2024 NBA Playoffs: West Semifinals: #2 Denver Nuggets vs #3 Minnesota Timberwolves (Series tied 3-3)

[NyKnicks1714]

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Rudy is having a kid, so he might be out.

That would be crazy to miss a playoff game for a non-injury reason.
I mean, I get it, I suppose, but this IS his job. It's how he's going to support the kid.
Regular season game? Sure. But playoffs?? Idk man, I think I'm kind of old school on this one. Do your job.

In 10 years he won't care that he missed a game in a 2nd round series. He will care if he missed the birth of his child.

Edit: child has already been born, but the point remains. If he wants to be around for the first few days of his child's life that's also far more important.

[CIN-C-STAR]

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Rudy is having a kid, so he might be out.

That would be crazy to miss a playoff game for a non-injury reason.
I mean, I get it, I suppose, but this IS his job. It's how he's going to support the kid.
Regular season game? Sure. But playoffs?? Idk man, I think I'm kind of old school on this one. Do your job.

ESPN is making it sound like the birth already happened so sans any sort of complications I agree. I didn’t even meet my youngest until she was almost 5 months old due to deployment and that was in the days before FaceTime and emailing pictures and all that. It’s between Rudy and the organization obviously but it’s a pretty weak sauce if he does miss, again, assuming the birth has already occurred and mom and baby are doing well.

Yeah that's where I'm at.
If there are health concerns/complications, that obviously changes things.
And I don't begrudge him his decision either way.
But for people saying "miss the birth of your child for a basketball game?!!?"... it's literally his job. Let's not act like he'd be skipping the birth to watch the local team at the bar w his buddies
Having a good job is pretty dang important, especially for parents. I don't think it's all that crazy. It's not like the doctors need his help, or the child will remember that he wasn't there and hold it against him.
Now his wife will remember and if she insists he be there, hey, I get it. Happy wife, happy life, as they say ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[hardenASG13]

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Rudy is having a kid, so he might be out.

That would be crazy to miss a playoff game for a non-injury reason.
I mean, I get it, I suppose, but this IS his job. It's how he's going to support the kid.
Regular season game? Sure. But playoffs?? Idk man, I think I'm kind of old school on this one. Do your job.

ESPN is making it sound like the birth already happened so sans any sort of complications I agree. I didn’t even meet my youngest until she was almost 5 months old due to deployment and that was in the days before FaceTime and emailing pictures and all that. It’s between Rudy and the organization obviously but it’s a pretty weak sauce if he does miss, again, assuming the birth has already occurred and mom and baby are doing well.

Yeah it sounds like the baby was born this morning in Minnesota, so he just has to get to Denver by game time if he's willing to leave his families side.

[bisme37]

Seems like DEN needs to find a way to have Gordon be the primary defender on Ant rather than KCP.

[Onus]

Seems like DEN needs to find a way to have Gordon be the primary defender on Ant rather than KCP.

That doesn't look like his shooting percentage when guarded by them.

[Edrees]

That would be crazy to miss a playoff game for a non-injury reason.
I mean, I get it, I suppose, but this IS his job. It's how he's going to support the kid.
Regular season game? Sure. But playoffs?? Idk man, I think I'm kind of old school on this one. Do your job.

ESPN is making it sound like the birth already happened so sans any sort of complications I agree. I didn’t even meet my youngest until she was almost 5 months old due to deployment and that was in the days before FaceTime and emailing pictures and all that. It’s between Rudy and the organization obviously but it’s a pretty weak sauce if he does miss, again, assuming the birth has already occurred and mom and baby are doing well.

Yeah it sounds like the baby was born this morning in Minnesota, so he just has to get to Denver by game time if he's willing to leave his families side.

The wolves will definitely do everything they can do give him a personal jet ride and his own airport if need be to make it happen. IMO tonight's game might be the championship on the line. nuggets aren't coming back down 2-0 going to minny.

[bisme37]

Seems like DEN needs to find a way to have Gordon be the primary defender on Ant rather than KCP.

That doesn't look like his shooting percentage when guarded by them.

No it's not. Sorry if my post was weird. I've been thinking the Nuggets best defender on Ant would be Gordon but he really doesn't guard him much. So I'm wondering if they should find a way to change the matchups/assignments. His size and athleticism might jam Edwards up at least a little bit.

[Onus]

Seems like DEN needs to find a way to have Gordon be the primary defender on Ant rather than KCP.

That doesn't look like his shooting percentage when guarded by them.

No it's not. Sorry if my post was weird. I've been thinking the Nuggets best defender on Ant would be Gordon but he really doesn't guard him much. So I'm wondering if they should find a way to change the matchups/assignments. His size and athleticism might jam Edwards up at least a little bit.

Really I think they need less Gordon in this series so Gobert can't just roam freely off of him. I think they need to see if Braun, Watson or Holiday can get make enough shots to pull Gobert out of the paint.

[TimberKat]

That would be crazy to miss a playoff game for a non-injury reason.
I mean, I get it, I suppose, but this IS his job. It's how he's going to support the kid.
Regular season game? Sure. But playoffs?? Idk man, I think I'm kind of old school on this one. Do your job.

ESPN is making it sound like the birth already happened so sans any sort of complications I agree. I didn’t even meet my youngest until she was almost 5 months old due to deployment and that was in the days before FaceTime and emailing pictures and all that. It’s between Rudy and the organization obviously but it’s a pretty weak sauce if he does miss, again, assuming the birth has already occurred and mom and baby are doing well.

Yeah it sounds like the baby was born this morning in Minnesota, so he just has to get to Denver by game time if he's willing to leave his families side.

Don't we all skip work when our child was born? However, I personally would get on a private jet and get in the game as a backup even. Of course I never played in the NBA. So, it's all personal choice - no right or wrong way.

