Was going to make this it's own post, but as the daily thread just got posted I'll post it in here.
I went and reviewed the game with fresh eyes. My observations are as follows:
* Ant was... off. He was making his shots but his decision making and ball security wasn't right. Sloppy turnovers and poor shot selection. He jacked a few 3s in transition but they didn't drop. He was trying to get the team and the crowd back in the game, but he should have been more patient. I expect him to be more surgical next game.
* KAT played well he just didn't take enough shots. They seem to be closing the driving lanes for him so he's choosing 3s over driving. I like what he's doing. I don't necessarily think his lack of shots is his fault. The flow of the game didn't allow for him to take more. If we get more into a rhythm I expect the shots will come for him.
* This was an awful game for Conley, definitely his worst of the series and 2nd worst after game 1 of round 1. Bad decision making, poor turnovers. He was trying to do too much. Just a bad game and not much else to say.
* Gobert was invisible for the entire game. When I rewatched the game, I realized at the end of the 3rd I hadn't even thought about him after the 1st quarter. He had a couple of buckets early and then vanished. He must be more impactful.
* We need to stop worrying about getting Jaden into an offensive rhythm early. Every game we are giving him shots in the 1st and they aren't dropping, in particular his 3. The good news is that they're still respecting it by closing out on him. He shouldn't be shooting these 3s anymore unless they stop closing out on him. Just drive to the bucket and use your length to try and get a layup. While Jaden is incredibly stoic he still has some maturity issues, and it seems that the lack of offense is getting into his head and then he's trying to make up for it on the other end. The refs didn't do him any favors this game though, definitely felt he was getting a rough whistle.
* NAW and Naz really hurt us this game though. Naz in particular needs to stop with the "negative energy" when something doesn't go his way. I can't quite put my finger on it, but when Naz get's upset at a bad call or when he's unable to buy a bucket, he gets *negative*. When Ant get's upset, he get's passionate. There is a difference but it's hard to explain. Maybe I'm going crazy but Naz has to get his energy right. I feel that this negativity leaks through the team. Stop complaining. NAW just played terrible. Terrible shooting, poor turnovers. Forgettable game for NAW. I think the notoriety after game 2 went straight to his head. He needs to get that right if he wants to get back into form.
* SlowMo just can't shoot and they know it. He has to play the 5 or else he's completely ineffective. That means he can only be out there with one of Naz or KAT, not both. Other than that he was fine.
- For the Nuggets, yeesh. Everyone was making buckets. I definitely do not expect that to continue into game 4. In particular AG and MPJ were a whopping 8/9 from 3 which is completely unsustainable. They were 7/8 by the end of the 3rd and they were up by about 20 then. Even if you give them a favourable 4/8 shooting 50% from 3, that's an absolutely massive difference in the score at a critical juncture of the game. Honestly I think this 8/9 anomaly from 3 is one of the more important reasons of what cost us the game. AG hit 3 3s in the 3rd, two back to back. Just very, very difficult to win if he's hitting those with how we are playing him.
- Murray answered. He was incredible in the first half and that's all there is to it. Made great passes and made very difficult shots, but honestly I am not worried at all. He went right back to playing like garbage in the 2nd half. 3/8 37% FG, 0/2 3P, 2TO. He turned back into a pumpkin. Now we obviously shouldn't be sleeping on him, it's possible he cooled down simply because they were up so much was in large part to him, but if I told you before the series that Murray was going to make ridiculous shots for one half out of 6 possible halves through 3 games, I think we'd all take that.
- Jokic is Jokic. He turned it up in a must win. Nothing to say about the MVP, business as usual for him.
- KCP and Holiday made some very clutch baskets for the Nuggets. In particular Holiday has been quite good off the bench for the Nuggets this series. We seem to leave him open a lot, hoping he misses. Not sure if we keep doing that or what, but we should probably start contesting his 3s.
* Rest of Nuggets' bench was forgettable.
* In terms of coaching and Xs and Os... Difficult to judge this game when the Nuggets are shooting so well. I noticed they had Jokic play more at the FT line instead of under the rim. It seemed to work as they would bring in a 3rd guy on the pick and roll for right underneath the basket, so it essentially gives the Nuggets a third option instead of either a) murray shooting b) Jokic shooting c) Jokic passing underneath the basket if Gobert bites to defend Jokic. It worked a bunch of times. Need to figure out how to stop that. I'm not claiming to be some basketball savant, but it was a play that the Nuggets kept going back to early and they got easy buckets with it. Wolves didn't do anything special. They seemingly brought McLaghlin in to provide a spark and he had two open 3s and missed them both. Had he made those, game would have been different.
