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

Papi_swav · Post #141 » by **Papi_swav** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:32 pm

ooouuuu this is going to be one for the ages ! *birdman hand rubs*

Shaka_Zulu · Post #142 » by **Shaka_Zulu** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:36 pm

Most likely Denver in 7 due to home court advantage (crazy we were tied on record but they went ahead on a technicality lol), and ofcourse Joker being Joker.

But for the rest? Imo Wolves are very equipped to silence Murray with Mcdaniels/NAW length and defense (they are amazing at running around screens). Limit KCP 3 pointers since as team defence we are the best at defending 3s this season. AG won't get free reign at dunker spot like game 3 vs Lakers, because Gobert and Kat will be on the low block allways. Wolves will dare AG to shoot 3s.

Besides the unstoppable freak that is Joker, the true wild card that might decide this series for Nuggets is MPjr, we won't put Jaden on him because MPjr is mainly a spot up shooter in their system. But entire regular season ties for 2 seasons in a row, MPjr has been absolute flame thrower vs us. A 6'10 prime Klay Thompson that don't miss. He doesn't iso but he makes time cuts to basket or shoots mid ranges over our guards/wings in transition.

He is truly the X-factor them. Limiting him and staying out of foul trouble vs Joker is the two key aspects Wolves need to focus on for defence.

Otherwise in general this should be insanely exciting, fun and tight heavy weight battle. Joker will give me coldsweating nightmares for a week lol. Seeing him go to work in final 5 minutes...

Wallace_Wallace · Post #143 » by **Wallace_Wallace** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:37 pm

Klomp wrote:
Wallace_Wallace wrote:Media is gonna all the over Minnesota on this one.

American Born (Anthony Edwards) vs America’s Most Hated (Nikola Jokic).

Games will be coming down to late game execution. Edwards did a great job in game 4, can he keep it up against a better cerebral team in Denver? We’ll see

Jokic haters are really going to come out of the woodwork if he loses to the worst franchise in professional sports history

LA fans are definitely rooting Minnesota. ESPN/FOX aren’t particularly fond of Jokic. If Denver were to lose, Edwards would be looked at as the undisputed best player in the league.
…..like a broken record (not particularly related to the topic)

Spoiler:

I do have Nuggets in 7 due to the championship pedigree they have.

Ambrose · Post #144 » by **Ambrose** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:41 pm

AbeVigodaLive wrote:
Ambrose wrote:
AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Towns has led the league in OFFENSIVE fouls multiple times. Those double as TOs.

Most of it is from him flailing and doing dumb stuff on his drives. Some of it is from a pretty tough whistle. I don't know if it's his awkwardness or that he's insufferable for officials... but he gets called for stuff regularly that other All Stars get away with regularly. The "best" part is that you can see it coming. Usually after he thinks he deserved a foul call... he'll get all bent out of shape and loses composure. That's when the charges, hooks, illegal picks and other fouls come out in force. You could make a drinking game out of it.

Don't bail out Towns by saying he gets a tough whistle. He's an all-time bad foul guy. He spams those dumb kicks on his 3's, he shoves, he hooks, he holds, etc. It's his issue. Hell, there was a game against Phoenix where they missed two obvious fouls on him that would've given him 4 or 5 (don't remember which), then he blatantly fouls the guy to get in foul trouble again anyway, and then whined about it. Even Ant called him out for it.

My point wasn't that Towns doesn't foul. Most are indeed fouls per the rulebook.

My point is that he gets called for those fouls more often than other guys of his AS stature. Every player gets away with fouling... and every player gets fouled sometimes and it's not called. Stars seem to get away with it more. Towns does not seem to be on that star level with officials.

[Note: Your post is implying that Towns got a favorable whistle vs. Phoenix. But with only vague references and a questionable memory. Meanwhile, others could point to an offensive foul vs. Durant and a defensive foul vs. Allen in the same game that sure seemed pretty questionable to people and announcers watching.]

I don't mean to imply that he has a favorable whistle. It's probably neutral. Moreso that more than any player I've ever watched, Towns commits stupid fouls that are far more often than not deserved. We can quibble about AS guys deserving certain calls or not, but I can't think of anyone ever who is more blatant than Towns as a foul guy (not referring to foul baiting, actually fouling), which is probably why he gets way more of them.

