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

[karch34]

If only LeBron cleaned up a couple crucial mistakes on both end, particularly on defense, Lakers would have won the series… Grandpa Time calling LeBron

Think Reeves shooting all the crunch time shots in game 5 wasn’t something he could clear up.

Kind of liking the respect both fan bases have for each other in this one.

[Sealab2024]

If only LeBron cleaned up a couple crucial mistakes on both end, particularly on defense, Lakers would have won the series… Grandpa Time calling LeBron

Think Reeves shooting all the crunch time shots in game 5 wasn’t something he could clear up.

Kind of liking the respect both fan bases have for each other in this one.

We gotta have it, we see each other all the time. Wolves and Nuggets have played each other 13 times in the last 18 months including 5 in the playoffs. We know what this is. I love my squad and will never pick against them but that's Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr over there. You don't play with them. You better be getting a good night's sleep, eating good breakfasts working out good, getting your cardio in, and studying film or those guys over there will make you look real foolish, really quick. And as we saw in the first round they don't mind playing with their food.

[docholliday99]

Wolves in six...Nuggets had a weird feel to that Lakers series, really didn't play great even once.

Well, we could give some credit to Davis and Lebron for disrupting Denver's flow. AD was a beast averaging 27.8/15.6/4 with 2 stocks a game and Bron averaged 27.8/8.8/6.8 with 3.4 stocks per game. The series may have had a different outcome if the Lakers had some solid guard play

Give LA credit for slowing Denver down a bit. For sure.

Gobert/McDaniels/Ant/NAW will slow Denver down at least as much as LA did.

100%, Denver's in for a much tougher challenge from Minny than what LA was able to give, and Denver really had to play from behind much of the time. Will be a fun matchup.

[Inspektor1312]

Can't wait for the series to start. Out of all the players Denver faced last year, Ant impressed me the most.
Minnesota has two very important players back, and the twin towers had an extra year to gel. Gonna be tough for Denver, but they're used to tough.

Denver in 6.

[SportsGuru08]

I'm going to say Minnesota in 7, but only if KAT growns a spine and uses his size on those undersized defenders. If he just settles for threes, Denver wins.

This talking point kills me, because it's the complete opposite where Karl-Anthony Towns should be throwing up way more threes than he currently does. He already drives a ton, which leads to a bunch of offensive fouls. Towns' whistle is horrendous.

These people don't watch games, they just listen to Chuck talking points about Kat needing to drive and not shoot 3s. "Hurr durr back in my day a big went to the basket, so he should too."


When we litterally are way more likely to lose if Kat just drives (more turnovers/offensive fouls), then focus on shooting 3s which he is insanely elite at.


He carried us first quarters vs Suns game 4 by basically being lights out from 3, when they overhelped on Ant. And he is so big he shoots over most matchups.

Giannis and Jokic have won championships in recent years without shooting a ridiculous amount of threes, scoring primarily inside or on midrange

KAT and Embiid have relied ridiculously on shooting threes and what has it gotten them? Nothing.

[B-easy]

Murray shot 23pts @ 47ts% against the lakers, he was terrible. If he continues to ball hog and shoot poorly Wolves will win comfortably.

[nomansland]

They faced each other a total of 19 times in NBA games. Nikola Jokic has a 12-7 winning record over Anthony Edwards, including a 4-1 record in Playoffs.

https://www.landofbasketball.com/games_between/anthony_edwards_vs_nikola_jokic.htm#google_vignette

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So in other words, in the regular season the matchup is 8-6.

None of that matters now. Ask the Suns.

[BelgradeNugget]

Read on Twitter

?

[Chuck Everett]

:lol:

Read on Twitter

?

Classic. Only a matter of time before Nori gets a HC opportunity. Here's hoping he doesn't take a job with a dead end roster for his first gig.

[cupcakesnake]

This talking point kills me, because it's the complete opposite where Karl-Anthony Towns should be throwing up way more threes than he currently does. He already drives a ton, which leads to a bunch of offensive fouls. Towns' whistle is horrendous.

These people don't watch games, they just listen to Chuck talking points about Kat needing to drive and not shoot 3s. "Hurr durr back in my day a big went to the basket, so he should too."


