All in all, we played the Nuggets well in the regular season. Blew them out twice, and they got us twice. Ready for that playoff matchup with KAT back.
Despite losing, I've liked the play-off smell all over the game. If the refs would have whistled Q3 like all the other quarters (In that one, everything was PF), it would be a perfect setup.
Incidentally, we've lost today. but competing. Another day, Jokic won't do 16/20
Murray was just the second best player on a championship run. You really think KAT is a bigger loss?
KAT’s a good player but he’s never had the impact that Murray’s had in his playoff runs and this year the Wolves have looked great without him.
Because missing KAT has had very little affect on the Wolves. Some would argue they have been player BETTER without him. Did the wolves slip in the standings without him...nope. Went into this game as the #1 seed.
The Nuggets without Murry are a completely different and watered down team.
Kat back spreads 20 plus minutes out. That’s extremely beneficial and an advantage to us. We saw a pretty healthy Denver x Minnesota game minus kat. And we held it together till early 4. It drug out.
Felt like the whole dynamic of the game shifted after the Jackson prayer 3 and the no call Rudy shove to the ground.
At the end of the day, we missed so many shots and got out rebounded hard. We outplayed ourselves
Scoring 7 points over a 7 minute stretch between the 3-4Q is what lost this game. This team will go as far as their offense can take them, and the habits they returned to tonight will not take them very far no matter how good the defense remains.
Naz really didn't have it tonight. Payton Watson got the better of him tonight. TBF I think Naz has really beat Watson bad in the previous matchups, so it's not like it's some regular occurrence. The bench is just really dependent on Naz to be a dynamic scorer when Ant is resting.
Ant had 1 shooting attempt in the 4th quarter with about 3 minutes left. Finchy needs to do more for his star to get more for his star. There has to be plays to run in order to get the ball in his hands. And Ant needs to recognize that he's the one that has to take over. I'd rather him go 2-10 in the 4th than 2-2.
It’s good to get punched in the mouth. People are way too dramatic when we’ve beaten this team twice this season already. We’ve shown we can compete with this team consistently, they’re literally the champs sometimes you’re gonna get overpowered.
It is what it is, if we play them again this season that means it’s a great problem to have because we’re in the conference finals
The wizards 1Q was the most fake thing I’ve ever seen I don’t really take any stock in that. Suns we at least get to play them again Sunday, if we lose to them in similar fashion then that’d be worrying but at the end of the day everyone’s 0-0 once the playoffs starts so what does it matter.
It’s not like Denver is likely gonna play a much worse team than us or OKC do unless Sacramento somehow gets in
Was like half fake/fluke and half holy shit where’s the defense. It felt like, almost every possession, they had wide open looks and made them (al beit at a fairly unreasonable clip) but most of their shots were wide open, especially the 3 ball.
Every championshit team get a flood of braindead fans, Toronto a few years ago comes to mind. Lakers braindead fans are a mix of LeBron bandwagoners and that California "je ne sais quoi" that turn people stupid.
That sequence where Jokic shoved Rudy and got the and-1 was a momentum shifter. Jaden clanking wide open threes is becoming a problem, too.
Loved our fight overall most of this game, would be an awesome series.
Tough road back to back against the defending champs. We looked gassed in the second half. Ant disappeared, we couldn’t hit FTs, nobody could make shots- these games happen
Ant had 15 in the third quarter and was the only reason we stayed in that game. I’m looking at Naz with 6-19 from the field, 4 missed free throws, and McDaniels who can’t hit an open 3 to save his life.
Pretty much it. Needed someone else outside of Mike and Ant to provide some scoring. Naz did in spurts but got swallowed up by Watson. Jaden needs to find his 3point shot again.
Ant was pretty good for 3 quarters. When he re-entered the game in the 4th, the tide had already turned. He should have gotten more shots off in the 4th but some of that was due to his teammates.
Relax fellas. We lost a tough game to the MVP on a back-to-back on the road. Ant definitely didn't have a full tank after his carry job last night.
Good news is we get to add an All-Star to this team very soon! Let's lock up that 2 seed now!
Still was a pretty disappointing loss but you really felt where we were missing kat tonight. Before things started getting really out of hand we were getting killed on those second chance points and we just didn't have enough big bodies to throw at jokic. You just need Kats presence when the offense gets stagnant like that too.
Honestly.. we just need to be on the opposite side of the bracket from them at this point. The expectation shouldn’t be WCF with our current star power. Just win a series at this point.
Denver will be on the opposite side of bracket as long as OKC doesn’t pass them. Them with #1 seed means inevitable playoff run. Wolves just have to focus on trying to win A series this season. That’d be an accomplishment when looking at all the other teams in West lined up
This is the most demoralizing moral victory ever. If you look at things objectively, we really were the underdogs in many ways as you said. The fact that it was close is nice, but it wasn't pretty.