Post #145 » by **Klomp** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:43 pm

Shaka_Zulu wrote:Most likely Denver in 7 due to home court advantage (crazy we were tied on record but they went ahead on a technicality lol), and ofcourse Joker being Joker.

We weren't tied BTW. That was if we won Game 82 against Phoenix. In that case, it would have been OKC 1, MIN 2, DEN 3.

Post #146 » by **Klomp** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:45 pm

ShootersShoot wrote:Ant on MPJ seems like a mismatch in favor of the nugs. Ant's not going to be able to block him off the boards or contest the jumper.

This makes no sense.

tmorgan · Post #147 » by **tmorgan** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:47 pm

This Finch thing is going to matter, at least a little. Not having your HC in the huddle is gonna be weird.

ChipotleWest · Post #148 » by **ChipotleWest** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:47 pm

Shaka_Zulu wrote:Most likely Denver in 7 due to home court advantage (crazy we were tied on record but they went ahead on a technicality lol),

You might want to check the standings on espn.com, Nuggets finished 57-25 your team finished 56-26. It wasn't a tie.

It would have been but you lost your last game of the season to the Suns of all teams.

Post #149 » by **Klomp** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:48 pm

Bornstellar wrote:The Nuggets are going to come in much more focused against the Wolves and will show why they are the defending champs imo. They didn't respect the Lakers and knew they could flip the switch at any time versus them. They won't play with their food this time around

I do think this is a factor we need to consider. Denver's focus all season has been on Minnesota. They even canceled their White House trip because of Minnesota.

Shaka_Zulu · Post #150 » by **Shaka_Zulu** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:49 pm

Klomp wrote:
Shaka_Zulu wrote:Most likely Denver in 7 due to home court advantage (crazy we were tied on record but they went ahead on a technicality lol), and ofcourse Joker being Joker.

We weren't tied BTW. That was if we won Game 82 against Phoenix. In that case, it would have been OKC 1, MIN 2, DEN 3.

Ahh I still thought we were tied, was prolly because commentators was on about all 3 of us being tied during last game. I didn't check after our loss, I assumed OKC went ahead of us and denver and we tied lol

Either way, home court advantage will be huge for Denver, not just the high altitude but them being insanely well prepared clutch home team.

ShootersShoot · Post #151 » by **ShootersShoot** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:50 pm

Klomp wrote:
ShootersShoot wrote:Ant on MPJ seems like a mismatch in favor of the nugs. Ant's not going to be able to block him off the boards or contest the jumper.

This makes no sense.

The question was, who guards MPJ if Jaden is on Murray?

MPJ is 6'11 and a pretty decent rebounder..Its hard to contest his jumper, especially at 6'5. If he's spotting up and Ant even helps off of him a little, its an open shot. If he crashes the boards and Ant's trying to box him out, tough matchup for Ant..

Obviously on the other end MPJ is not guarding Ant, otherwise the nugs would be in a lot of trouble.

Woodsanity · Post #152 » by **Woodsanity** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:52 pm

ChipotleWest wrote:
Shaka_Zulu wrote:Most likely Denver in 7 due to home court advantage (crazy we were tied on record but they went ahead on a technicality lol),

You might want to check the standings on espn.com, Nuggets finished 57-25 your team finished 56-26. It wasn't a tie.

It would have been but you lost your last game of the season to the Suns of all teams.

Funny how the T-Wolves swept the Suns but loss that crucial rs game.

brackdan70 · Post #153 » by **brackdan70** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:52 pm

Going to be a pretty good matchup really.

Shaka_Zulu · Post #154 » by **Shaka_Zulu** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:54 pm

tmorgan wrote:This Finch thing is going to matter, at least a little. Not having your HC in the huddle is gonna be weird.

It's going matter ALOT. Malone is a great coach and we need our highly experienced head coach to match him in this chess game. Finch has done so well this season and grown as coach and leader with how prepared and unified he made this team, and most importantly he improved heavily on the timely timeout calls that stops the bleeding and makes the team focused/running plays, limiting idiot behaviours (previous seasons he let them run free with bone headed iso plays that lost us games in clutch).

We become one of the best 4th quarter teams in the league specifically due to his coaching this season. So he will he a huge miss if he can't influence things when he is not in place to call shots.

Micah Nori is a popular character in the Wolves organisation, but he is just an assistant coach end of the day.

Post #155 » by **Klomp** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:54 pm

ShootersShoot wrote:
Klomp wrote:
ShootersShoot wrote:Ant on MPJ seems like a mismatch in favor of the nugs. Ant's not going to be able to block him off the boards or contest the jumper.

