(2) Nuggets vs. (3) Timberwolves Second Round Playoff Series Thread

[tontoz]

Geez, uncle is getting too old to see my point. Probably being senile already.

The point is that you don't understand English. You have to repeat once before you can repeat again. It is really impressive how clueless you are

[Axe]

Alright then, have a good time taking care of your grandchildren uncle.

[bladefd]

(99% sure it's fake but I like the sentiment!)

[Im Still Ballin]

Bump!

[White Hammer]

MIN-DEN Regular Season tied at 2 wins apiece:

Game 1 (11/1 @ Minn): Wolves win 110-89
Everyone available, but heavy bench minutes in this early-season matchup. Wolves bench scored 38 to Nuggets 35. Nugs as a team shot a miserable 6-33 from 3pt.

Game 2 (3/19 @ Minn): Nuggets win 115-112 (No KAT, Gobert, or Reid)
Edwards, without his starting frontcourt, shot 13-26 for 30/8/8. Jokic shot 14-22 for 35/16/2. Nuggets as a team shot over 50% from 2 AND from 3. But they also had 17 turnovers to the wolves 7.

Game 3 (3/29 @ Den): Wolves win 111-98 (No KAT / No Murray)
Wolves shot 37 free throws to Nuggets 27. Edwards, Conley, and Gobert all scored over 20pts. Nuggets shot under 40%, but they were +7 on the offensive boards and had 14 more shot attempts.

Game 4 (4/10 @ Den): Nuggets win 116-107 (No KAT)
Jokic goes 16-20 for 41/11/7. Both teams shot a solid 50% fg and 40% 3pt, but both go a horrendous sub-60% from the line on 20+ attempts.

Wolves won the turnover battle in all 4 meetings, while the Nugs had more rebounds. Wolves mostly had fewer fouls and more free throws each game. How will new playoff officiating affect this matchup?
Jokic in 4 games averaged 33pts on 58% but only 4.3 assists, his lowest assist average against any team in the league this year. Jokic shot 20+ times in each of the 4 meetings. Making him a scorer and taking away his passing game may be the winning strategy. The Nuggets have not really seen this wolves squad at full strength so they could be in for a surprise.

[Xiao Yao You]

Wolves out rebounded them the only game they had all their bigs. Not much to take from that. Only first game were teams healthy and that was the 4th game of the season with Shake Milton in the rotation. Hes no longer on the team

[Nanners]

Jokic in 4 games averaged 33pts on 58% but only 4.3 assists, his lowest assist average against any team in the league this year. Jokic shot 20+ times in each of the 4 meetings. Making him a scorer and taking away his passing game may be the winning strategy. The Nuggets have not really seen this wolves squad at full strength so they could be in for a surprise.

I think this is spot on. Seems like the wolves best approach to the matchup is to defend jokic 1v1 and let him shoot as much as he wants, and instead focus on suffocating the nugs supporting cast (especially the perimeter shooters).

[Meticode]

Out of all the potential matchups this one has me the most excited for a tough series. No hate to the Thunder, but I feel like the Nuggets and Wolves match up really interesting...

Murray vs Edwards
Jokic+Gordon vs Gobert+Towns
Porter Jr. vs McDaniels

Can't wait for Saturday 7PM EST.

Is it sad I'm more excited for this than my Cavs? I don't know. I just feel like the Cavs will fizzle out. Even if they beat Orlando there's no way in hell they're beating the Celtics or the Knicks.

Also it helps that Murray is a killer in the playoffs and raises his game in the playoffs more than any other player in NBA history vs the regular season. And Edwards is coming into his own as a killer and wants to be a leader.

[Nanners]

Out of all the potential matchups this one has me the most excited for a tough series. No hate to the Thunder, but I feel like the Nuggets and Wolves match up really interesting...

Murray vs Edwards
Jokic+Gordon vs Gobert+Towns
Porter Jr. vs McDaniels

Can't wait for Saturday 7PM EST.

Is it sad I'm more excited for this than my Cavs? I don't know. I just feel like the Cavs will fizzle out. Even if they beat Orlando there's no way in hell they're beating the Celtics or the Knicks.

Also it helps that Murray is a killer in the playoffs and raises his game in the playoffs more than any other player in NBA history vs the regular season. And Edwards is coming into his own as a killer and wants to be a leader.

You really dont think the Cavs can beat the Knicks? The cavs are lightyears better defensively than the 76ers (especially on the perimeter), and on paper its hard to find a single matchup where the knicks have a clear advantage. The only obvious reason I can see why the Cavs cant beat the Knicks is because in order to play the Knicks they have to beat the Celtics first.

