2024 NBA Playoffs: West Semifinals: #2 Denver Nuggets vs #3 Minnesota Timberwolves (MIN WINS 4-3)

[heatwillbeback]

Ant is so confident and animated. He is entertainment.

[Chuck Everett]

Mike Malone was thoroughly outcoached

He might get fired this offseason

Uh, no. Not even close.

[10DayContract]

There's no two ways around it, if a team comes back from double digits down in a game 7 and wins , they're the better team. Period. It's really that simple.

Frankly, the TWolves were the better team all year. KAT got injured and it cost them the no.1 seed, but they were clearly the better team in the West.

I think these playoffs were a sobering reminder to the FO that you can't just lose players in the offseason and not add anyone in return and hope to just repeat what you did just because you have Jokic.

The 'young guns' strategy from Calvin Booth was lazy and never materialized because Braun and Watson weren't good enough to take the next step. They're probably 2-3 years away from being consistent rotation players. Reggie is past his prime. DA is basically taking up a roster spot, and Zeke Nnaji did nothing all year.

Anyways. Go, Celtics.

100% truth.

When Minnesota played they're best they were destroying Denver this series. They have a larger variance in their ceiling and floor because they're young and have little experience at this type of level, but when they locked in THEY BLEW DENVER OFF THE FLOOR. Game 2 and Game 6 were some of the largest beatdowns in playoff history, and they were doing to the defending champs. The second half of this game, in a hostile environment, in a game 7, they completely dismantled Denver.

[Zeno]

The title is wide open now

Well except for the Pacers.

Yo you never know because any injury can happen

Well yes but in that case every year when it is down to 4 teams it is wide open.

[No-more-rings]

Jokic is the best player in the NBA. People can’t stop there though and want to crown him GOAT after one ring.

No one who’s objective can say he was better than Lebron or Jordan at their best. I’m not completely convinced he peaked higher than Magic even.

[Mk0]

If last year, the Nuggets got away with NO bench, not this year. That's the story right there.

They lost Bruce Brown and uncle Jeff and replaced them with air

Bruce and Jeff was solid role players in last year run , especially Bruce

Brown gave them another handler/playmaker. He was able to back up Jamal and let them play small ball. That dynamic was lost this year.

[Optms]

Malone not resting Jokic at all in the first half was…a choice. Didn’t have Finch outcoaching Denver this series but kudos. Defense still matters esp with the post asb change

I've seen Lebron go entire playoff runs playing 48 minutes and still taking bums to the Finals.

This is what separates the GOATs from the just great players.

While playing absolutely nobody in the Eastern Conference in most of those years.

The same Lebron would have destroyed this Wolves team. Stop acting like Jokic went up against the Dynasty Warriors here.

Happy for Minnesota but this isn't some great team in the grand scope

[AdagioPace]

Been saying it all season, the Nuggets are the 2000s Spurs. They’ll probably be the safest bet to win it any given year, but they’re a tier below the historically great teams.

Who is this generation's Kobe/Shaq or LBJ to have to go through?

yeah he would be wrong because Spurs have been a 7-8 SRS team in their championship years while Nuggets between 2 and 5 SRS team. Manu way better than Murray and RS matters.

[Statlanta]

Read on Twitter

?s=61

[Cubbies2120]

Anyone blaming Jokic is a fool. Dude is the best player in the league by a mile even considering the favorable calls he got this series

Right. And the best player in the game tonight. 19 RB, 7 AST, 34 PTS.

If you’re someone who’s blaming Jokic, take a long look at yourself.

11-26 fg to get that 34 pts Kat and Reid played great D on him Kat was best player in game

Keep in mind they have a rotation they can throw at him that all present different problems. Jokic had to play 46 minutes while each of Minny's bigs got breathers as needed and then obviously also attacked offensively.

It's not far fetched to say this series will go down as a Jokic vs. Minnesota series where one man single-handedly took the champions (which they will be after surviving Denver) to the brink of Game 7.

[RalphWiggum]

MPJ had to win the battle vs McDaniels. He was 4-21 from 3 in the last 4 games and he had good looks. Just couldn't make them.