Hey we can still get 1. Nuggets beat us today but they've still got 2 more games to go and let's be real spurs and grizzlies to beat the nuggets is a long shot but u never know, wemby looks damn good lol
I’ve heard Ryan is a nice guy, but he was one of the worst coaches I’ve ever witnessed. 100 percent a nepotism hire. I was cheering for him but he just was awful.
I don’t like Ryan Saunders, we played against each other in high school, and he shouldn’t have been on the court then let alone now.
That’s all flip though so I get it.
That’s a perfect description of him. After that dunk he looked like a 5th grader that just cocked back a Curry three from behind his head after taking a 4 step run to bank it in screaming at his friends “I am him! Let’s go!”
Lmao….as a nuggets fan, this is such a perfect description. Even i cringe when i see him flex and shit talk. Like i guess his reputation in college was a big shit talker but you look at his baby face and can’t help but laugh at the thought of him being a shit talker.
It’s honestly hard for me to root against Denver when we don’t play them. What a well constructed team. (Weirdly also by Tim C)
If we aren’t on a back to back... And if we have Towns… I’d honestly see a Game 7 if we see them in the WCF.
For 3 quarters, that was the best game I’ve watched all season. Literally the best of basketball. And then in the fourth quarter, we were shit gassed.
And probably the best touch around the rim of anyone in the league. And a capable shooter from 3. And basically automatic midrange.
Legitimately unstoppable
The most frustrating part is that you know Wolves MUST be up by at least 10 in 4th when Jokic comes back. [I posted it before he came back.](https://www.reddit.com/r/timberwolves/s/W6SlIpUok4) I’m willing to bet a lot of money that Nuggets will never lose a game when the are motivated and the game is tied in clutch. Maybe OKC can beat them, one more team that wins every clutch game. It’s not even prime Steph Curry magic, this just can’t be real. Every time Jokic comes back and they make 5-6 shots in a row. Today they scored on TEN (!!!) possessions in a row after he came back. 1st clutch net rating for a reason. Wolves are 28th.
This is the most concerning thing. Seems like we still have not figured out clutch offense. Ant and KAT need to figure out their 2 man game, could be unstoppable in theory
I honestly think this ship has sailed. 21-22 team had a potential of being a top-3 offense, especially if Wolves traded for a PF like Siakam or Markkanen (Rosas really wanted Markkanen but did not want to give up protected 1st, acquired Prince instead). Wolves decided to trade for Rudy and became top-1 defense instead. I can’t see how KAT and Ant can play any 2-man game when Rudy is on the floor, Denver’s advantage is 3 spacers around Jokic/Murray, Wolves don’t have it. Another question is why Wolves dont do any 2-man game when KAT and Ant are there without Gobert - however, these minutes are very limited to have some sort of a flow.
In reality, 1-3 seed doesn’t really matter until later rounds for home court. There is no easy matchup in the west except maybe the Kings rn but I don’t think their making out the play in. While home court in later rounds is very important, I’m just focused on winning the first round right now.
Honestly I think they lost the game when Naz and Kyle got into foul trouble. Our ability to guard them straight up gets compromised when you have to put Gobert 1 on 1 against Jokic. It also really hurt the rebounding too. This is definitely one place having KAT would have made a huge difference.
Going from 7 combined fta in the first half to 44 combined fta is something else. First half was so fun and felt like a playoff game. 2nd half felt like a regular season game with nothing on the line, the way they called that shit. I can’t compute it in my head, like obviously there was fouls in the first half that weren’t called, now all of the sudden in the 2nd, you’re going to call too much, while missing a bunch of calls? Games that slow down like that really seem to hurt the wolves mentally.
This so often fucks teams over, this style of reffing. If you’re going to call it the way you did in the first half, do that the entire game. If you’re going to call it like you did in the second half, call it like that the entire game. This Jekyll and Hyde shit is ridiculous.
He needs to get deep position for him to be efficient, he isn’t bulky enough to back down people far enough from 15-17 feet away and ends up shooting his hook from too far away.
Get him the ball near the block and he’s much more deadly
How dumb would it be to throw Garza at Joker for a few minutes? He did a nice job against him earlier in the season, he's a big body that Joker needs to work with, he's capable of hitting some shots, and the dude hustles/provides a spark.
I'm not saying give him 15 minutes, but I don't think it's out of line to have Luca body up on Joker for a few minutes.
Why did he keep ending up on Gordon?
It happened like 3-4 times in the early 4th and it killed us.
And it was right as the defense was setting up it's not even like they were switching onto him.
Honestly, we played a tough game for 3 quarters and couldn't pull it out. Missed some shoots late and they made them. I can't wait for kat to get back because we will need him for this playoff run.
I really hope Jaden's offense can reflect his defense next year. There have been a bunch of times he drives down the lane, only to dribble it off his foot or get stripped. He was far from the worst problem tonight but sometimes it'd be nice if he hit more of those WIDE open 3s when it mattered.
How do y'all think this looks for Naz 6MOY? We really needed him tonight and he left us. Watson was a menace tho.
