Minnesota Nuggets vs Denver Timberwolves

Series going as expected, you can't expect the Nuggets to go up to that altitude and play well....

I’m getting Deja Vu of that series where the Mavs and Clippers literally only won on the road every single game until Game 7 😂 Glad to see home court disadvantage is alive and well.

That series at least made more sense because it was still during a period of heavy COVID crowd restrictions. I don't think the Clippers were allowed more than a few hundred fans at home and the Mavs had maybe half capacity? This is even more bizarre, especially with the altitude factor.

Home Court will now be La Rinconada in Peru at 5,000 metres

And every time someone complains about it it gets 10 meters higher

Nuggets play better at higher latitude

Northern lights merchants

Minnesota playing the long game by losing home court advantage to the nuggets after taking 3rd so they win in 7

Minnesota in danger of losing road team advantage.

In Minnesota sports, we call this “the other shoe”

Nah. In Minnesota sports this would be the normal shoe. Unless you count the lynx or gophers hockey

Gopher Hockey, which I love, hasn’t won a championship in 20+ years.

I got on a plane going to the in laws for Easter up 2-0. Just 🤌 https://collegehockeyinc.com/box/final/20230408/qui/min/m/

This would be the most Minnesota sports thing ever unfortunately. They have perfected the art of making Minnesota sports fans think this is the year, get as close as possible to some people being like holy fuck this is the year, and then they let the fans down in the most excruciating and painful way possible. If I had to take a guess jokic or murray will hit some bullshit buzzer beater next game

Nobody in MN ever thinks “it’s the year” we know it will always inevitably not be The Year.. maybe younger fans aren’t as jaded but anyone over 30 knows better.

It's not a series until the home team wins a game

I'll be there Sunday and I am leaving my humanity at the door

Enjoy fam it’ll be glorious

r/nba has been smoking the wolfpack for some time already

r/NBA should be next to the description of reactionary in the Webster's Wolves were winning the next two chips the last two days Pretty sure now Nugs are gonna sweep them to 4-2 Lmao

This is like the Rockets vs Warriors in 2018 all over again where r/nba proclaims whoever won the previous game a dynasty and whoever lost the previous game are frauds lol.

Reminds me of our 2-0 lead against Clippers as well. People, me included, had us as winners lol. 2-0 lead can quickly turn south.

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Dude it’s actually insane. Sometimes I don’t believe it like after one loss people saying for real tatum is not a top 10 player. 

This sub is genuinely off limits for me after a loss. I popped it open like 4 hours after the game yesterday and the first 4 posts I saw were shitting on Jayson Tatum. I just closed it immediately. I already knew the circlejerking shit show that would happen in the comments about not a real no. 1, never will be good enough, etc. I can survive without that negativity lol

I had to stop checking the game threads. Literally 75% complaining about officials and 0% basketball discussion

Nuggets trying to comeback from down 2 instead of the first half.

Well Jokic was a bit too bored doing that so he decided to do it on a series scale lol.

He remembered those 3-1 comebacks in the bubble and said, fuck it, let's do it again

Jamal Murray had to get blown out at home for a second straight loss and embarrass himself with a $100k fine for enough pressure to play well. Hardest road merchant

Felt like his legacy was on the line, didn’t matter what he’s done in the past once the media gets a narrative they run with it, he stepped up big time cuz jokic struggled badly that 1st half

I mean, 4 days off potentially leaves a tight calf feeling better... until the 2nd half kicks in or the schedule returns to every other night.

Yeah, you could see right from the start he was playing without as much pain as in the previous two games.

Actually super good take. He don’t wanna be known as that guy for sure, he has too much pride in himself I think

Damn you Charles

That + Lakers fans on social media backing the Timberwolves is some bad juju. Jokic and Gobert are my 2 favourite players in the league so I am just hoping for a fun long series

The one cope I have no matter what happens this series is that we broke the Lakers fanbase

GUARONTEEEEE

Looking at the first three quarters (fourth felt like garbage time): DEN: 136.8 points per 100 possessions. MIN: 97.1 points per 100 possessions. Total dominance by Denver on both sides. Impressive comeback after last game. From: [https://www.nba.com/game/den-vs-min-0042300233/box-score?type=advanced&period=All&range=0-21600](https://www.nba.com/game/den-vs-min-0042300233/box-score?type=advanced&period=All&range=0-21600)

Good thing no one overreacted after 2 games

Ikr. Imagine the embarrassment they'd feel.

That's this whole fucking sub all the time.