This makes no sense.

The question was, who guards MPJ is Jaden is on Murray?

MPJ is 6'11 and a pretty decent rebounder..Its hard to contest his jumper, especially at 6'5. If he's spotting up and Ant even helps off of him a little, its an open shot. If he crashes the boards and Ant's trying to box him out, tough matchup for Ant..

Obviously on the other end MPJ is not guarding Ant, otherwise the nugs would be in a lot of trouble.

If Porter is a "pretty decent rebounder" at 6'10" with 8.4 rebounds per game in the playoffs, what is Edwards at 6'4" technically with 8.0 rebounds per game?

ShootersShoot · Post #156 » by **ShootersShoot** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:56 pm

Klomp wrote:
ShootersShoot wrote:
Klomp wrote:This makes no sense.

The question was, who guards MPJ is Jaden is on Murray?

MPJ is 6'11 and a pretty decent rebounder..Its hard to contest his jumper, especially at 6'5. If he's spotting up and Ant even helps off of him a little, its an open shot. If he crashes the boards and Ant's trying to box him out, tough matchup for Ant..

Obviously on the other end MPJ is not guarding Ant, otherwise the nugs would be in a lot of trouble.

If Porter is a "pretty decent rebounder" at 6'10" with 8.4 rebounds per game in the playoffs, what is Edwards at 6'4" technically with 8.0 rebounds per game?

Thats like saying westbrook can average 10rpg and therefore can match up against julius randle on the boards. It doesnt work that way. Ant is going to be at a disadvantage on the boards if he has to guard MPJ simply due to the size difference. Maybe it will be negligible, but at the end of the day it will be a 6'5 guard against a 6'10 forward.

And honestly, Ant averages 5.5 in the playoffs for his career, and 5.4rpg per 36 for his RS career. He is not an everyday 8rpg player, especially against a big frontcourt like denver. Maybe against a smaller suns team sure..

Ant: 5.1 rpg per 36 playoffs career
MPJ: 8.7rpg per 36 playoffs career

But that is honestly not the main concern...Ant having to contest MPJ threes is obviously the bigger concern.

Rauxcee · Post #157 » by **Rauxcee** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 6:59 pm

Whichever team's star thst gets the most help will be the team to win in 6 or 7.

Johnny Firpo · Post #158 » by **Johnny Firpo** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 7:00 pm

Klomp wrote:
ShootersShoot wrote:
Klomp wrote:This makes no sense.

The question was, who guards MPJ is Jaden is on Murray?

MPJ is 6'11 and a pretty decent rebounder..Its hard to contest his jumper, especially at 6'5. If he's spotting up and Ant even helps off of him a little, its an open shot. If he crashes the boards and Ant's trying to box him out, tough matchup for Ant..

Obviously on the other end MPJ is not guarding Ant, otherwise the nugs would be in a lot of trouble.

If Porter is a "pretty decent rebounder" at 6'10" with 8.4 rebounds per game in the playoffs, what is Edwards at 6'4" technically with 8.0 rebounds per game?

MPJ is definitely a better rebounder based on their career, although I don't really see this is as a particularly important thing in this matchup.

Raps in 4 · Post #159 » by **Raps in 4** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 7:07 pm

Whoever wins this series is winning the title.

ShootersShoot · Post #160 » by **ShootersShoot** » Tue Apr 30, 2024 7:11 pm

Johnny Firpo wrote:
Klomp wrote:
ShootersShoot wrote:
The question was, who guards MPJ is Jaden is on Murray?

MPJ is 6'11 and a pretty decent rebounder..Its hard to contest his jumper, especially at 6'5. If he's spotting up and Ant even helps off of him a little, its an open shot. If he crashes the boards and Ant's trying to box him out, tough matchup for Ant..

Obviously on the other end MPJ is not guarding Ant, otherwise the nugs would be in a lot of trouble.

If Porter is a "pretty decent rebounder" at 6'10" with 8.4 rebounds per game in the playoffs, what is Edwards at 6'4" technically with 8.0 rebounds per game?

MPJ is definitely a better rebounder based on their career, although I don't really see this is as a particularly important thing in this matchup.

I think the main concern would be Ant helping against Murray or Jokic even a tiny bit, then having the ball kicked out to MPJ for a three.

Who wins and goes to the WCFs?