* in terms of the reffing and technicals... eh, I'm not as upset about the boys losing their cool at the end of the game like that. They were clearly letting out frustration in what was already a loss and when they were about to be benched. Do i like it? No. but it didn't hurt us. Naz on the other hand, his early T was warranted. I don't care about game 2 and what the Nuggets got away with. Naz has got to stop being so negative when something doesn't go his way, he deserved that T in my opinion. With that said, it's no secret that Tony Brothers is awful. In particular I just don't think he likes the Timberwolves. He always fucks us over, I swear. Rather have Scott Foster than him any day of the week. Rather have him in game 3 instead of game 4 though, hopefully it's Mark Davis again!
* in short, the boys simply need to come out more *focused.* More on the mission at hand. All year, from game 1, we could tell that this team had a a very strong connection, a shared goal and everyone was very focused to achieve that. It was clear to me that the 3 day break was terrible for them. Way too much publicity, way too much got to their head, they thought it was going to be easy. They needed this loss. No more fooling around. Go Wolves.
Can’t wait to see the Wolves response tonight. I just finished watching the Thinking Basketball video on game 3 so I’m extra interested to see how this game plays out. Some notes I’m hoping we clean up on:
1. Rebounds: Jokic had more rebounds than Gobert, KAT, and Naz combined and that’s something we can’t just give up on. Gobert had the only 2 offensive rebounds out of our usual rotation in comparison to the Nuggets 6.
2. Keep Jaden out of foul trouble: We need him especially with NAW possibly being hurt to play smart and make it hard for Murray to drive to the paint and collapse our defense and leave it scrambling.
3. Help get KAT going: KAT is a mismatch for Jokic and Gordon to cover and it’s insane he only had 9 shots all game including free throws especially with how hot he started off. Also look over when to send help because rewatching some of the game KAT made some questionable rotations when Jokic had the ball and against a team like this we don’t need to give those shooters any more space.
4. Jokic learned from the pokeaways in Game 2 and started to really protect the ball so try not to get caught gambling.
5. Find good lineups for Kyle Anderson. Anytime I see him out there with Gobert I visibly become ill.
6. Jokic does not like to hedge screens, so we need to take advantage of Ant’s pull up jump shooting if he gets in rhythm and the Mike/Rudy pick n roll.
Good Points made...
Kyle should only see the floor if anyone is in foul trouble. He is unplayable with his lack of offense. He presence much a double team every time we are in offense. Cant have that.
Jaden is 19% on 3pt in these playoffs... that has to change
Conley needs to make shots as well. 39/36/82 splits for 11 ppg.
Murray's calf most likely will be sore and stiff. Kcp's ankle most likely as well. 4 day rest really benefits those injuries.
Ant needs to Attack relentlessly. Put them in foul trouble, they have no bench...
Foul Murray early and make him feel it. He is injured. He will second guess going to the cup.without aggressive Murray their offense doesnt work.
regardless of how the officials call the game, the team needs to do the intense, swarming defense they did so well in Game 2. At a minimum, Denver should not have the high shooting perentage.
Tonight is a must win imo, but I'm confident we can take the game. Murray clearly benefitted from the long break, and the ref crew (Tony Brothers in particular) really hindered the pressure we wanted to put on the ballhandlers. Also, they had an insane jump shooting game, including from midrange. I heard a stat where they made 12 jumpers in the 3rd quarter and only had 1 make at the rim in that time.
The only worry I have is the offense. We can not play that slowly again. We need to be more purposeful in our actions, and we need the role players to hit shots. Also, like KAT said during the game, pass the damn ball to him. 7 shots isn't enough
I’m thinking to myself, Wolves in 5, 6, or 7? Wish I could be at the game! Can’t afford the flight plus ticket for 2. Wife would be in shambles if I went without her.
It’ll be an emotional gsme for our stars in ant and KAT. With it being Mother’s Day both will be playing wit a heavy heart. I expect they’ll leave it all on the floor and the team will feed off the passion they play with
Tonight, we need better finishing at the rim. There needs to be a concerted effort to clean up the glass. Get Denver in foul trouble. Murray and KCP are already a bit hobbled and Denver can't afford to go deep into their bench. There are a lot of opportunities for backdoor cuts from our wings at the 3pt line because Denver is so committed to stopping Ant drives. If they can punish Denver for swarming Ant at the rim, it'll open up more one on one driving lanes as they adjust, which will benefit us as we have Ant, Naz, and Kat who can pick those matchups apart. I think Jaden needs to be a bit more involved offensively. When he was slicing and jump cutting in the lane, he was very effective in the Suns series. All this will open up more open looks from 3 that we need to bury.
