2024 NBA Playoffs: West Semifinals: #2 Denver Nuggets vs #3 Minnesota Timberwolves (MIN WINS 4-3)

[thinktank]

It’s honestly just sad and embarrassing if this is a grown man posting this **** about Jokic.

I used to really despise LeBron when he was on Miami and always wanted him to lose. When he beat Boston I didn’t cry and post all sorts of childish garbage.

When he dropped 45 against us in game 6 in 2012 of the ECF I could appreciate the greatness I’d just seen.

Why even bother watching basketball if you’re so damn miserable and bitter about other players/teams?

That’s odd to assume Celtics beat Denver then, right? If you’re respecting Jokic?

You can respect a player and still have confidence in your team that is the current championship favourite.

Crazy concept I know.

Your Boston obsession is weird.

This is a Wolves / Denver thread.

Boston is my second favorite team. I defend Tatum.

[Jaqua92]

Wolves split with Celtics in RS. I just don’t see it.

Your core is Tatum and Brown.

Regular season is irrelevant. Wolves looked like the better team than Denver in the regular season during all of their matchups.

Celtics are being disrespected. They were historically good, and if OKC, Mavs, OR Minnesota came out of the West, Celtics win handily. We've seen Minnesota struggle against a more competent defense now.

Boston has the #2 defense in the NBA. Minnesota will struggle. Boston has 4 different guys who they can throw at Ant.

Boston wins in 5, or 6. Stop disrespecting them just because they're Boston.


They lose to Denver in the finals in 6 though. Timberwolves blew the Celtic's chances this year.

You want it both ways.

“RS doesn’t matter. Boston was historically good.”

Make up your mind.

If this Boston core wins a chip, THEN you can start the chip guarantees. Not before.

You can’t guarantee something you’ve never done.

Regular season matchups don't matter..but the entirety of the season, especially a historical one, is indicative of a legit championship squad.

I also said I think they lose to Senver.

[GrandTheftRondo]

That’s odd to assume Celtics beat Denver then, right? If you’re respecting Jokic?

You can respect a player and still have confidence in your team that is the current championship favourite.

Crazy concept I know.

Your Boston obsession is weird.

This is a Wolves / Denver thread.

Boston is my second favorite team. I defend Tatum.

The above post you quoted is me talking about Jokic’s greatness in this series and you rebutted with a comment about Boston?!?!?

[thinktank]

You can respect a player and still have confidence in your team that is the current championship favourite.

Crazy concept I know.

Your Boston obsession is weird.

This is a Wolves / Denver thread.

Boston is my second favorite team. I defend Tatum.

The above post you quoted is me talking about Jokic’s greatness in this series and you rebutted with a comment about Boston?!?!?

My bad. Thought you were the other Boston guy saying RS doesn’t matter. Carry the hell on.

[GeorgeSears]

Based on Game Score, this was the best game of Jokic's playoff career. Top 5:

1. 2024-05-14 (W) - Nuggets vs. TWolves game 5 - Game Score: 43.3
2. 2023-05-07 (L) - Nuggets vs. Suns game 4 - Game Score: 42.4
3. 2019-04-25 (L) - Nuggets vs. Spurs game 6 - Game Score: 41.4
4. 2023-05-23 (W) - Nuggets vs. Lakers game 1 - Game Score: 39.8
4. 2019-04-29 (W) - Nuggets vs. Portland game 1 - Game Score: 37.7

[Mamba Mentality]

If you didn't see the backdoor sweep coming after the series was all knotted at 2 then you just haven't watched the games close enough. Still think it's bull that Murray wasn't suspended for game 3, which ultimately changed the whole series, but it is what is is. Credit to the Nuggets for adjusting to the TWolves hyperaggressive defense, playing Gordon more on ball, and for putting together a solid defensive scheme to slow down Ant in game 5 (maybe I'm giving them too much credit considering their only other playmaker was out). I haven't seen any major adjustments from the Wolves. They're a good team, but a super frustrating team to root for. End of the day they just don't have enough fire power to keep pace with the Nuggets and it also doesn't help that Gobert is one of the biggest frauds in NBA history.

Celtics/Nuggets Finals is gonna be hell. About to turn off all social media for two weeks. **** both these teams.

[nikster]

Wolves split with Celtics in RS. I just don’t see it.

Your core is Tatum and Brown.

It's also incredibly lazy to compare series like that. Wolves are far superior to the Heat without Butler, and the heat took one game from the Celtics

I’ll compare the fact that the Celtics have an elite defence PLUS an elite offence. Something Minnesota does not have.

Okay. And Miami without Butler has neither

[thinktank]

Should we make a Denver vs Celtics Final series thread?

People need a space.

[GrandTheftRondo]

It's also incredibly lazy to compare series like that. Wolves are far superior to the Heat without Butler, and the heat took one game from the Celtics

I’ll compare the fact that the Celtics have an elite defence PLUS an elite offence. Something Minnesota does not have.

Okay. And Miami without Butler has neither

Plenty of great teams have dropped playoff games they shouldn’t have.

