The chance to be No. 14 is still alive and looking increasingly likely.

Denver’s 125-113 win over the Timberwolves on Monday at Ball Arena extended the first-round series to a sixth game. With a win Thursday in Minneapolis, the Nuggets will have a chance to complete the 14^th comeback from down 3-1 in NBA history.

“It’s just a good win, and you move on,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “Tomorrow, we’ll sit down, talk with the guys, get them right. It gives us a chance to go through things on Wednesday and try to win on Thursday.”

Teams that take a 3-1 lead have advanced 285 out of 298 times. Boston, Houston and Denver are the only franchises that have done it multiple times.

“I have been here before,” Jokic said. “We know that when you’re playing an elimination game, you need to be extremely focused and extremely locked in. I think we did that for most of this night.”

The Nuggets gave themselves a chance with another Jokic triple-double, a 24-point performance from Jamal Murray and complementary scoring nights from Spencer Jones (20) and Cam Johnson (18).

Jokic finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds and 16 assists to tie Russell Westbrook for the most triple-doubles in a career when the regular season and postseason are combined.

After struggling to make 3-pointers for most of the series, Denver finished 11 for 29, led by Jones’s 4-for-5 performance. Jones also contributed three steals and three blocks

Julius Randle led the Timberwolves with 27 points. A game after scoring 43 points off the bench, Ayo Dosunmu finished with 18 points in a starting role.

The odds are long, but Denver’s chances are helped by injuries to Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo that will keep Minnesota’s starting backcourt out for the remainder of the series. The Nuggets became favored by sportsbooks after Minnesota’s Naz Reid left the game in the third quarter with an ankle injury. Reid returned to the game.

“We were just focused,” Bruce Brown said. “Nobody wants to go home. We knew we had to bring our best, and we’ve got to do that in Minnesota. … Some guys in this locker room were down 3-1 before and came back and won. We’ve just got confidence in each other to go out and win.”

The Nuggets are the most recent team to make a 3-1 comeback, doing so against the Jazz and Clippers in the 2020 bubble. A couple of more performances like Monday’s, and Denver will own the last three instances of a team completing the comeback. It’s too early to tell if the Nuggets could get Aaron Gordon or Peyton Watson back in time for Game 6.

“I have no idea. It’s frustrating, obviously, but I think we have to prepare like they’re not going to (play),” Adelman said.

“If the updates get positive, then you can change your routine, so to speak, of how you prepare. Obviously, it changes your gameplan a lot, especially defensively.”

Of the 13 teams to come back from a 3-1 deficit, the Celtics (1968, 1981), the Rockets (1995) and the Cavaliers (2016) went on to win the championships. Boston and Houston’s comebacks came in the conference finals, while Cleveland’s came against Golden State in the 2016 Finals.

The Nuggets still need two straight wins if they want a chance to be the first team to come back from down 3-1 to go on to win a title.

“Tonight was just a little bit better than it’s been,” Adelman said of the first four games. “These series, they’re long man. Game 6 will be it’s own story, so we’ll look at the things we didn’t do well.”

NUGGETS 125, TIMBERWOLVES 113

What happened: Denver led by five to start the second quarter and took a 60-51 lead to halftime. Minnesota fell behind by 22 after the third quarter and never closed within single digits.

What went right: The Nuggets forced nine Timberwolves turnovers in the first quarter. Minnesota finished with 25 turnovers, which the Nuggets turned into 35 points.

What went wrong: Just when it looked like the Nuggets were going to be able to rest their starters in the final minutes, Minnesota scored 38 points in the fourth quarter.

Highlight of the night: Bruce Brown threw down a ferocious one-handed dunk to give the Nuggets a seven-point lead with five minutes left in the second quarter.

Up next: Game 6 is Thursday in Minnesota, though a tipoff time had not been announced at the final horn.