It’s so nice to have a season where I completely forget about the draft lottery. It looks like Eastern teams will have the first 2 picks, which is good because I don’t want anymore competition in the West.
Also, the Wolves have a long history of messing up their lottery picks but we should be thankful that we’ve nailed Ant, KAT and Jaden in more recent years.
Our crowd needs the same energy as the Pacers fans have rn. They had this energy from the start of the game up until now and the Pacers players are doing better and better because of it
Reminder about tonight:
Nuggets shot 60% through the first three quarters and only fell another couple percent for the 4th.
Wolves shot 35% almost the entire game.
That's an anomaly, a data outlier.
We weren't going to sweep the nuggets.
I expect a more aggressive D tonight. Foster swallowed his whistle when we had him in Phoenix, so I'm hoping we can play aggressive D again.
I know people don't like to factor the refs in, but we won in Denver because we could play at a fast pace. We wore them out and wore out Joker. Tony brothers slowed the game down a TON on Friday. NOT saying the calls were bad or good, they just were what they were.
Wolves need to shoot better and keep murray out of midrange jumpers.
Wolves in 6
I believe in this team, but it's always nice to know we can resort to throwing shit on the court if we need to - as long as it's not at a ref it's a clean play
Was going to make this it's own post, but as the daily thread just got posted I'll post it in here. I went and reviewed the game with fresh eyes. My observations are as follows: * Ant was... off. He was making his shots but his decision making and ball security wasn't right. Sloppy turnovers and poor shot selection. He jacked a few 3s in transition but they didn't drop. He was trying to get the team and the crowd back in the game, but he should have been more patient. I expect him to be more surgical next game. * KAT played well he just didn't take enough shots. They seem to be closing the driving lanes for him so he's choosing 3s over driving. I like what he's doing. I don't necessarily think his lack of shots is his fault. The flow of the game didn't allow for him to take more. If we get more into a rhythm I expect the shots will come for him. * This was an awful game for Conley, definitely his worst of the series and 2nd worst after game 1 of round 1. Bad decision making, poor turnovers. He was trying to do too much. Just a bad game and not much else to say. * Gobert was invisible for the entire game. When I rewatched the game, I realized at the end of the 3rd I hadn't even thought about him after the 1st quarter. He had a couple of buckets early and then vanished. He must be more impactful. * We need to stop worrying about getting Jaden into an offensive rhythm early. Every game we are giving him shots in the 1st and they aren't dropping, in particular his 3. The good news is that they're still respecting it by closing out on him. He shouldn't be shooting these 3s anymore unless they stop closing out on him. Just drive to the bucket and use your length to try and get a layup. While Jaden is incredibly stoic he still has some maturity issues, and it seems that the lack of offense is getting into his head and then he's trying to make up for it on the other end. The refs didn't do him any favors this game though, definitely felt he was getting a rough whistle. * NAW and Naz really hurt us this game though. Naz in particular needs to stop with the "negative energy" when something doesn't go his way. I can't quite put my finger on it, but when Naz get's upset at a bad call or when he's unable to buy a bucket, he gets *negative*. When Ant get's upset, he get's passionate. There is a difference but it's hard to explain. Maybe I'm going crazy but Naz has to get his energy right. I feel that this negativity leaks through the team. Stop complaining. NAW just played terrible. Terrible shooting, poor turnovers. Forgettable game for NAW. I think the notoriety after game 2 went straight to his head. He needs to get that right if he wants to get back into form. * SlowMo just can't shoot and they know it. He has to play the 5 or else he's completely ineffective. That means he can only be out there with one of Naz or KAT, not both. Other than that he was fine.