7 game series allow a lot of room for error and sometimes teams are just off. It happened to Denver in the first two games of this series where they were just completely off and the Wolves were fired up. With the way this series is playing out we may look back at those games and wonder how on earth the Wolves looked so dominant in those first two games.

Or Minnesota might bounce back big time in the next game.

Strange **** happens in the playoffs. The 2019 Warriors dropped two games to the 8th seed Clippers who were way less talented.

[ConSarnit]

I think Gobert is getting more criticism because he does not provide much on the offensive side. Joker dominated AD a bunch but AD could at least give a bit back on the other side.

I see a lot of criticism because of Jokic's game.

Gobert has the best +/- of his team, with -2 in 40 minutes played. He is also 7/7, 18 points in this game.

Edwards was bad, it happens.

I blame Finch since he hasn't made adjustments in the last 2 games.

I thought Minny played well enough to win in game 3, despite their lack of bench scoring, just Jokic was making unbelievable passes and willed his team to win. Game 4, Minny kept it close till about the last couple minutes of the 3rd, in the 4th they certainly missed having Conley and Minny's bench provided little offensively. Jokic again was the factor. Many coaches have been tying to adjust for Jokic for awhile now, with little success, so I wouldn't be too hard on Finch.

Game 6, I expect a dog fight from Minny and though injuries happen, it's really disappointing that Conley will most likely be out again, Minny is a really tough team when he's healthy.

And I have to say, since Shaq made his embarrassing comments 6 days ago, before game 3, Jokic has been a man on a mission. I'm sure it's a coincidence but Jokic has been playing like a man possessed.

I think it’s at the point where you might need to try slowing Jokic’s offense with offense. Play Towns more at C and run pnr at Jokic every time down the floor. I think you have to try and wear him out by making him play defense in space over and over. You can’t stop him even with the DPOY guarding him so you need to try something else. I don’t really think MIN can do this though because Conley is injured (and can’t take a heavy workload) and Ant isn’t quite good enough as a pnr operator yet (he misses the roll man on easy opportunities too much).

Trying to slow Jokic through defense doesn’t work. Single coverage is a lost cause, even with the DPOY. He’s also the worst person to double team in the league.

Run high pnr and see if you can tire him out or maybe get him in foul trouble. These aren’t great options but there’s no defensive strategy that works.

[BelgradeNugget]

If you didn't see the backdoor sweep coming after the series was all knotted at 2 then you just haven't watched the games close enough. Still think it's bull that Murray wasn't suspended for game 3, which ultimately changed the whole series, but it is what is is. Credit to the Nuggets for adjusting to the TWolves hyperaggressive defense, playing Gordon more on ball, and for putting together a solid defensive scheme to slow down Ant in game 5 (maybe I'm giving them too much credit considering their only other playmaker was out). I haven't seen any major adjustments from the Wolves. They're a good team, but a super frustrating team to root for. End of the day they just don't have enough fire power to keep pace with the Nuggets and it also doesn't help that Gobert is one of the biggest frauds in NBA history.

Celtics/Nuggets Finals is gonna be hell. About to turn off all social media for two weeks. **** both these teams.

Thanks man. Being hated as much as Boston from truth Lakers fan is an honor.

[TinmanZBoy]

If you didn't see the backdoor sweep coming after the series was all knotted at 2 then you just haven't watched the games close enough. Still think it's bull that Murray wasn't suspended for game 3, which ultimately changed the whole series, but it is what is is. Credit to the Nuggets for adjusting to the TWolves hyperaggressive defense, playing Gordon more on ball, and for putting together a solid defensive scheme to slow down Ant in game 5 (maybe I'm giving them too much credit considering their only other playmaker was out). I haven't seen any major adjustments from the Wolves. They're a good team, but a super frustrating team to root for. End of the day they just don't have enough fire power to keep pace with the Nuggets and it also doesn't help that Gobert is one of the biggest frauds in NBA history.

Celtics/Nuggets Finals is gonna be hell. About to turn off all social media for two weeks. **** both these teams.

lol laker fans’ mentality at the end

[nikster]

I’ll compare the fact that the Celtics have an elite defence PLUS an elite offence. Something Minnesota does not have.

Okay. And Miami without Butler has neither

Plenty of great teams have dropped playoff games they shouldn’t have.

7 game series allow a lot of room for error and sometimes teams are just off. It happened to Denver in the first two games of this series where they were just completely off and the Wolves were fired up. With the way this series is playing out we may look back at those games and wonder how on earth the Wolves looked so dominant in those first two games.

Or Minnesota might bounce back big time in the next game.

Strange **** happens in the playoffs. The 2019 Warriors dropped two games to the 8th seed Clippers who were way less talented.

I agree. That's why I had issue with your quote "The Celtics are superior to the Wolves who have taken two games off the Nuggets." Those 2 dropped games don't mean anything.

[GrandTheftRondo]

Okay. And Miami without Butler has neither

Plenty of great teams have dropped playoff games they shouldn’t have.