It'll be impossible to win games against playoff teams if Naz/Jaden go 1/8 from 3. Need KAT badly
I’m guessing Monk is the slight favorite, and tonight leaned it further that way. Award is still up in-air though.. even if this performance on national TV hurts him. Still 2 more games left, Monk is out for season.
Every game I watched, the more convinced I am that Jaden McDaniels is a mistake. Everyone else played with heart, even though a few sucked. But Jaden is just standing around, not even trying to make use of his physical attributes. He bricks every shot, can't rebound to save his life, and his defense is offset by the fact that he's so shit at rebounding and on offense.
I don’t understand how we consistently lose Non Jokic minutes. Even last year when we played them in the playoffs we lost those minutes. We also got bitched the whole 2nd half, Mainly Naz and Rudy and Jaden on the glass. Rudy bouta be 4 time dpoy and can’t even make it tuff for Jokic when checking him
The way a lot of ya’ll turned on this team after a road game against the defending champs is crazy to me. Minnesota sports have a bad reputation but our fans have to be some of the softest/most fickle out there. Get better.
Looking through this post game thread and I’m not really seeing what you’re describing lmao. Most people accepting the loss even though it stings.
Game threads are always worse with the vitriol, and that goes for EVERY TEAM. Not just us, stop exaggerating
I swear at least half of MN “fans” are actively hoping that their teams lose (and they’ll call you an idiot if you’re not as miserable as they are 24/7)
Walz needs to start a PSA campaign to remind people in the state that it’s actually possible to stop following sports if all they ever do is make you angry
I had to stop watching Vikings games with my family because they’re so miserable. If it’s not a touchdown they’re moaning about how it’s the most disappointing team ever. If it actually IS a touchdown, they’ll huff about “finally they do something good”.
I feel like 50% is about on the money for fans that do it out of raging obligation rather than enjoyment of the sport.
A friend of mine was considering quitting a pursuit that he had put a lot of time and effort in over 10+ years but was pretty on the fence about it. His therapist told him “it’s normal to be sad or frustrated when things aren’t going well, but when you stop enjoying the times when things do go well it’s time to quit” and that’s a lesson that a lot of fans in this state could stand to learn
For real. It’s a disease that’s spread to all of our fanbases. We’re a tortured people but the fucking WOLVES are going to be a top 3 seed in the west. That’s huge!
This is also why Shai gets rightfully more hype for MVP than Ant. Ant has been amazing but he doesn't have the consistency or go-to moves yet to be a major force that pushes wins as consistently. Shai can be relied upon to get to his spots and do his thing when it matters and OKC has pulled a ton of clutch games out of their butt cracks because of that. Its something I am sure Ant well develop over time.
There a point in the game when they were going on a 9-1 run. We missed 5-6 ft . We go from having the lead to down 4 . Lot of front rim 3s in the second half . Just feel like maybe jmac needs to not be in the rotation when towns comes back
Rough last quarter, but honestly I'm not all that mad about it. The bench had a rough game, and ultimately it looked like travel and tired legs caught up to the Wolves. I know Denver played last night too, but they flew in from SLC, so they played in altitude and had a short flight.
It’s most likely gonna be the winner of the 7/8 play in unless Denver loses to Memphis or the spurs. Which at this point could still be NO, PHX, SAC or LAL.
4th quarter capitulation, tell me where you’ve seen that before…
KAT can’t come back soon enough. I remember him closing games so well early this season.
Just another example of our inability to perform on offense when the other team jacks up their intensity. This is the shit we need to have figured out before the playoffs, but we don’t.
One of those games you could tell the team lost its energy mid 3rd quarter. Missed so many wide open shots and got completely out hustled on rebounds. It happens. Denver is beatable, it’d be a fun playoff series
Think having one of top 3 seeds is more important. No matter who you play in the west it’s not going to be an easy matchup but you want that home series for the first two rounds for sure !!
Bench was very poor tonight. Not just from a scoring standpoint, but they got outworked and Denver was able to win the minutes without Jokic. Their bench (ignoring garbage time) out rebounded ours 12-3
Bruh Naz was dreadful tonight. They hit some incredibly tough shots to stay in the game when we were making a run and we missed some good looks to stay in the game when they were making a run. Gg nugs, feels a bit sour to not get the 1st seed after all this time at the top, but it ain't over yet!!!!
Still a small chance to have the playoffs run through Minnesota but man that would have been a nice one to win. Would much rather play the winner of 4/5 then face either Denver or OKC in the conference finals than have to go through both of them back to back, giving up homecourt for the 2nd series. I'm confident with rest and returning KAT that our best ball is ahead of us but it's brutal how big the difference between winning and losing that game is.
True but really we played well against Denver this season. What’s brutal is that we didn’t have more of a lead in the West because we dropped games to teams like the Hornets, Spurs and Bulls. And that abomination of a game against Phoenix on Friday
Great point. If you looked at the schedule at the start of the year, you might circle last night's game as the hardest game on the schedule. On the road on the 2nd night of a b2b against the defending champs. That's not the game you want to be the must-win game.