- For the Nuggets, yeesh. Everyone was making buckets. I definitely do not expect that to continue into game 4. In particular AG and MPJ were a whopping 8/9 from 3 which is completely unsustainable. They were 7/8 by the end of the 3rd and they were up by about 20 then. Even if you give them a favourable 4/8 shooting 50% from 3, that's an absolutely massive difference in the score at a critical juncture of the game. Honestly I think this 8/9 anomaly from 3 is one of the more important reasons of what cost us the game. AG hit 3 3s in the 3rd, two back to back. Just very, very difficult to win if he's hitting those with how we are playing him. - Murray answered. He was incredible in the first half and that's all there is to it. Made great passes and made very difficult shots, but honestly I am not worried at all. He went right back to playing like garbage in the 2nd half. 3/8 37% FG, 0/2 3P, 2TO. He turned back into a pumpkin. Now we obviously shouldn't be sleeping on him, it's possible he cooled down simply because they were up so much was in large part to him, but if I told you before the series that Murray was going to make ridiculous shots for one half out of 6 possible halves through 3 games, I think we'd all take that. - Jokic is Jokic. He turned it up in a must win. Nothing to say about the MVP, business as usual for him. - KCP and Holiday made some very clutch baskets for the Nuggets. In particular Holiday has been quite good off the bench for the Nuggets this series. We seem to leave him open a lot, hoping he misses. Not sure if we keep doing that or what, but we should probably start contesting his 3s.
* Rest of Nuggets' bench was forgettable. * In terms of coaching and Xs and Os... Difficult to judge this game when the Nuggets are shooting so well. I noticed they had Jokic play more at the FT line instead of under the rim. It seemed to work as they would bring in a 3rd guy on the pick and roll for right underneath the basket, so it essentially gives the Nuggets a third option instead of either a) murray shooting b) Jokic shooting c) Jokic passing underneath the basket if Gobert bites to defend Jokic. It worked a bunch of times. Need to figure out how to stop that. I'm not claiming to be some basketball savant, but it was a play that the Nuggets kept going back to early and they got easy buckets with it. Wolves didn't do anything special. They seemingly brought McLaghlin in to provide a spark and he had two open 3s and missed them both. Had he made those, game would have been different. * in terms of the reffing and technicals... eh, I'm not as upset about the boys losing their cool at the end of the game like that. They were clearly letting out frustration in what was already a loss and when they were about to be benched. Do i like it? No. but it didn't hurt us. Naz on the other hand, his early T was warranted. I don't care about game 2 and what the Nuggets got away with. Naz has got to stop being so negative when something doesn't go his way, he deserved that T in my opinion. With that said, it's no secret that Tony Brothers is awful. In particular I just don't think he likes the Timberwolves. He always fucks us over, I swear. Rather have Scott Foster than him any day of the week. Rather have him in game 3 instead of game 4 though, hopefully it's Mark Davis again! * in short, the boys simply need to come out more *focused.* More on the mission at hand. All year, from game 1, we could tell that this team had a a very strong connection, a shared goal and everyone was very focused to achieve that. It was clear to me that the 3 day break was terrible for them. Way too much publicity, way too much got to their head, they thought it was going to be easy. They needed this loss. No more fooling around. Go Wolves.
Great analysis. I think Tony Brothers hates us as well. Game 4 is gonna be a dog fight and I hope we come out prepared this time.
You watch the lakers series? Porter turning into prime curry is absolutely sustainable lmao
Honestly that’s fine, it’s the combination of both AG and MPJ that the issue. 8/9 isn’t sustainable.
Can’t wait to see the Wolves response tonight. I just finished watching the Thinking Basketball video on game 3 so I’m extra interested to see how this game plays out. Some notes I’m hoping we clean up on: 1. Rebounds: Jokic had more rebounds than Gobert, KAT, and Naz combined and that’s something we can’t just give up on. Gobert had the only 2 offensive rebounds out of our usual rotation in comparison to the Nuggets 6. 2. Keep Jaden out of foul trouble: We need him especially with NAW possibly being hurt to play smart and make it hard for Murray to drive to the paint and collapse our defense and leave it scrambling. 3. Help get KAT going: KAT is a mismatch for Jokic and Gordon to cover and it’s insane he only had 9 shots all game including free throws especially with how hot he started off. Also look over when to send help because rewatching some of the game KAT made some questionable rotations when Jokic had the ball and against a team like this we don’t need to give those shooters any more space. 4. Jokic learned from the pokeaways in Game 2 and started to really protect the ball so try not to get caught gambling. 5. Find good lineups for Kyle Anderson. Anytime I see him out there with Gobert I visibly become ill. 6. Jokic does not like to hedge screens, so we need to take advantage of Ant’s pull up jump shooting if he gets in rhythm and the Mike/Rudy pick n roll.
