karmic redemption for his improbable 2024 jump shot at the same end of the floor. That went on to be recognized as the defining play of Minnesota’s infamous 20-point Game 7 comeback to eliminate the Nuggets in 2024.

“You never forget those things,” Peyton Watson said, “but I think that’s for the better. I don’t think anybody here is scared of the moment.”

Certain memories will never fade completely, no matter how hard Adelman tries to ignore their re-runs on television. But for one night at least, the ghosts were cast out when Edwards was ushered to the locker room early, ejected with 20 seconds left in overtime and the game still withing reach. A sold out crowd exceeding 20,000 enthusiastically wished him a merry Christmas on his way out.

He left with 44 points on 25 shots.

But Jokic got the last laugh. Moments before the ejection, Edwards had also been whistled for a delay of game after trying to slap the ball away from Jokic. The three-time league MVP, usually a personification of poise to a fault, let out an emphatic bellow in response to that call.

“I don’t believe in the rivalry, in the beef, whatever.,” Jokic said. “If there is any. For me, it’s just another game.”

“I don’t care,” Murray concurred.

Jokic’s 56 points matched the second-highest point total of his career. His career-high of 61? That was in April of this year, in the most recent home game he played against Minnesota. It was the highest-scoring triple-double in NBA history, but it wasn’t enough to win a game that lasted two overtimes and ended with Westbrook fouling a jump shooter as time expired.

Again, a new memory provided some healing. The Nuggets may have wasted 61-10-10, but they didn’t waste 56-16-15.

“We’re watching history. … This is something that doesn’t happen again,” Watson said. “We will never see anything like this again. And I think everybody needs to be really paying attention.”

Jokic’s teammates have habit of telling reporters they’re unsurprised by his statistical feats, but Watson rejected that school of thought this time. “Nah bro, I’m tired of not being surprised,” he said. That (crap) surprised me, bro. We can’t continue to just dismiss what this guy does on a night-to-night basis. Bro, it’s unbelievable.”

The Nuggets’ comeback saved them from their own collapse. They led 106-91 with five minutes to go in regulation. They led 113-107 with 35 seconds remaining after seemingly staving off an initial 16-2 run. But Minnesota was granted one last life when Edwards drew a foul on a 3-point attempt, allowing him to cut the deficit in half and Chris Finch to play out the ensuing defensive possession without fouling.

Murray committed a live-ball turnover late in the shot clock, and McDaniels flushed an easy transition dunk with 4.8 seconds to go, trimming the deficit to one. The time was down to 3.6 after Jokic made a pair of free throws.

That’s when Edwards worked his dark magic, backpedaling into his team’s bench as he admired the arc of a desperation game-tying 3 over Murray. It splashed through the net with 1.1 seconds left. Denver didn’t have a timeout remaining to advance the ball — only regrets about how the play was handled. Not for the first time this season, the Nuggets did not foul with a three-point lead late.

“You have to make the ball go toward the basket,” Adelman said. “It’s another really good situation for us to walk through and talk about. The shot was incredible. I thought it was a good contest.”

Fortunately for the Nuggets, that shot and the entire sequence preceding it turned out to be a harmless roll of film to study — not another agonizing memory. Jokic made sure of that. When was pushed about his lame choice of adjective to describe his game, he elevated the self-praise from “good” to “really good.”

Edwards didn’t speak to reporters to comment on the game or his ejection. The final buzzer sounded at 11:42 p.m. local time. Christmas was already over for half the country, including in Minnesota. The Timberwolves cleared out of Ball Arena quickly, gone like a ghost.

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