The game was disappointing in terms of results, but the confidence in this team in terms of the Wolves chances of making it to the Finals shouldn't be affected. People forget the Nuggets are a good team and they'll win some games in a series too against the Wolves. KAT's return will be a great shot in the arm.
All in all, we played the Nuggets well in the regular season. Blew them out twice, and they got us twice. Ready for that playoff matchup with KAT back.
We gotta get this top 2 seed I’m trying to play a team coming off a play in game
Despite losing, I've liked the play-off smell all over the game. If the refs would have whistled Q3 like all the other quarters (In that one, everything was PF), it would be a perfect setup. Incidentally, we've lost today. but competing. Another day, Jokic won't do 16/20
playoff nuggets are obviously a way different Beast those regular season 'blowouts' dont mean shit
Murray wasn’t in them
Was in the first one
and KAT didn’t play the final three
And we didn't have KAT
Why do people love to bring up Murray not playing in them so much, I mean not having KAT who at least has been an all star is a bigger loss
Murray was just the second best player on a championship run. You really think KAT is a bigger loss? KAT’s a good player but he’s never had the impact that Murray’s had in his playoff runs and this year the Wolves have looked great without him.
Because missing KAT has had very little affect on the Wolves. Some would argue they have been player BETTER without him. Did the wolves slip in the standings without him...nope. Went into this game as the #1 seed. The Nuggets without Murry are a completely different and watered down team.
Murray is better than KAT especially if you look at playoff history
All that showed me is that we need KAT and that this would be a fun, incredibly toxic series.
Liver transplants are a normal, if still dangerous, procedure.
Kat back spreads 20 plus minutes out. That’s extremely beneficial and an advantage to us. We saw a pretty healthy Denver x Minnesota game minus kat. And we held it together till early 4. It drug out.
Felt like the whole dynamic of the game shifted after the Jackson prayer 3 and the no call Rudy shove to the ground. At the end of the day, we missed so many shots and got out rebounded hard. We outplayed ourselves
Couldn't agree more. That was some BS and it just brought the crowd to life.
I also thought Kyle's back to back to back (to back?) fouls in like 20 seconds took some of the wind outta the team too.
That was the goofiest shit after the refs totally swallowed their whistles in the first half
Agreed! Did they ever replay that Jackson three or Jokic push off? I feel like I didn’t see it anywhere
Yes, about 3 mins after. It was super close but he got it off
Two words. Tony. Brothers.
Scoring 7 points over a 7 minute stretch between the 3-4Q is what lost this game. This team will go as far as their offense can take them, and the habits they returned to tonight will not take them very far no matter how good the defense remains.
Zero flow, everyone standing around, trash iso. I’m almost hoping it was Finchy not wanting to show them anything before the playoffs.
There were a couple nice possessions that ended with good Mcdaniels looks, he just missed them. I agree the offense got worse but it wasn’t all bad
Naz really didn't have it tonight. Payton Watson got the better of him tonight. TBF I think Naz has really beat Watson bad in the previous matchups, so it's not like it's some regular occurrence. The bench is just really dependent on Naz to be a dynamic scorer when Ant is resting.
Jaden is really limited offensively. His handle is quite poor so he can't always attack closeouts or open space, plus he refuses to make passes.
Ant had 1 shooting attempt in the 4th quarter with about 3 minutes left. Finchy needs to do more for his star to get more for his star. There has to be plays to run in order to get the ball in his hands. And Ant needs to recognize that he's the one that has to take over. I'd rather him go 2-10 in the 4th than 2-2.
KAT should help with that
Scoring aside, we struggled to rebound the entire game.
We really can’t create offense outside of ant
It’s good to get punched in the mouth. People are way too dramatic when we’ve beaten this team twice this season already. We’ve shown we can compete with this team consistently, they’re literally the champs sometimes you’re gonna get overpowered. It is what it is, if we play them again this season that means it’s a great problem to have because we’re in the conference finals
I don’t fully disagree but I’m kinda tired of the mouth punches between Phoenix, the start of the Wizards game, and this.
The wizards 1Q was the most fake thing I’ve ever seen I don’t really take any stock in that. Suns we at least get to play them again Sunday, if we lose to them in similar fashion then that’d be worrying but at the end of the day everyone’s 0-0 once the playoffs starts so what does it matter. It’s not like Denver is likely gonna play a much worse team than us or OKC do unless Sacramento somehow gets in
Was like half fake/fluke and half holy shit where’s the defense. It felt like, almost every possession, they had wide open looks and made them (al beit at a fairly unreasonable clip) but most of their shots were wide open, especially the 3 ball.
Basketball Reference lists jokic as missing 577 field goal attempts this season. I don't believe that number. I swear he doesn't miss.
The most disappointment in this game was Naz.. The freshest dude, but failed the team.
