2026 NBA Playoffs - West First Round - #3 Denver Nuggets vs #6 Minnesota Timberwolves (Series tied 1-1)

[lethalizer]

Nuggets Country, We Shall Win the Championship

Rd. 1: Nuggets defeat T-Wolves 4-1
Rd. 2: Nuggets defeat Spurs 4-2
Conf. Finals: Nuggets defeat Thunder 4-2
NBA Finals: Nuggets defeat Hawks 4-1

You wanted Joker's Hakeem the Dream playoff run, Fam, and that's what you're going to get, book it

Why did you have to make this post unnecessarily extra-ridiculous?

First time meeting cjx? Come on man

[BigGargamel]

Pretty impressive that Denver ended the season winning 12 in a row, and 54 games on the season, considering all the injuries. I feel pretty good about their chances against anyone except probably the Thunder. Let's go!!!

Worth noting that only 4 of those games were against teams that finished Top 6 in their conference....and two of the four were the last two games of the season against teams that had no real incentive to try to win and adjusted their lineups accordingly.

I'm aware. You play the teams in front of you. A big winning streak is still impressive. 54 wins and the 3rd seed considering all the crushing injuries is best case scenario.

[Giltear]

The Wolves have been very inconsistent lately but there's no doubt in my mind that they will be 100% up for this. Minny as a playoff underdog is nightmare fuel.

The teams have changed since 2024 but the Wolves (McDaniels in particular) can still frustrate and limit Murray with their size. On offense they need to attack the rim relentlessly, Ant especially shouldn't fall in love with his 3 too much. Denver really doesn't have anyone to handle him if he's attacking the basket.

All that said, I think Denver has enough depth now on offense to handle a subpar Murray series so I'm going Nuggets in 7.

Who is going to defend Cam and AG?

Come on man, let's not play the "oh ya, and who's going to defend X, huh?" game. It goes on forever and leads nowhere.

I'm not saying Denver can't defend or slow down Ant, I'm saying there's a good chance for easy money at the rim against them as a team so he should look to take as much of it as he can instead of settling for long jumpers. It's almost too basic to be controversial.

[AleksandarN]

The Wolves have been very inconsistent lately but there's no doubt in my mind that they will be 100% up for this. Minny as a playoff underdog is nightmare fuel.

The teams have changed since 2024 but the Wolves (McDaniels in particular) can still frustrate and limit Murray with their size. On offense they need to attack the rim relentlessly, Ant especially shouldn't fall in love with his 3 too much. Denver really doesn't have anyone to handle him if he's attacking the basket.

All that said, I think Denver has enough depth now on offense to handle a subpar Murray series so I'm going Nuggets in 7.

Who is going to defend Cam and AG?

Come on man, let's not play the "oh ya, and who's going to defend X, huh?" game. It goes on forever and leads nowhere.

I'm not saying Denver can't defend or slow down Ant, I'm saying there's a good chance for easy money at the rim against them as a team so he should look to take as much of it as he can instead of settling for long jumpers. It's almost too basic to be controversial.

And I said nothing about Ant. What’s wrong with asking questions about who will guard AG and CB? I also think through stretches in this series you will see Gobert on CB in stretches. Have Randle on Jokic. If that happens I am curious who will take on AG and Cam. Those two will be X factors for Denver

[Giltear]

Who is going to defend Cam and AG?

Come on man, let's not play the "oh ya, and who's going to defend X, huh?" game. It goes on forever and leads nowhere.

I'm not saying Denver can't defend or slow down Ant, I'm saying there's a good chance for easy money at the rim against them as a team so he should look to take as much of it as he can instead of settling for long jumpers. It's almost too basic to be controversial.

And I said nothing about Ant. What’s wrong with asking questions about who will guard AG and CB? I also think through stretches in this series you will see Gobert on CB in stretches. Have Randle on Jokic. If that happens I am curious who will take on AG and Cam. Those two will be X factors for Denver

I'm not sure how Finch is gonna play things defensively, maybe one of the Wolves fans on here has an idea. Both rosters have changed a bit (including key rotation players for both), and Denver's offense is better and deeper than it was in 2024 while Minny looks a little weaker defensively, so it's difficult to draw much from the individual matchups in that series. Both teams should be able to score a lot in this series.

[ShotCreator]

Oof. Randle might be a real matchup problem for Denver. Way stronger than anyone on their frontline besides Jokic.