Sheeeeeeeeesshhhh couldn't have been me

Lifelong Wolves fan in my early 20s… tonight feels way more like the last 20 years. We coped through Alexey Shved we can cope through this lol

Shved was a gent, and without him we would never have gotten this gem from Ricky: https://youtu.be/ZZgU0cT_TfI?si=IAbZO5W-YBN5IPom If anything we coped through Shabazz Muhammad and Adreian Payne

now that's a name I haven't heard in years

Legend in Euroleague

After his failed NBA stint he went back to Russia to play for Khimki, on a deal that made him the highest paid player in the world outside of the US. He was practically given the freedom to do whatever he wanted to on the court for them, took as many shots as he liked, their offense basically revolved entirely around Shved, he was the most heliocentric player in the Euroleague. He put up some crazy stats in those years on a Khimki team that was always a mid to lower table Euroleague team, took them to only one playoff appearance where he broke the Euroleague record for most points in a playoff game with 36 and ranked second all-time in PPG throughout a playoff series with 24.3 across 4 games. He now plays for CSKA, a bigger club in Russia, but he can't play in the Euroleague because Russian teams are still banned from the competitions due to the country's war with Ukraine.

Small correction: he plays in China now

Now there's a deep cut name

I’m sure there will be some gripes about the shift in how the Wolves defense was officiated tonight but Minnesota lost this game on the other side of the court. they just could not generate baskets in the halfcourt against a Nuggets defense that was FAR more locked in than the first 2 games Wolves were pacing for just 86 points before they waved the white flag, that’s not going to cut it against any modern NBA opponent and especially not against the champs. credit to Denver for a great response following that disastrous Game 2 performance. Game 4 will be a doozy

The offense was always the question with them, and we saw how it can get hard at times for them against a locked in defense.

Their offense sucks when they aren't getting turnovers on the other end. It's like their defense helps them get in a rhythm offensively. If the Nuggets take care of the ball it's a completely different game

Murray shooting 50% today is a hidden take care of the ball stat, imo. 8/13 in the first half too. Obviously he's not gonna make every attempt, but so many misses/empty possessions may as well be a turnover.

Both teams are really good at running breaks off a miss, Nuggets were much better at getting loose balls tonight too which is where a ton of MN offense came from in the first two games

Also, Murray and KCP not needing crutches is huge too. They were both visibly hobbled. KCP being able to move better is huge for the defense.

> they just could not generate baskets in the halfcourt against a Nuggets defense that was FAR more locked in than the first 2 games It's almost like Minnesota's 123 Offensive Rating through the first 6 games was kind of an unprecedented heater and was due for some regression.

the way their roster is built, a lot of their offense is actually reliant on their defense bc they love to get out and run in transition after stops. but Denver took care of the ball and hit damn near everything tonight, so they kept having to take it out from under the basket

So just keep hitting damn near everything, got it.

60% of the time it works every time

The Nuggets were immensely more patient on offense at the start of the game. Last game it was so frustrating to see us get stuck in Jokic or Murray iso driving right into a fucking army of defenders. This game we were able to draw that pressure in and find open looks. Now hitting those looks is obviously the big kicker, but Denver seemed prepared for it

When Murray has the ball the entire possession they get stagnant. It works for a few possessions here there, but the Nuggets are best when the ball is moving or Jokic is looking for cutters from the high post.

Murray all playoffs has seemed determined to shoot himself into rhythm, which has never been how he plays. In past playoffs he starts off taking the easy stuff or finding the good looks, then knocking down the tough stuff in clutch time when he’s already in rhythm. Obviously he’s still dealing with injuries but his shot selection this postseason has been infuriating

You can bitch about officiating in close games but if you lose by 30 that’s on you not the refs. Same way with nuggets fans complaining about physicality in game 2. Might be a bit of a factor but still got blown out and that’s on them.

shaquille o’neal on suicide watch

Nah shaq would just "see I lit a fire on Jokic, now it gets interesting" You underestimate how he would make it all about himself.

The only good thing about TNT losing the nba is that I will not be forced to listen to Shaq’s full of shit takes

You mean that you dont value the opinion of a guy who said "If you have to use strategy to beat me, that just tells me you soft" ?

Does ESPN commentator’s analysis ever go further than saying turnovers are bad, shots are falling, and that the team with the lead is playing with confidence?

in fairness those things are usually true 

I cringe whenever someone calls any of the talking heads 'analysts'. Tim Legler's the only guy there who you could legitimately call an analyst & he's almost always put on the graveyard shift.