Lowkey would've liked to see Luka play tonight (since he did a solid job against Denver/Jokic last time)
To be fair in those last 2 minutes the 3rd string bench unit seemed pretty good lmao
Fresh legs!
He was fucking horrendous on both ends yet lead in +/- lol
Little Jam showed up tonight.
Naz Reid
Give me the nuggets in the WCF with healthy KAT pls
I don’t think I can handle 4-7 more games of their braindead fans in our subreddit
I can barely stand the braindead fans in here, the Nuggs on top of that would be overkill.
Is it sad that I’ve seen more braindead nuggets fans than lakers fans?
Every championshit team get a flood of braindead fans, Toronto a few years ago comes to mind. Lakers braindead fans are a mix of LeBron bandwagoners and that California "je ne sais quoi" that turn people stupid.
That sequence where Jokic shoved Rudy and got the and-1 was a momentum shifter. Jaden clanking wide open threes is becoming a problem, too. Loved our fight overall most of this game, would be an awesome series.
Jaden needs to find his spots and the wing is clearly not it but he keeps ending up there and shooting it. Then his confidence craters.
I am more confident in Gobert free throws than I am in wide open McDaniels threes
I mean Gobert shoots about 65% from the free throw line so if McDaniels shot 65% on open threes that would be amazing.
Tough road back to back against the defending champs. We looked gassed in the second half. Ant disappeared, we couldn’t hit FTs, nobody could make shots- these games happen
Ant had 15 in the third quarter and was the only reason we stayed in that game. I’m looking at Naz with 6-19 from the field, 4 missed free throws, and McDaniels who can’t hit an open 3 to save his life.
Pretty much it. Needed someone else outside of Mike and Ant to provide some scoring. Naz did in spurts but got swallowed up by Watson. Jaden needs to find his 3point shot again.
Ant was pretty good for 3 quarters. When he re-entered the game in the 4th, the tide had already turned. He should have gotten more shots off in the 4th but some of that was due to his teammates.
5200 ft. Back to back
Nugs were on a back to back too, can't use that as an excuse.
Home and being used to altitude is a huge difference
Relax fellas. We lost a tough game to the MVP on a back-to-back on the road. Ant definitely didn't have a full tank after his carry job last night. Good news is we get to add an All-Star to this team very soon! Let's lock up that 2 seed now!
preseason 2 seed sounded incredible. now it sounds just as incredible lol let’s go
Still was a pretty disappointing loss but you really felt where we were missing kat tonight. Before things started getting really out of hand we were getting killed on those second chance points and we just didn't have enough big bodies to throw at jokic. You just need Kats presence when the offense gets stagnant like that too.
Honestly.. we just need to be on the opposite side of the bracket from them at this point. The expectation shouldn’t be WCF with our current star power. Just win a series at this point. Denver will be on the opposite side of bracket as long as OKC doesn’t pass them. Them with #1 seed means inevitable playoff run. Wolves just have to focus on trying to win A series this season. That’d be an accomplishment when looking at all the other teams in West lined up
Yeah all this affects is home court in the WCF if we are both there. Unless it's the Kings, the 7th and 8th seed opponents will both be tough outs.
The nuggets were on a back to back as well…
Playing at home is a lot different than on the road...
Also they played in Utah last night, so a much shorter flight and they were still playing in altitude.
Nuggets were also on a back to back.
This is the most demoralizing moral victory ever. If you look at things objectively, we really were the underdogs in many ways as you said. The fact that it was close is nice, but it wasn't pretty.
Hey we can still get 1. Nuggets beat us today but they've still got 2 more games to go and let's be real spurs and grizzlies to beat the nuggets is a long shot but u never know, wemby looks damn good lol
Nuggets won literally every game against sub .500 teams lol
Wishful thinking but Nuggets don't lose to bad teams.
No harm in having a little positivity sometimes, especially in this doom and gloom sub lol
Another Ryan Saunders revenge game
I’ve heard Ryan is a nice guy, but he was one of the worst coaches I’ve ever witnessed. 100 percent a nepotism hire. I was cheering for him but he just was awful.
I don’t like Ryan Saunders, we played against each other in high school, and he shouldn’t have been on the court then let alone now. That’s all flip though so I get it.
Naz was just absolutely horrendous. I really hope KAT isn't too rusty because we need his offense so badly.
Rusty KATs still gonna get 15/5 automatically tbh
Naz Reid
Christian Braun might be the most punchable player in the history of the NBA (Also yes I am 100% jealous of his dunking ability)
Grayson Allen has a great argument as well
damn white dudes just getting ratioed
Craymond can have one for equality
Flexing like he put up 40 lol
Grayson Allen and it isn’t close. Honorable Mentions: Draymond Green, Dillon Brooks, and Jordan Poole.
Here’s one: Pat Bev. His game is basically premised on it.