[Chuck Everett]

Oof. Randle might be a real matchup problem for Denver. Way stronger than anyone on their frontline besides Jokic.

You don't think Gordon can defend Randle?

[Edrees]

This is easily a 7 game series, but denver wins.

[DAWill1128]

Denver does need Peyton Watson to come out of the West. Watson was really coming into his own averaging 22ppg in January before he got injured. He just had that tenacity, size, length, athleticism they will need to get over the hump. Outside of Murray and Jokic I don't know who else really creates with the ball, everyone else is really receiving end scorers. That's where Watson comes in, if Cam is being passive or Braun is ice cold you have another option on offense.

Dosonmu has kicked the Wolves into another gear. He's just solid on both ends with a great motor. Dosonmu really is like the perfect backup guard. I think Dosonmu has helped alleviate some of the downhill speed when Edwards isn't in.

[Alatan]

The Nuggets have the best roster they have ever had. Better than the year they won the ring.
Pretty easy to know who will win here. Still to decide exactly how.

Not really. The Nuggets have accumulated quite a few lingering soft tissue injuries and they lack a point of attack defender that they had in KCP.
Their defense is really awful and i dont know if they can kick it up a gear by playoffs because they have so many players with hamstring strains...

[Alatan]

I don't like this matchup for Denver. I'd still pick them to win but I expect the series to be gritty and go long. If Denver's defense can't find an answer for Ant, we could be looking at an upset here.

It was never about stopping Ant. Denver needs to focus on stopping the rest of the squad. Since the Wolves dont have a real playmaker if adequate pressure is applied the rest of the Wolves will struggle. Ant cant win if he is the only one scoring. And he is recovering from a injury so it will be even harder to carry the offense on his own.

[ReggiesKnicks]

Wolves in 6

[Alatan]

Oof. Randle might be a real matchup problem for Denver. Way stronger than anyone on their frontline besides Jokic.

Denver can put Jokic on Randle to match his strength and have Gordon play free safety off of Gobert. It might tire out Jokic but it can be a strategy to cover some minutes.

I think that exploiting Goberts offensive weaknesses exaggerated by a lack of a classic PG might be a key to this series.

[nomansland]

Oof. Randle might be a real matchup problem for Denver. Way stronger than anyone on their frontline besides Jokic.

Denver can put Jokic on Randle to match his strength and have Gordon play free safety off of Gobert. It might tire out Jokic but it can be a strategy to cover some minutes.

I think that exploiting Goberts offensive weaknesses exaggerated by a lack of a classic PG might be a key to this series.

The Nuggets are going to try a zone as well.

[Mavrelous]

Biggest difference from last series is going to be Jamal, losing NAW and Ant/McD being hampered is going to relieve him from a lot of pressure.

[Deivork]

https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2502022&p=121426372#p121426372

we had this pairing's poll just a few weeks back if you wanna compare

[Wigginstime]

Jokic and Gobert have previously played 18 playoff games against each other.
In those 18 games
Jokic has averaged 28/10/7 on 50/40/80 splits.
Gobert has averaged 14/11 on 63/0/56 splits.

[Mrakar]

One more thing why im looking forward to this series is that both teams are playing ethic basketball, and both teams have awful whistle.

[GeorgeSears]

Jokic and Gobert have previously played 18 playoff games against each other.
In those 18 games
Jokic has averaged 28/10/7 on 50/40/80 splits.
Gobert has averaged 14/11 on 63/0/56 splits.

It's not so much Gobert as it is the fact that the Wolves can just put bodies on Jokic with a Naz-Gobert-Randle rotation. Two of those three are on at the same time Jokic is on.

If it was just Gobert, he would get eaten alive kind of like Wemby does against Jokic. It's why the Spurs are an easier matchup than the Wolves for the Nuggets.

[GeorgeSears]

Denver does need Peyton Watson to come out of the West. Watson was really coming into his own averaging 22ppg in January before he got injured. He just had that tenacity, size, length, athleticism they will need to get over the hump. Outside of Murray and Jokic I don't know who else really creates with the ball, everyone else is really receiving end scorers. That's where Watson comes in, if Cam is being passive or Braun is ice cold you have another option on offense.

If AG and Watson are both relatively healthy, I think the Nuggets do come out of the West. The emergence of Watson has taken their prospects to a different level. Problem is that both are suffering from hamstring injuries and those are hard to manage.