When we litterally are way more likely to lose if Kat just drives (more turnovers/offensive fouls), then focus on shooting 3s which he is insanely elite at.


He carried us first quarters vs Suns game 4 by basically being lights out from 3, when they overhelped on Ant. And he is so big he shoots over most matchups.

Giannis and Jokic have won championships in recent years without shooting a ridiculous amount of threes, scoring primarily inside or on midrange

KAT and Embiid have relied ridiculously on shooting threes and what has it gotten them? Nothing.

Relied... ridiculously? Towns takes 5 threes per game (61st in the league), Embiid takes 3.6 (would be like 120th if he qualified).

Basically if you watch a lot of Wolves games (and root for them to win) you spend a lot of time begging for Towns to shoot more 3s and post up less. He's a good post up player, but he forces things and turns it over a lot. Also, when he's posted up, our offense completely bogs down with 2 bigs in the paint and nowhere for Anthony Edwards to go.

Towns is amazing when he's at the top, forcing defenses to guard him far from the basket, and then making quick drives when there's a defensive breakdown. Happy with him punishing a mismatch in the post, but it's generally been bad for our overall team offense.

I wish Towns would shoot 7-8 threes per game. He's such a ridiculously good 3-point shooter at his size, and he doesn't utilize it enough.

[cupcakesnake]

Well, we could give some credit to Davis and Lebron for disrupting Denver's flow. AD was a beast averaging 27.8/15.6/4 with 2 stocks a game and Bron averaged 27.8/8.8/6.8 with 3.4 stocks per game. The series may have had a different outcome if the Lakers had some solid guard play

Give LA credit for slowing Denver down a bit. For sure.

Gobert/McDaniels/Ant/NAW will slow Denver down at least as much as LA did.

100%, Denver's in for a much tougher challenge from Minny than what LA was able to give, and Denver really had to play from behind much of the time. Will be a fun matchup.

Compared to LA, our offense is similar overall but much more boom or bust. LA played a super conservative style that worked. They were big and strong and had a great decision maker at the heart of their process. They didn't have the ability to really explode though, due to a lack of shooting and speed.

Minnesota's offense is a little more wild. We're more likely to go off with some Ant heroics or KAT hot shooting, but our best players are worse decision makers than Lebron so we don't have that solid consistency that LA brought every night. LA could always "get theirs", but the thing they were getting was pretty mid. Minnesota is feast or famine.

Defensively though, we're better than LA in basically every way. We're much bigger with wayyyyy better perimeter defenders. We have 3-4 perimeter defenders better than LA's best perimeter defender.

[Blaze4G]

what a hard series to predict. I love both teams, big fan of every starter on Nuggets, Ant is my favorite player, I am always defending Gobert slander, fan of towns and conley.

With that said, its hard not to go with Denver in 6-7 since they are the defending champs and can be trusted in late games. However, I would not be shocked if Wolves win in 6, especially with a less than 100% Murray. I think KCP will do a good job on Ant, Suns had no one to defend him. Gobert being so limited on the offensive side, Jokic can relax on defense. Gordon will be a thorn in Kat side.

[Johnny Firpo]

Murray shot 23pts @ 47ts% against the lakers, he was terrible. If he continues to ball hog and shoot poorly Wolves will win comfortably.

Agree with everything, except the ball hogging part. Murray HAS TO take those shots on that team, they literally don't have anybody else to take those shots, because he is the only playmaker besides Jokic. MPJ is awesome, but he is an off-ball player, cannot really create or really even dribble that well. He is okay, but you don't want him to dribble the ball a lot.

[ropjhk]

This is the series I'm most excited about.

[Slim Tubby]

In honor of both MN and CO no longer being "weed free" states, my assessment of the series is simple.

To be blunt, MIN planted the seed against DEN last year in the Playoffs. If we don't bogart the ball on offense, we should be able to roll. Murray's chronic calf injury could also be a concern.

I fully expect concession sales to be brisk at both arenas.