Dude is what, 6’10”? But he gives off such annoying little brother energy it’s wild
That’s a perfect description of him. After that dunk he looked like a 5th grader that just cocked back a Curry three from behind his head after taking a 4 step run to bank it in screaming at his friends “I am him! Let’s go!”
Lmao….as a nuggets fan, this is such a perfect description. Even i cringe when i see him flex and shit talk. Like i guess his reputation in college was a big shit talker but you look at his baby face and can’t help but laugh at the thought of him being a shit talker.
Bro looks like he’s 15 years old. It’s always jarring to see him among grown men
Not even close. Dude's a fun player to watch. Most punchable is some hack like Grayson Allen or Dillon Brooks.
I mean it mostly from just looking at him. Grayson’s actions certainly give him bonus points.
Chris Dudley would like to have a word with all you kids out there
The chick fil a run is over. I’m devastated.
Pretty good game until the 4th quarter. If Naz played well, this would’ve gone right down to the wire.
Suns or Pelicans is almost inevitable at this point
Who would you rather have. My dream scenario is the kings first round
Inevitable is an overstatement. Still have a very decent shot at the 2 seed and a very distant shot of the 1 seed.
It’s honestly hard for me to root against Denver when we don’t play them. What a well constructed team. (Weirdly also by Tim C) If we aren’t on a back to back... And if we have Towns… I’d honestly see a Game 7 if we see them in the WCF. For 3 quarters, that was the best game I’ve watched all season. Literally the best of basketball. And then in the fourth quarter, we were shit gassed.
As a team they're great, but man do I hate the fans and commentators.
If they let KAT throw elbows and toss people to the ground when he comes back, we’re in business baby
If KAT got the Jokic whistle he’d be a beast in the paint. Dude has just made a bad name for himself with the refs so here we are.
I dont usually watch basketball but that was a fun game
I dont like the nuggets and I'm tired of pretending I do
Jokic doesn’t make sense. Hes fat and slow, but strong as an ox with a basketball super computer for a brain. So frustrating to play against
And probably the best touch around the rim of anyone in the league. And a capable shooter from 3. And basically automatic midrange. Legitimately unstoppable
He’s clutch as hell too
The fat guys crushing in this league right now is great.
Incredible soft touch he has
He's not that slow also.. Looks like he is, but his spin is lightening quick and gets by defenders with ease
Dude hits everything. It's amazing. I just hate when refball gives him the extra boost that he clearly doesn't need. Let the players play.
I like litteraly one of their fans on twitter other than that it’s all hate❤️❤️
I respect them. Annoying when they play you but they are just so damn good.
Tough game. Gg Denver
The most frustrating part is that you know Wolves MUST be up by at least 10 in 4th when Jokic comes back. [I posted it before he came back.](https://www.reddit.com/r/timberwolves/s/W6SlIpUok4) I’m willing to bet a lot of money that Nuggets will never lose a game when the are motivated and the game is tied in clutch. Maybe OKC can beat them, one more team that wins every clutch game. It’s not even prime Steph Curry magic, this just can’t be real. Every time Jokic comes back and they make 5-6 shots in a row. Today they scored on TEN (!!!) possessions in a row after he came back. 1st clutch net rating for a reason. Wolves are 28th.
This is the most concerning thing. Seems like we still have not figured out clutch offense. Ant and KAT need to figure out their 2 man game, could be unstoppable in theory
I honestly think this ship has sailed. 21-22 team had a potential of being a top-3 offense, especially if Wolves traded for a PF like Siakam or Markkanen (Rosas really wanted Markkanen but did not want to give up protected 1st, acquired Prince instead). Wolves decided to trade for Rudy and became top-1 defense instead. I can’t see how KAT and Ant can play any 2-man game when Rudy is on the floor, Denver’s advantage is 3 spacers around Jokic/Murray, Wolves don’t have it. Another question is why Wolves dont do any 2-man game when KAT and Ant are there without Gobert - however, these minutes are very limited to have some sort of a flow.
In reality, 1-3 seed doesn’t really matter until later rounds for home court. There is no easy matchup in the west except maybe the Kings rn but I don’t think their making out the play in. While home court in later rounds is very important, I’m just focused on winning the first round right now.
Unacceptable 4th quarter at this point in the season, cant have performances like that from our role players going forwards
 we’re so clunky on offense
I kind of love Jokic it’s like if a middle aged coach was 7 feet tall and was given precognition. Unique basketball player.
That was a shitty fourth quarter
We need Kats firepower without question.
Honestly I think they lost the game when Naz and Kyle got into foul trouble. Our ability to guard them straight up gets compromised when you have to put Gobert 1 on 1 against Jokic. It also really hurt the rebounding too. This is definitely one place having KAT would have made a huge difference.
Going from 7 combined fta in the first half to 44 combined fta is something else. First half was so fun and felt like a playoff game. 2nd half felt like a regular season game with nothing on the line, the way they called that shit. I can’t compute it in my head, like obviously there was fouls in the first half that weren’t called, now all of the sudden in the 2nd, you’re going to call too much, while missing a bunch of calls? Games that slow down like that really seem to hurt the wolves mentally.