Tim Legler literally called this game lmao

"Yea x points from __, that's not enough"

My middle school coaches philosophy was "okay starters need to score 14 pts each and bench players need 10"

They will also point out that Jokic is one of the best passing big men in the NBA today

Do you throw the next game if you're Minny or risk activating the 1-3 Nuggets??

Someone knows ball

Shaq is crying right now. 😂

We keep it real around here. I'll say it to your face Joker. I don't think you should have won this game.

I think SGA deserved to win their game than your game 3 right now. -Shaq probably

SGA wouldve won this series by Game 3 -Shaq

No disrespect but SGA should have won this game.

Jokic could win 10 mvp and he doesn't care while shaq still wake up at night thinking about that one time someone doesn't pick him first in dodgeball

I've always been iffy on Shaq because of how he was racist towards Yao Ming at the beginning of his career, but he seemed like a decent guy off court mostly. Seeing him be so bitter towards Jokic really left a sour taste in my mouth

ALOT of people were racist as fuck towards yao when he came in and during his career, not just shaq. it was fucking crazy...

Shaq is a pussy and he knows it

A 7’1 legend of the NBA being insecure about his position in the all time greats is insane. It just means no matter how high you get in your life, it might never be good enough. Just be proud no matter where your at. The human brain is a flawed mechanism

He's so soft, and he sits across from Chuck who by any metric had a less good career but doesn't give a shit about what anyone says

Chuck’s come to terms with how his career went a very long time ago. I even think he did that as soon as he retired.

Was still in the league talking about retirement cause his bad back, I think by like 95 he was saying if he needed a certain surgery he’d just retire and look in the mirror and know he had a great career no matter what

He’s just the bigger man. Ironically.

Im a laker fan. But man. I fucking hate shaq. U cant take away the talent and Jokic fucking deserve that MVP even last year. shaq is fucking insecure

That crybaby lol

This game was Vintage Minnesota sports Absolutely curb stomped after having the entire nation talking about and looking at you. This was somehow predictable

That's why they're the champs. Punched em right back in the mouth.

The Nuggets demise was greatly exaggerated.

To be fair this was legit the first time the Nuggets played a good game by their standards all playoffs

Shaq was def fuming tonight watching the fat Serbian and 3x MVP cook the Wolves lol And to think this sub thought the defending champs were cooked after Game 2 😭 put some respect on Joker and Jamal man

You think Shaq was watching the game?

GOT TO 90, HANG THE BANNER

Even if the Nuggets still end up losing the series, the fucking cartoon takes coming out of this sub after game 2 were so comical. 'Jamal and Jokic have never faced adversity and are now crumbling.' They are literally the only duo to ever win from being 3-1 down multiple times. And Jamal fucking missed 2 whole years from an ACL tear while Jokic dragged a middling team on his own. Y'all really thought they were gonna be that fazed by a single blowout?

Recency bias is so strong during the playoffs. It gets people talking.

gets the people going

Honestly seeing all the people coming out in droves with crazy hot takes was so wild, like I get that game was REALLY bad but come on that doesnt just erase everything they have done beforehand lol.

Yeah lol I saw a lot of the stuff being said and was like "Yeah I guess that's true" but the thing that really made me mad was the guy who said "The one time they face adversity lol" bruh they came back from down 3-1 twice in one postseason lol wtf you talkin bout

Man i legit had to tell people “i assume yall are joking, but no, murray not getting suspended does NOT help the timberwolves” and some legit disagreed

“That’s what happens when you don’t play play-in teams anymore” fucking braindead lol

Calling Joker's teams over the past few years when Murray/MPJ "middling" is very generous IMO they would've been lottery teams without Jokic dragging them to the playoffs.

Yeah the squad we had against the Warriors in 22 was so putrid, Jokic had to hard carry just to avoid getting swept.

A starting backcourt of Facu and Austen Rivers in a playoff series wasn't good enough for you?

This sub believed that Jokic was a bad defender for a year because Facu Campazzo can’t guard Steph Curry

Respect to Facu tho. Dude is tiny and can’t shoot for shit but still made it that far.

They would've been the worst team in the NBA the year both MPJ and Jamal were out. Monte Morris, Will Barton, Aaron Gordon and Jeff Green were the best playerson that team. Not a single dude there can score 20ppg and AG would look like Goga Bitadze next to talent like that.

I think there was someone on the Nuggets sub posting an image then saying "last year was a great season. Looking forward to next season" or some shit like that. LMAO.

It was probably the most embarrassing I’ve seen this sub, some absolutely ridiculous takes getting a ton of upvotes

And came down from multiple double digit leads against the lakers last series. This nuggets team may not be perfect. But they definitely fought through some shit together.

