The absence of three key ingredients didn’t stop Nikola Jokic from cooking up a win over the Timberwolves on Christmas.

Here are three takeaways from Denver’s 142-138 overtime win over Minnesota on Thursday at Ball Arena:

1. Nikola Jokic’s ability to prop up an offense almost on his own is rather remarkable. Denver was down three starters and still put up 32 points in the first quarter against a Minnesota team that started the night with the league’s fifth-best defensive rating. Jokic played all of the first 12 minutes and scored 18 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists. He scored or assisted 10 of Denver’s 12 field goals in the opening quarter. Jokic recorded the 179^th triple-double of his career with more than seven minutes left in the third quarter. He’s two away from tying Oscar Robertson for second all-time. Jokic finished with 56 points, 16 rebounds and 15 assists, carrying Denver to a win that secured the season tiebreaker over the rival Timberwolves. It’s believed to be the second game in NBA history with 50 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists. James Harden recorded the first one in 2016.
2. Nuggets fans weren’t the only ones riding an emotional wave the last 48 hours after Cam Johnson’s scary injury in Dallas.

“Wildly up and down, because the initial conversation was ‘Hey, maybe it’s not as bad as it looked.’ Then, there’s like this optimistic maybe it’s only a week or two,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “Then, you get the real thing yesterday.”

The real thing proved to be a hyperextended right knee. Johnson will be reevaluated in four to six weeks, the Nuggets announced Thursday afternoon. It’s neither a best-case nor worst-case scenario. The non-contact nature of the injury was enough to cause concern it might’ve been a season-ending injury, which would’ve left Denver in a real dilemma.

“I feel for Cam, man. I just feel like his trajectory was really just going up – not the stats, just how he was playing,” Adelman said. “He was a high-minute guy for us, kind of helping bridge the gap between the starters and second unit. It sucks for him. We’ll just have to make do.”

The Nuggets hope to get a couple of starters back on the upcoming road trip that starts Saturday in Orlando and ends Jan. 7 in Boston. Adelman said Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon both got some on-court work in earlier Thursday, but he didn’t feel like one player was necessarily closer to returning than the other.

“They looked pretty much in the same place,” Adelman said.

• After a lot of conversation, Adelman and his coaching staff decided to start Tim Hardaway Jr. alongside Jamal Murray, Peyton Watson, Spencer Jones and Nikola Jokic.

“We went a million different ways today, talking about the rotation. It’s not about who starts, honestly,” Adelman said. “It’s trying to find the best way to rotate the group that makes the best sense to stay in the game and win the game.”

Hardaway’s microwave scoring off the bench has shifted momentum in each of Denver’s last two games, and he was the first player subbed off for Bruce Brown, which still allowed him to bring some scoring punch to Denver’s second unit. Julian Strawther was the second player off the bench, while Zeke Nnaji and Jonas Valanciunas completed a nine-man rotation.

“You have an intelligent guesstimation of a new rotation to play, but you have to give it a couple of games,” Adelman said. “Let’s just say it doesn’t go well today, you can’t just say ‘OK, well, let’s just scrap it. We’ll just reinvent ourselves as we go here. I’m looking at this as just another chapter in the season. It’s what it is.”

NUGGETS 142, TIMBERWOLVES 138

What happened: Denver led by three after the first quarter and started with the second half with a 57-55 advantage. The Nuggets opened up a 14-point lead to start the fourth, but Anthony Edwards sunk a game-tying 3 with 1.1 seconds left to send the game to overtime. Denver erased a nine-point deficit in overtime.

What went right: The Nuggets outscored the Timberwolves by 21 points from 3-point range despite taking two fewer attempts. Jamal Murray went 9 for 18, and Nikola Jokic went 4 for 6.

What went wrong: Minnesota turned 17 Nuggets turnovers into 26 points. Denver generated just 13 points off 14 Timberwolves turnovers.

Highlight of the night: Peyton Watson took advantage of an open lane in the final minute of the third quarter. After turning the corner on former teammate Bones Hyland, Watson cupped the ball in his right hand and threw down a powerful punch that put Denver up 15.

Up next: The Nuggets start their longest road trip of the season, a seven-game trip, Saturday in Orlando.