[Klomp]

No it's not. Sorry if my post was weird. I've been thinking the Nuggets best defender on Ant would be Gordon but he really doesn't guard him much. So I'm wondering if they should find a way to change the matchups/assignments. His size and athleticism might jam Edwards up at least a little bit.

Then what do you do with everyone else? Do you really want Michael Porter Jr battling in the post against Towns and Gobert?

[chudak]

ESPN is making it sound like the birth already happened so sans any sort of complications I agree. I didn’t even meet my youngest until she was almost 5 months old due to deployment and that was in the days before FaceTime and emailing pictures and all that. It’s between Rudy and the organization obviously but it’s a pretty weak sauce if he does miss, again, assuming the birth has already occurred and mom and baby are doing well.

Yeah it sounds like the baby was born this morning in Minnesota, so he just has to get to Denver by game time if he's willing to leave his families side.

Don't we all skip work when our child was born? However, I personally would get on a private jet and get in the game as a backup even. Of course I never played in the NBA. So, it's all personal choice - no right or wrong way.

Gobert - DNP, maternity leave

[chudak]

This is some of it, but you're leaving out that the T-Wolves have three bigs (who can eat all of the minutes and can go small with 6'9 Kyle Anderson for a few minutes). If the Nuggets don't dust off DeAndre Jordan, they only have Jokic and Gordon for all 96 minutes. Those two had 8 fouls between them tonight, which is fine. What is worrisome is the fact that you can't afford either to get into any kind of early foul trouble, especially Gordon. I trust Nikola to play with the fouls more than Aaron.

I've seen some stats saying Jokic isn't being enough of a deterrent at the rim, but the reality is, without a quality backup, he can't afford to pick up cheap fouls trying to block or alter shots too early in the game. Everybody is trying to attack him on that end just to get him off the floor (that was literally the Lakers entire game plan with Lebron and AD pick and rolls). His defense tends to pick up in the 4th, but the Nuggets need to make a concerted effort to get their offense rolling early so that their opponent is forced to play catch up with them for a change.

If the Nuggets keep getting off to these poor starts, this series will be over a week from today.

Dever was down 14 halfway through the first.

They need to figure out their first quarters. They stormed back from 14 down and took control of the game, and then in the second half the defense backed off and Minnesota shot 70% from the field. The fact that they were down 14, and managed to get back in the game and get it down to the wire shows that they simply have a higher ceiling than Minnesota.

Anyone who has watched this team this season may recognize that they have had an extremely difficult time reaching that ceiling this year. All year. the opposite of FrontRunners

I also think they dominate game two. And depending on how that looks, I assume they take game 3 as well. They're the better team, But they're not playing with the same hunger they played with last year.

Frankly, that's the only adjustment they need to make to win this series. If they decide they want it as much as Minnesota collectively, there's nothing Minnesota can do. They're out classed and we saw spurts of that tonight.

If Denver doesn't go down 14 in the first quarter, this is a wire to wire win for Denver, with a lead that bounces between 8-12 all night, and that's with Murray no showing.

I think its premature to call it wrap. They haven't had a good game all playoffs.

But, it did happen.

Denver was down after the 1st quarter in 4 of the 5 games vs. the Lakers.
This wasn't a one off fluke.
It's how Denver is playing.

I think its goint to be a great series and should go to 6 at least.

Outside of experience and Jokic Denver does not have anything over Minesota and they match up well and play great together. With Jamal hurting this loss was no fluke.

Denver has a better matchup vs OKC but Boston can also match up great against Denver. Both these and last years playoffs have a lot of parity.

[life_saver]

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[BrianInPhilly]

I'm not here to judge another man for his actions, but as a father myself - FOR ME, you best believe I'm hopping on that plane and trying to play. It's just a game, but it's also NOT JUST A GAME. You want to win for their teammates, your city, country, etc etc. His life's work is basketball outside of family. If I was him I would have tons of regrets missing this game if Minny then loses and loses the series. If he plays, what is there to regret? Sure those 1st few weeks are important to be there for your kid - But so are they 1st few years and NBA players travel half the year to miss time from their kids then, so there's always a trade off for everything. Pros/cons unless his wife is forcing him to stay (which a spouse shouldn't, but that's another discussion), I'd think he'd value playing Game 2 over another night in the hospital for a baby that's gonna be sleeping half the time

[Klomp]

Denver has a better matchup vs OKC but Boston can also match up great against Denver. Both these and last years playoffs have a lot of parity.

It's funny because OKC actually won 3 of the 4 against Denver while the Nuggets split with Minnesota.

[Klomp]

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[chudak]

Denver has a better matchup vs OKC but Boston can also match up great against Denver. Both these and last years playoffs have a lot of parity.

It's funny because OKC actually won 3 of the 4 against Denver while the Nuggets split with Minnesota.

Maybe you are right that OKC is a worse matchup but it feels better to me still

Boston lost both to Denver but still looks like a harder matchup to me on paper

[SomeBunghole]

Lots of pregnancy and fatherhood experts here for a board where most people's experience with women do not go further than the kind you have to blow up.

[Castle Black]

Mind games to get Denver’s hopes up. He’s not missing the game.

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[jkvonny]

Congrats, Mr Gobert!
Yes, just sit this one out and enjoy your family, baby and friends. If hes in Minnesota just stay there until game 3. When TWolves arive back with 2-0 series lead or 1-1 split worse case scenario.
Minny gettin a split at Denver is tuff anyhow. 2-0 lead even better. But Minny gets HCA with a split.
Rudy would be exhausted mentally and physically hopping on a plane to get to game 2 in Denver. Could be a distraction for the team. They are deeper and healthy. Lots of depth anyhow.