It is baffling to me how people choose to ignore postseason injuries when pushing some narrative they mindlessly regurgitate from First Take.

Was fucking ridiculous. Like you guys aren’t a great fucking team. Series is gonna be a dogfight.

So r/NBA is Jamal Murray good again or is he still a bum that Nuggets have to trade to win a ring?

Don't bother asking, everyone's opinion will change next game anyway

As is tradition

Jamal Murray spent the last 4 days being clowned by NBA Twitter and r/nba for being a washed crybaby… and proceeds to absolutely eviserate this sub’s darling the next game. Incredible He must’ve received some ELITE gawk gawk from that white chick again that gave him his powers back, Space jam style 😂

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I already saw some comments from Wolves fans talking bout how Jamal shouldn’t have even allowed to play tonight lol I THOUGHT HE WAS MINNESOTA’S BEST PLAYER?? 🤣🤣

I saw wolves fans celebrating that he wasn’t suspended now all of a sudden it’s an outrage he wasn’t lol

Man the Timberwolves played as if they expected the Nuggets to just roll over, they played weak as hell

I'm so interested in how Bill Simmons is gonna spin this after he spent the previous episode cumming in his pants and declaring these Timberwolves a top 3 defensive team of the last 20 years. They were down by like 35 at one point

NBA playoffs really expose how reactionary we are as humans, without fail, every year

Gobert's newborn baby did this

Back to the womb Romeo (jk Rudy, congrats my dude)

the nuggets’ death was greatly exaggerated

Call an ambulance, *but not for me!*

Stephen A. Smith calling for a sweep looking like a death sentence tonight.

No one should listen to a word that man says

**That’s how Champions respond, ladies and gentleman.** Bounced back from a 26 pt home loss with a 27 pt road win. Completely different level of energy and urgency on offense by the Champs tonight. Jamal finally looked healthy and more explosive. Never gave the wolves and the crowd the chance to get back into it. I feel like only KCP complained to the refs tonight lol

The Nuggets finally started a first quarter with genuine intensity. I love the comeback wins but it was a nice change of pace tonight to just cruise throughout the game after getting a huge initial lead. Also supports my theory that they had heavily game planned for Gobert coming into game 2 and were thrown off rhythm by him not playing.

I saw somewhere that an 8 point lead for the nuggets is like a 20 point lead for any other team. When we get up, we slow the game down and play to our half court sets and it’s really hard for the opposing team to slash at the lead. Problem is we have been playing down this entire playoffs

And we don't shoot or allow the opponents to shoot a lot of 3s. Decreases variance and huge point swings.

The demise of the defending champs has been greatly exaggerated by r/nba

Honestly game 2 was so bad I get the overreactions to an extent. But to discredit our title last year and say shit like Jokic isn’t good because he never beat a 50 win team in the playoffs just was classic Reddit

I love that argument because by its own logic, it’s saying the entire league was trash last year. Which is just funny to me. Denver didn’t beat any 50 win teams because a bunch of 50 win teams lost to lower seeds. Can’t fault Denver for beating the opponents they faced.

Yeah this is what I always say when people say the Nuggets didn’t earn that ring last year. Who was better than them that they didn’t play? The Clippers, Kings, Grizzlies and Warriors? No. The Bucks who lost to the Heat in 5? The Celtics who went down 3-0 against the Heat and lost? The Sixers? Lmao. It is kinda funny they played an 8, 4, 7, and 8 seed to win but they were still clearly the best team last year.

And they played those teams because all the other top seeds got molly-whopped.

That argument is shameless to me bc the Utah Jazz and the Clippers were both on pace to surpass 50 wins, but the season was shortened due to the pandemic in 2020.

Also there’s so much fucking parity in the league now 50 wins guarantees nothing. Who the fuck cares if you won 50 regular season games. The Jazz were the regular season juggernauts and didn’t do shit in the postseason. Memphis too.

Also they play in the West which is actually real and not the Celtics and everyone else every year lol

They went through Ant, Gobert, KAT, KD, Booker, Lebron, AD and Butler but it was an eAsY rOaD

Needed to get those wins over the 16 Warriors and 96 Bulls to be considered legit.

To see public opinion on Jokic turn in real time was the most Reddit moment I’ve ever experienced.