7 game series allow a lot of room for error and sometimes teams are just off. It happened to Denver in the first two games of this series where they were just completely off and the Wolves were fired up. With the way this series is playing out we may look back at those games and wonder how on earth the Wolves looked so dominant in those first two games.

Or Minnesota might bounce back big time in the next game.

Strange **** happens in the playoffs. The 2019 Warriors dropped two games to the 8th seed Clippers who were way less talented.

I agree. That's why I had issue with your quote "The Celtics are superior to the Wolves who have taken two games off the Nuggets." Those 2 dropped games don't mean anything.

That isn’t solely my reasoning for why they can potentially beat Denver though.

Like Minnesota we have an elite defence that can cause headaches at stages for the Nuggets, unlike Minnesota we have a lot more offence though.

The Wolves best chance in this series was always going to come down to completely clamping the Nuggets but the last three games have shown this is near impossible with how good Jokic is.

The Celtics winning a game isn’t reliant on some fluke variance like Miami winning a game against us. That result was a complete outlier.

The Wolves simply don’t have the offensive weapons to go back and forth with Jokic going off and as the series has gone on this has become more and more obvious.

[Crunch 99]

Jokic was the best regular season player and he's the best playoff player, but there are still a lot of teams that can win the championship. Nuggets have a weak bench, only averaging 16.3 ppg on 50.6 TS%. Celtics' bench, by contrast, are averaging 21.3 ppg on 62.5 TS%.

Lebron James lost lots of playoff series in his career where he was the best player; Jokic could as well. In addition, SGA is close to having been just as great as Jokic in these playoffs so far.

[Hello Brooklyn]

This is just a super limited understanding of what the value of a rim protecting center is supposed to do on defense.

Rudy Gobert is like... pretty good at man-to-man defense and post defense because of his smart feet and massive length. His main value is making it really hard for entire offenses to score in the paint.

No one is stopping Jokic when he's playing like this. Throw prime Hakeem and Ben Wallace out there, it wouldn't matter.

Nobody said he needed to stop Jokic. Youre just making things up and saying I have a "limited understanding."

He wasn't even doing anything to slow him down or make it difficult. Sorry I expect more from the reigning DPOY.

Crazy concept I know.

No question it wasn't a good look or good defensive game for Gobert.

What am I making up though? I was responding to you saying "what good is he lol"

Gobert has never really been useful in the playoffs. Thats the objective truth.

[nomansland]

My opinion is the NBA wants Denver / Celtics.

They also want Denver / Minnesota to go 7.

Refs let Malone yell in their face, Murray throw things onto the court and not get suspended (money over player safety), and then called REALLY BS calls on Wolves in games 3 and 4.

It wasn’t just the Wolves failing you.

LOL, stop. This is pathetic. Nuggets shot 35 FTs in Games 3 and 4. Wolves shot 52. Nuggets outscored them by 35 points. Denver could have literally not shot a single free throw between the 2 games and they still might have taken both of them.

Fouls and FTs aren’t the same. Wolves starters sometimes end up on bench early. That’s the difference. It hasn’t happened to Denver but once. Gordon this game.

And how do you not have an in-game penalty for throwing things into the court and risking injury to players? That’s crazy.

Techs and an ejection would have been warranted. Wouldn't have made a bit of difference in that game because Minnesota was clobbering the Nuggets already.

[Woodsanity]

Jokic was the best regular season player and he's the best playoff player, but there are still a lot of teams that can win the championship. Nuggets have a weak bench, only averaging 16.3 ppg on 14.8 fga, 50.6 TS%. Celtics' bench, by contrast, are averaging 21.3 ppg on 62.5 TS%.

Lebron James lost lots of playoff series in his career where he was the best player; Jokic could as well. In addition, SGA is very close to having been just as great as Jokic in these playoffs so far.

SGA has been good but nowhere close to Jokic imo.

Jokic PER: 31.7, BPM: 13.5
SGA PER: 25.3, BPM: 8.5

They aren't even in the same tier these playoffs.

Also Jamal Murray really needs to start showing up. Its crazy how bad he has been.

[Domejandro]

Read on Twitter

We need a miracle.

[nomansland]

My opinion is the NBA wants Denver / Celtics.

They also want Denver / Minnesota to go 7.

Refs let Malone yell in their face, Murray throw things onto the court and not get suspended (money over player safety), and then called REALLY BS calls on Wolves in games 3 and 4.

It wasn’t just the Wolves failing you.

Jesus Christ. There's not some conspiracy against the Wolves here.

The media was extremely quick to annoint Ant would so clearly rather see them in the finals. Hell, even the Minnesota board was talking about this. But as soon as Denver turned it around, the narrative changed. Games 1-2, you guys were world beaters, no one in the league can hang unless the league interferes. Now, trailing, it's rigged against you?

Man, get real. Denver is a better team.

I never said Denver wasn’t the better team. I said the NBA wants 7 games. I ask for better reading comprehension. Thanks.

Sure, the NBA wants 7 games. But I don't buy into the conspiracy theory stuff. They probably wanted the Phoenix series to go 7 as well.