[Xiao Yao You]

Harrison Wind: Nikola Jokic on the Timberwolves: “When Tim Connelly made that trade (for Rudy Gobert) everybody was laughing at him and what he was doing. But he made a great team. I think he deserves credit for doing that.” “I think they’re built really well.” pic.twitter.com/Ov4NnoVCzx

[Meticode]

You really dont think the Cavs can beat the Knicks? The cavs are lightyears better defensively than the 76ers (especially on the perimeter), and on paper its hard to find a single matchup where the knicks have a clear advantage. The only obvious reason I can see why the Cavs cant beat the Knicks is because in order to play the Knicks they have to beat the Celtics first.

No I do not. I feel like the Garland+Mitchell experiment hasn't worked and collectively the Cavs play better when they're both not on the court, just one at a time.

Plus last year the Cavs had a good defense, and got beat by the Knicks 4-1. Although Randle played and flip Barrett for Anunoby.

I just think the Knicks are way more physical and the Cavs wouldn't be able to handle it. They can't even handle Orlando.

[BarberSchool]

MIN-DEN Regular Season tied at 2 wins apiece:

Game 1 (11/1 @ Minn): Wolves win 110-89
Everyone available, but heavy bench minutes in this early-season matchup. Wolves bench scored 38 to Nuggets 35. Nugs as a team shot a miserable 6-33 from 3pt.

Game 2 (3/19 @ Minn): Nuggets win 115-112 (No KAT, Gobert, or Reid)
Edwards, without his starting frontcourt, shot 13-26 for 30/8/8. Jokic shot 14-22 for 35/16/2. Nuggets as a team shot over 50% from 2 AND from 3. But they also had 17 turnovers to the wolves 7.

Game 3 (3/29 @ Den): Wolves win 111-98 (No KAT / No Murray)
Wolves shot 37 free throws to Nuggets 27. Edwards, Conley, and Gobert all scored over 20pts. Nuggets shot under 40%, but they were +7 on the offensive boards and had 14 more shot attempts.

Game 4 (4/10 @ Den): Nuggets win 116-107 (No KAT)
Jokic goes 16-20 for 41/11/7. Both teams shot a solid 50% fg and 40% 3pt, but both go a horrendous sub-60% from the line on 20+ attempts.

Wolves won the turnover battle in all 4 meetings, while the Nugs had more rebounds. Wolves mostly had fewer fouls and more free throws each game. How will new playoff officiating affect this matchup?
Jokic in 4 games averaged 33pts on 58% but only 4.3 assists, his lowest assist average against any team in the league this year. Jokic shot 20+ times in each of the 4 meetings. Making him a scorer and taking away his passing game may be the winning strategy. The Nuggets have not really seen this wolves squad at full strength so they could be in for a surprise.

Appreciate this!

[BarberSchool]

Harrison Wind: Nikola Jokic on the Timberwolves: “When Tim Connelly made that trade (for Rudy Gobert) everybody was laughing at him and what he was doing. But he made a great team. I think he deserves credit for doing that.” “I think they’re built really well.” pic.twitter.com/Ov4NnoVCzx

I don’t think I’ve paid that much attention to how well Gobert or Towns defend Jokic, and if, like Nurkic, they never require double teams for him. If that’s the case (judging by his only averaging 4.3assists against them in 4 games this season, I’m assuming it IS the case), could be an interesting series, if others can accompany Ant’s scoring, and keep it close.

[Im Still Ballin]

Denver in 7. Rudy is a better matchup for Jokic than AD was. They'll be able to defend him one-on-one better and this should slow down the Denver offense somewhat. But The Nuggets clutch play and Murray-Jokic two-man game will come up with timely baskets. They'll do just enough to survive this round.

[j3lademaster]

Denver in 7. Rudy is a better matchup for Jokic than AD was. They'll be able to defend him one-on-one better and this should slow down the Denver offense somewhat. But The Nuggets clutch play and Murray-Jokic two-man game will come up with timely baskets. They'll do just enough to survive this round.

I think they might put someone else on Jokic and let Gobert play safety while keeping AG off the glass. You’ll give up some good looks to Gordon, but if I lose a series to Gordon’s jump shooting then so be it.

Murray was also terrible outside of the clutch last series and he ain’t gonna see Reaves and D’Lo for the majority of this series, it’d be one thing if his shots just didn’t fall but he was taking a lot of ill advised ones, which is the main concern. Need his typical 26 on ~45% against the Wolves.