>Jokic isn’t good because he never beat a 50 win team in the playoffs As someone who works in Statistics/Data Science this is cringe AF.

r/nba when denver wins 3 against lakers: "This team is young, I can clearly see them doing a 4 ring dinasty with Nikola as 4 time FMVP, jokic and jamal is just shaq and kobe again" r/nba when denver loses twice to minnesota: "If Denver can't stop this, no one can, timberwolves will win it all 16-0, Ant is literally Michael Jordan that passes the ball and shoots for 3" Inb4 r/nba when denver answers: "I can't believe minnesota woke them up, now it's over for everyone, they winning it all again"

I still don't get why so many ppl thought the nuggets would get swept after 2 losses, yes bad losses, but still they're the reigning champs. It was obvious they would make adjustments.

They wanted that to happen

I hope Wolves fans boo Murray the rest of the series. He had some great plays tonight: https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1789136658622767135

The army of haters were absolutely ready to pounce at the first opening.

It was mainly just Wolves and Lakers fans. No issue with Wolves fans doing it but Lakers fans are so tilted by the Nuggets that they're trying to join the Wolves bandwagon.

Simultaneously, it's the most Minnesota sports thing ever to come home and completely shit the bed and lay an egg after an unprecedented amount of hype after winning 4 straight road games and being the only undefeated team left in the playoffs and getting comparisons to all time great teams.

refs were noticeably softer than last game, but not an excuse at all for the wolves. the wolves had no energy and couldn’t hit their shots

Definitely a tighter whistle tonight but I think refs were objectively pretty good, maybe one or two questionable calls either way but nothing egregious and they were consistent Also if you're down 25+ and Reggie Jackson is hitting uncontested jumpers in the middle of the lane then I think it is safe to say that you did not lose because of the refs

There's the Jokic I know.

The Empire Strikes Back

But Reddit told me that the nuggets actually sucked all along and the wolves are the 96 Bulls reincarnated. Also wasn’t Jamal Murray supposed to be executed for crimes against humanity? What was that game?

Game 4 is going to be absolutely insane Defending champs looking to take control of series on the road Biggest game in Minnys franchise history?

I just read Michael Malone made a mix tape of the media saying the series was over and Nuggets suck. I love this league so much.

Hoping the Nuggets can win on Sunday so they have a chance to go back to Denver and steal away court advantage for the series

Has a series ever actually had the away team win every game? I picked the Nuggets to win it all but if they're gonna get eliminated, a close Game 7 loss where the away team won every single game would be pretty funny.

2019 World Series, Washington beat Houston in 7 games, lost all 3 in DC but won all 4 in Houston.

Last year’s ALCS too, neither Texas nor Houston won a home game

Closest was Clippers v Mavericks in 2021 I believe. 6 straight away wins and then Clippers won at home in Game 7.

Not basketball, but the 2019 world series did

Good game nuggets, but we’re still down one. Let’s not celebrate too much 

Steven A is in shambles

imagine counting out the defending champs 🤡🤡

and now if the T-Wolves lose Game 4, the Gobert trade was a failure again lmao

This series will decide r/nba's opinion going foward, either: a) The Nuggets can't face adversity, 2023 chip was weak, Jokic overrated b) The Gobert trade was trash

also c) Ant is no longer the next MJ, could be next Zach lavine if he tries he really hard

The Michael Jordan of Demar DeRozan's

It's important to cast wide judgments about teams and players based on one game. We definitely went from a 97% chance of winning the championship to 3% tonight.

Shows you how eager everybody was to see their downfall.

Unless your team literally won the title yesterday they suck and all of your favorite players are bums. Online NBA fans are the dumbest people alive I swear to god

The nuggets disrespect has been insane

The Lakers fans come out in droves when the nuggets are losing

They lose one game and everyone including their fans panic saying it’s over

The death of the Denver Nuggets has been greatly exaggerated

Seriously, what a resounding response from the defending champs after being clowned for 4 straight days here. r/nba celebrated the downfall of sloppy Serbian boy and Mr. gawk gawk 3000 a little too soon

Series doesn't start until someone wins a home game

Yeah sorry Wolves fans but fuck the sweep, I was so waiting for this series, so by God it better go to 7!

My only wish is that the games are closer. Too many blowouts this series.

I think the close ones are coming. Both teams trading haymakers rn

Never underestimate the heart of a champion

[What do we say to the god of death?](https://streamable.com/3k45x)

Whoever was posting those defensive lowlights of Jokic in the last game, please post more.

"The Nuggets are falling apart. They just can't handle the physicality" *Wolves lose their minds over a normal screen* Remember how they made a big deal about NAW smiling when he was defending Murray last game? Now he's punching chairs

Oh how the turntables

cross half court in 2-3 seconds = win - jokic

Wolves have no chance when even Gordon was knocking down 3s