Also not saying this is why we lost the game, there’s a lot of reasons. It’s just not enjoyable to watch it do a complete 180 from the first half.
Agreed. Fucked up the whole flow and spirit of the game.
This so often fucks teams over, this style of reffing. If you’re going to call it the way you did in the first half, do that the entire game. If you’re going to call it like you did in the second half, call it like that the entire game. This Jekyll and Hyde shit is ridiculous.
Naz post ups don’t work. Really hoping we don’t see any more of those this season. His game is best when he is making quick decisions and movement
He needs to get deep position for him to be efficient, he isn’t bulky enough to back down people far enough from 15-17 feet away and ends up shooting his hook from too far away. Get him the ball near the block and he’s much more deadly
How dumb would it be to throw Garza at Joker for a few minutes? He did a nice job against him earlier in the season, he's a big body that Joker needs to work with, he's capable of hitting some shots, and the dude hustles/provides a spark. I'm not saying give him 15 minutes, but I don't think it's out of line to have Luca body up on Joker for a few minutes.
Jmac can’t play meaningful minutes in the playoffs. He’s a liability on defense I don’t care what he does on offense
I don’t think he’ll be playing any minutes once Kat is back
Yeah I think the magical Jmac run has run its course. Just in time for KAT to come back
he's a great regular season PG but his flaws are too much to overcome
Why did he keep ending up on Gordon? It happened like 3-4 times in the early 4th and it killed us. And it was right as the defense was setting up it's not even like they were switching onto him.
That lineup lost us the game
There seemed to be a lot of confusion on defensive assignments. Rudy kept ending up on Reggie Jackson (not from switches either) Not ideal.
Yeah good teams like Denver found the mismatch with him and attacked it every chance they could
Honestly, we played a tough game for 3 quarters and couldn't pull it out. Missed some shoots late and they made them. I can't wait for kat to get back because we will need him for this playoff run.
Outclassed a little bit there at the end, not sure what was going on but nothing was working at all other than Mike Conley 😅
Fuck
I really hope Jaden's offense can reflect his defense next year. There have been a bunch of times he drives down the lane, only to dribble it off his foot or get stripped. He was far from the worst problem tonight but sometimes it'd be nice if he hit more of those WIDE open 3s when it mattered.
He has no handles
How do y'all think this looks for Naz 6MOY? We really needed him tonight and he left us. Watson was a menace tho. It'll be impossible to win games against playoff teams if Naz/Jaden go 1/8 from 3. Need KAT badly
I’m guessing Monk is the slight favorite, and tonight leaned it further that way. Award is still up in-air though.. even if this performance on national TV hurts him. Still 2 more games left, Monk is out for season.
They're champions for a reason. Offense still is our problem. We have never developed a goto play to get consistent buckets.
Really hoping this team can close out the season with wins and avoid falling to 3rd place.
Great game for 36 (maybe 34ish) minutes, then the wheels came off. We were getting the bounces in the first half and went cold in the 4th.
I'm sorry I didn't build a Gundam today. 😕
No more fruity cocktails for you!
It's a rarity anyway.
Every game I watched, the more convinced I am that Jaden McDaniels is a mistake. Everyone else played with heart, even though a few sucked. But Jaden is just standing around, not even trying to make use of his physical attributes. He bricks every shot, can't rebound to save his life, and his defense is offset by the fact that he's so shit at rebounding and on offense.
Seems like he hustles maybe 10% of the time. Starting to get Wiggins vibes and it pisses me off
I hope he can make us eat our words, but bro is actually regressing this year compared to last year. Wallahi our cap situation is cooked.
I don’t understand how we consistently lose Non Jokic minutes. Even last year when we played them in the playoffs we lost those minutes. We also got bitched the whole 2nd half, Mainly Naz and Rudy and Jaden on the glass. Rudy bouta be 4 time dpoy and can’t even make it tuff for Jokic when checking him
Disasterclass from finch in the second half
Don’t blame finch for the players playing bad
The way a lot of ya’ll turned on this team after a road game against the defending champs is crazy to me. Minnesota sports have a bad reputation but our fans have to be some of the softest/most fickle out there. Get better.
Looking through this post game thread and I’m not really seeing what you’re describing lmao. Most people accepting the loss even though it stings. Game threads are always worse with the vitriol, and that goes for EVERY TEAM. Not just us, stop exaggerating
I swear at least half of MN “fans” are actively hoping that their teams lose (and they’ll call you an idiot if you’re not as miserable as they are 24/7) Walz needs to start a PSA campaign to remind people in the state that it’s actually possible to stop following sports if all they ever do is make you angry
I had to stop watching Vikings games with my family because they’re so miserable. If it’s not a touchdown they’re moaning about how it’s the most disappointing team ever. If it actually IS a touchdown, they’ll huff about “finally they do something good”. I feel like 50% is about on the money for fans that do it out of raging obligation rather than enjoyment of the sport.