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[jokeboy86]

This delayed start is probably going to benefit Denver because its giving KCP and Murray both time to heal for their injuries and first two games are at home

[Slim Tubby]

This delayed start is probably going to benefit Denver because its giving KCP and Murray both time to heal for their injuries and first two games are at home

I hope both teams are fully healthy and the refs let them play. I have a ton of respect for DEN...should be a great series.

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[SK21209]

Give LA credit for slowing Denver down a bit. For sure.

Gobert/McDaniels/Ant/NAW will slow Denver down at least as much as LA did.

100%, Denver's in for a much tougher challenge from Minny than what LA was able to give, and Denver really had to play from behind much of the time. Will be a fun matchup.

Compared to LA, our offense is similar overall but much more boom or bust. LA played a super conservative style that worked. They were big and strong and had a great decision maker at the heart of their process. They didn't have the ability to really explode though, due to a lack of shooting and speed.

Minnesota's offense is a little more wild. We're more likely to go off with some Ant heroics or KAT hot shooting, but our best players are worse decision makers than Lebron so we don't have that solid consistency that LA brought every night. LA could always "get theirs", but the thing they were getting was pretty mid. Minnesota is feast or famine.

Defensively though, we're better than LA in basically every way. We're much bigger with wayyyyy better perimeter defenders. We have 3-4 perimeter defenders better than LA's best perimeter defender.

This is a good assessment. Due to the lack of athleticism in our backcourt in particular, we were really dependent on DLo just having a hot night from three to overcome the machine that is Denver's offense. LeBron is obviously still an incredible offensive player, but he's not dynamic. Its mostly bully-ball and smarts that get him his points. I don't think the Nuggets have anyone to stay in front of Ant (KCP is good, but I don't think he can stand up to him athletically) because you can't really put Gordon on him for long stretches. But while Ant has an athletic advantage that no one on the Lakers really had, I'm not sure the Wolves have the bread-and-butter stuff like the LeBron/AD side P&R and other sets that yielded strong results all series.

But yeah, defensively its not close. Reaves played Murray well on that last shot in Game 5, but he just doesn't have the physical tools to block or significantly bother that shot. The Wolves have a few guys that do. Should be an awesome series, its about a toss up to me.

[stoo]

to more time pass, the more i feel denver will handle this, barring injuries

[TunaFish]

100%, Denver's in for a much tougher challenge from Minny than what LA was able to give, and Denver really had to play from behind much of the time. Will be a fun matchup.

Compared to LA, our offense is similar overall but much more boom or bust. LA played a super conservative style that worked. They were big and strong and had a great decision maker at the heart of their process. They didn't have the ability to really explode though, due to a lack of shooting and speed.

Minnesota's offense is a little more wild. We're more likely to go off with some Ant heroics or KAT hot shooting, but our best players are worse decision makers than Lebron so we don't have that solid consistency that LA brought every night. LA could always "get theirs", but the thing they were getting was pretty mid. Minnesota is feast or famine.

Defensively though, we're better than LA in basically every way. We're much bigger with wayyyyy better perimeter defenders. We have 3-4 perimeter defenders better than LA's best perimeter defender.

This is a good assessment. Due to the lack of athleticism in our backcourt in particular, we were really dependent on DLo just having a hot night from three to overcome the machine that is Denver's offense. LeBron is obviously still an incredible offensive player, but he's not dynamic. Its mostly bully-ball and smarts that get him his points. I don't think the Nuggets have anyone to stay in front of Ant (KCP is good, but I don't think he can stand up to him athletically) because you can't really put Gordon on him for long stretches. But while Ant has an athletic advantage that no one on the Lakers really had, I'm not sure the Wolves have the bread-and-butter stuff like the LeBron/AD side P&R and other sets that yielded strong results all series.

But yeah, defensively its not close. Reaves played Murray well on that last shot in Game 5, but he just doesn't have the physical tools to block or significantly bother that shot. The Wolves have a few guys that do. Should be an awesome series, its about a toss up to me.

They can play Gordon on Ant if they want. Denver usually plays a switching man to man defense because they have two plus defenders who can take on the point of attack. They routinely rotate their forwards. You can almost bet that Gordon will be switching in that direction. MPJ is more of a inside rebounding force with his new found defensive presence, shot blocking and 6'10 height at small forward.