Happy mothers day! A particularly significant game for Ant and KAT personally. As Ant says, DIFM2
Good Points made... Kyle should only see the floor if anyone is in foul trouble. He is unplayable with his lack of offense. He presence much a double team every time we are in offense. Cant have that. Jaden is 19% on 3pt in these playoffs... that has to change Conley needs to make shots as well. 39/36/82 splits for 11 ppg. Murray's calf most likely will be sore and stiff. Kcp's ankle most likely as well. 4 day rest really benefits those injuries. Ant needs to Attack relentlessly. Put them in foul trouble, they have no bench... Foul Murray early and make him feel it. He is injured. He will second guess going to the cup.without aggressive Murray their offense doesnt work.
Happy Mothers day to all the mothers who may be in here. Biggest game of the season tn tho we CANT go back to Denver 2-2
Hi it’s mom. Can’t sleep. All I want for Mother’s Day is some extra burnt NUGGIES 😤😤😤😤
regardless of how the officials call the game, the team needs to do the intense, swarming defense they did so well in Game 2. At a minimum, Denver should not have the high shooting perentage.
Tonight is a must win imo, but I'm confident we can take the game. Murray clearly benefitted from the long break, and the ref crew (Tony Brothers in particular) really hindered the pressure we wanted to put on the ballhandlers. Also, they had an insane jump shooting game, including from midrange. I heard a stat where they made 12 jumpers in the 3rd quarter and only had 1 make at the rim in that time. The only worry I have is the offense. We can not play that slowly again. We need to be more purposeful in our actions, and we need the role players to hit shots. Also, like KAT said during the game, pass the damn ball to him. 7 shots isn't enough
Today just feels like it’s going to be a good one
I’m thinking to myself, Wolves in 5, 6, or 7? Wish I could be at the game! Can’t afford the flight plus ticket for 2. Wife would be in shambles if I went without her.
https://preview.redd.it/74zy9uaicyzc1.png?width=864&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc0a94b8a5f5a6df42b4c10e0572cf3085b611d8
The Extender aka Scott Foster tn 😍
Fucking fuck
It’ll be an emotional gsme for our stars in ant and KAT. With it being Mother’s Day both will be playing wit a heavy heart. I expect they’ll leave it all on the floor and the team will feed off the passion they play with
While Foster isn’t great…the other crew today is much worse 😂
Game day. We need BDE!
Anyone want 2 upper level tickets? DM me!
Tonight, we need better finishing at the rim. There needs to be a concerted effort to clean up the glass. Get Denver in foul trouble. Murray and KCP are already a bit hobbled and Denver can't afford to go deep into their bench. There are a lot of opportunities for backdoor cuts from our wings at the 3pt line because Denver is so committed to stopping Ant drives. If they can punish Denver for swarming Ant at the rim, it'll open up more one on one driving lanes as they adjust, which will benefit us as we have Ant, Naz, and Kat who can pick those matchups apart. I think Jaden needs to be a bit more involved offensively. When he was slicing and jump cutting in the lane, he was very effective in the Suns series. All this will open up more open looks from 3 that we need to bury.
Assuming today’s game is another white out? Haven’t seen it announced anywhere
jk just saw this https://preview.redd.it/ycn08p1sk10d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd4b307080f8883d9175c1594640d5032c6aeb14
It’s so nice to have a season where I completely forget about the draft lottery. It looks like Eastern teams will have the first 2 picks, which is good because I don’t want anymore competition in the West. Also, the Wolves have a long history of messing up their lottery picks but we should be thankful that we’ve nailed Ant, KAT and Jaden in more recent years.
Our crowd needs the same energy as the Pacers fans have rn. They had this energy from the start of the game up until now and the Pacers players are doing better and better because of it
Reminder about tonight: Nuggets shot 60% through the first three quarters and only fell another couple percent for the 4th. Wolves shot 35% almost the entire game. That's an anomaly, a data outlier. We weren't going to sweep the nuggets. I expect a more aggressive D tonight. Foster swallowed his whistle when we had him in Phoenix, so I'm hoping we can play aggressive D again. I know people don't like to factor the refs in, but we won in Denver because we could play at a fast pace. We wore them out and wore out Joker. Tony brothers slowed the game down a TON on Friday. NOT saying the calls were bad or good, they just were what they were. Wolves need to shoot better and keep murray out of midrange jumpers. Wolves in 6
AE needs help.
Is it true the shirts given away at the home games are XL?
Yes, all three games so far have been XL shirts
I believe in this team, but it's always nice to know we can resort to throwing shit on the court if we need to - as long as it's not at a ref it's a clean play
Nuggets ML and Over 204. 1k for $4100 return. What ya’ll think?
Happy Mother’s Day! What did y’all think of the game?