He was absolutely putrid minus a handful of minutes all series.

[ky_23]

denver's bench is one of the worst in the league let alone playoffs. i really hope they make adjustments in the roster so we can watch jokic in a well suited team while he is still in his prime. his best options on offense are murray and mpj. mpj has never been the most consistent but murray just showed he is not fully reliable either in the playoffs. i mean how the hell dj gets a roster spot in 2024 in your roster as your mvp's back up. or you hope justin holiday or reggie jackson to be your 4th scoring option at some point as a contender? just not a good roster building. even though they won last year, i dont think they faced a team like this year's wolves or celtics. roster just needs to get better. they were gonna get gassed in the wcf or finals if it werent for the wolves.
wolves might have the best shot against boston. i don't think anyone outscore boston in a shooting race. this wolves team really has the potential to slow them down. the question is are they gonna keep their offense consistent. dallas is more like the version we expected denver to be. they play slow and live for the open shots. luka and kyrie are much tougher to hold than murray. must be a fun series.

Phoenix SUNS just checking in here

phoenix would have the worst bench if they had one lol

[KGDirkTD_Fan]

Murray's turnovers that lead directly to points in big spots were backbreakers. I couldn't give a **** about how he played early, he killed them tonight.

Yeah those pick pockets on him were huge for Minnesota momentum

Minny offense is highly reliable on these TOs and picked balls. They had hell of a time when the Nuggets were protecting the ball because transition scoring is easier than expecting folks to hit easy jumpers. It's a really unique thing with this team we haven't seen in a long time in the NBA.

[Jamaaliver]

Congrats to T-Wolves fans!!!

[Pistol_Pete]

Ant was a little too much tonight. I like the guy, but c’mon, settle down kid.

Murray’s second half was a disaster. He played awful.

Awful 2nd half by the Nuggets, really surprising as they usually finish strong.

[Alatan]

Jokic didn’t have close to the impact that his stats suggest imo. He looked gassed for a lot of the game and started giving up crucial rebounds.

Wasn’t bad but he didn’t seem to take control of the game like he usually does.

Empty calorie player

Thats funny coming from an empty calorie poster.

[Mk0]

I feel like Denver has the best chance to beat Boston but I just couldn’t get myself to cheer for Malone and Murray.
There’s an elation I feel watching these 2 guys fail and be humbled.

Also, Braun is so annoying, I can’t even put my finger on why. When I see him on screen I feel like he needs be knocked out. I think it’s partially because he looks like he’s always flexing.

He has major "my dad owns a (car) dealership" vibe

my guy looks like the villain in an 80's skiing movie

[SportsGuru08]

I've seen Lebron go entire playoff runs playing 48 minutes and still taking bums to the Finals.

This is what separates the GOATs from the just great players.

While playing absolutely nobody in the Eastern Conference in most of those years.

The same Lebron would have destroyed this Wolves team. Stop acting like Jokic went up against the Dynasty Warriors here.

Happy for Minnesota but this isn't some great team in the grand scope

Every team LeBron faced in the East from 2010 to 2018 was inferior to this Wolves team. Every. Single. One.

[dc]

This was one of those incredibly rare games where the road team’s role players showed up and were awesome and the home team’s role players all sucked. It’s generally a safe bet that if you’re playing at home your role players are going to play well, or at the very least, play decently. Although Jokic and Murray were individually great, Denver as a team couldn’t even rise to the level of mediocre tonight.

I’m sure it’s happened before but I can’t remember the last time we saw such a stark role reversal in a game 7 like this.

Yeah it really looked like, in games 3 and 4 on the road, the Nugz figured out how to get Gordon going. But then he really put up a couple grade A stinkers in the final 2 games.

[TroubleS0me]

Ant was a little too much tonight. I like the guy, but c’mon, settle down kid.

Murray’s second half was a disaster. He played awful.

Awful 2nd half by the Nuggets, really surprising as they usually finish strong.

yea he's young
when he's gets older he will mature