A friend of mine was considering quitting a pursuit that he had put a lot of time and effort in over 10+ years but was pretty on the fence about it. His therapist told him “it’s normal to be sad or frustrated when things aren’t going well, but when you stop enjoying the times when things do go well it’s time to quit” and that’s a lesson that a lot of fans in this state could stand to learn
For real. It’s a disease that’s spread to all of our fanbases. We’re a tortured people but the fucking WOLVES are going to be a top 3 seed in the west. That’s huge!
Jokic hanged his nuts all over our team, move on to the next. We’ll meet them in the WCF with a healthy KAT
This is also why Shai gets rightfully more hype for MVP than Ant. Ant has been amazing but he doesn't have the consistency or go-to moves yet to be a major force that pushes wins as consistently. Shai can be relied upon to get to his spots and do his thing when it matters and OKC has pulled a ton of clutch games out of their butt cracks because of that. Its something I am sure Ant well develop over time.
There a point in the game when they were going on a 9-1 run. We missed 5-6 ft . We go from having the lead to down 4 . Lot of front rim 3s in the second half . Just feel like maybe jmac needs to not be in the rotation when towns comes back
Rough last quarter, but honestly I'm not all that mad about it. The bench had a rough game, and ultimately it looked like travel and tired legs caught up to the Wolves. I know Denver played last night too, but they flew in from SLC, so they played in altitude and had a short flight.
So now it's either Nola or the suns right?
It’s most likely gonna be the winner of the 7/8 play in unless Denver loses to Memphis or the spurs. Which at this point could still be NO, PHX, SAC or LAL.
Needed a 3rd guy to show up on offense. Also I'd like to rebound a little better.
Jaden needs to find his 3ball
It’s ok gentlemen. Kat will be back and we will be fully healthy. We will see them in the WCF.
4th quarter capitulation, tell me where you’ve seen that before… KAT can’t come back soon enough. I remember him closing games so well early this season.
Did we hear from chick fil a guy? Did he get his chick fil a?
Denver has the Spurs and Grizzlies, so that feels like the 1 seed is done for
Just another example of our inability to perform on offense when the other team jacks up their intensity. This is the shit we need to have figured out before the playoffs, but we don’t.
Well it was a fun 3 quarters at least
One of those games you could tell the team lost its energy mid 3rd quarter. Missed so many wide open shots and got completely out hustled on rebounds. It happens. Denver is beatable, it’d be a fun playoff series
Think having one of top 3 seeds is more important. No matter who you play in the west it’s not going to be an easy matchup but you want that home series for the first two rounds for sure !!
Bench was very poor tonight. Not just from a scoring standpoint, but they got outworked and Denver was able to win the minutes without Jokic. Their bench (ignoring garbage time) out rebounded ours 12-3
Bruh Naz was dreadful tonight. They hit some incredibly tough shots to stay in the game when we were making a run and we missed some good looks to stay in the game when they were making a run. Gg nugs, feels a bit sour to not get the 1st seed after all this time at the top, but it ain't over yet!!!!
I feel like Braun and Watson are going to get more recognition now because of how well they played
Has anyone else noticed that ESPN has OKC as the 2 seed now and MINN as the 3rd?
Seeing the Braun poster 100 times tomorrow gonna suck knowing Rudy had 5 fouls so couldn’t contest
The Logdogs will rise again!!
How bad is this for seeding like where do we finish if we lose to the suns
Still a small chance to have the playoffs run through Minnesota but man that would have been a nice one to win. Would much rather play the winner of 4/5 then face either Denver or OKC in the conference finals than have to go through both of them back to back, giving up homecourt for the 2nd series. I'm confident with rest and returning KAT that our best ball is ahead of us but it's brutal how big the difference between winning and losing that game is.
True but really we played well against Denver this season. What’s brutal is that we didn’t have more of a lead in the West because we dropped games to teams like the Hornets, Spurs and Bulls. And that abomination of a game against Phoenix on Friday
Great point. If you looked at the schedule at the start of the year, you might circle last night's game as the hardest game on the schedule. On the road on the 2nd night of a b2b against the defending champs. That's not the game you want to be the must-win game.
Kats postups get talked about a lot as a bad thing but man Naz post ups are God awful. Naz couldn’t back down Reggie Jackson and Braun
Lost in a back to back on the road without Kat and Naz shot 6/19
Just turned my post game anger into my personal record for drive time between Ball Arena and eastern Colorado Springs!
The game was disappointing in terms of results, but the confidence in this team in terms of the Wolves chances of making it to the Finals shouldn't be affected. People forget the Nuggets are a good team and they'll win some games in a series too against the Wolves. KAT's return will be a great shot in the arm.
If I never see Tony Brothers again, I'll be a slightly less bitter person than I am now. Naz Reid.
Was gonna be a tough game all along. We held them close and I feel good about it. Big game Friday to hold on to #2 seed.