AD too small for Jokic, they need an actual serviceable center like 2020 where they had 2.

@@Tommorow1994 I was talking more about Jokic's circus 3 point shot over AD😂. But I get what you mean.

or looney

@@Tommorow1994AD definitely isn’t to small. He defended Jokic pretty well this year in 1on1 situations

ain't no fun when...

Likewise, whoever wins this series is the real NBA champ 🏆

why is everyone forgetting about the celtics, they had the best record in the nba.

@@SlenderManIsHerebecause everyone knows they are Frauds. The suns won 64 games in 2022. Regular season ain’t shit

@@SlenderManIsHerebecause so far you can just tell Tatum and brown don’t have that DOG in them. In this scenario ant is the predator and they are the prey. Tatum isn’t a good enough leader being the best player.

@@savagesquad9870horrible comparison that suns team lost in the semi finals… unless your saying boston is gonna lose to cavs you don’t know ball. They are a lock for the finals this year, cavs/pacers/knicks aren’t real competition for them. If they lock in and fire on all cylinders they can definitely win the chip i give them like a 40% chance though and Denver/Minnesota whoever wins 60%

MPJ lacks court vision, he had Jokic just in front of him and he didn't see him smh

@@elmehdinafia1237 Theres a good reason why people keep saying that his nickname is "The Posession Ends Here"

@@elmehdinafia1237 it was late clock and ball just come from Jokic, he didn't expect Ant to wall him off probably as well. MPJ got his passing issues still even though it improved but this is an unreal play.

@@HCXWinchester no he could've passed the ball to jokic he had enough time and jokic was right next to the hoop UNGUARDED! Every time he drives he gets tunnel vision..

​@@jonathand.t.5051Anthony Edwards was cooking Aaron Gordon and MPJ all night Timberwolves in 5

Yes but Jokic is like robot. He just has to recalibrate.

Facts

@@holdencooper5558nuggets will bounce back 😂

Wolves are historic team defensively

Agreed. Murray had a terrible first half aswell which didn’t help. He’s been exceptional so no judgment men there.

Nuggets are gonna get swept! wolves literally are built to counter Denver low-key smh

@@elmehdinafia1237 As a timberwolves fan, as much as I'd love a sweep, I just don't see it happening. Denver is too good.

@@elmehdinafia1237 lmao bring that same energy when its game 6-7 and the Nuggets show you how the hard the counter punches are.

@@noyou113 Nah the nuggets are banged up and their defense is so bad and if they continue to play drop coverage they gone get let up and we gonna have some blowouts.. it's gonna get ugly for Denver!

@@t4d0W Denver defense is fraudulent! Playing drop coverage against Ant is the worst thing you can do! Denver pick and roll defense is a travesty..as much as I love the Joker but it's a wrap

They can’t lol

@@MajinVegito100they could try benching Gordon and have 4 shooters plus Jokic

@@user-gm5gc1be4w good luck grabbing a rebound. They had a nice run it’s ants league we’re all just watching

@@user-gm5gc1be4w thats best defender, setting naz or kat to go off

Nuggs misses a 3&D guy in the 4th slot to replace Gordon so sorry to break it to you but this is a sweep..

Gobert is a Jokic level savant on defence. If you could merge Gobert's defensive instincts, verticality and agility with Jokic's touch, passing and vision on offence, it would be more unfair than merging Jordan with LeBron. And then you have a surprisingly good two way PF in Towns (in an old school sense for a PF), an elite two way guard in Ant... and you have a more defensively talented but less offensively gifted version of Denver's big three.

Many of them are current NBA players, too. It’s really mind-boggling

😂 smh

@@blackjacktrial looks like victor there

​@@blackjacktrial Wemby 😁

That's not really that much of an issue, they still get their points. Problen is that TWolves dropped 33 points in 3rd and 4th quarter. Nuggets need to tighthen their defense, this is playoffs after all.

Nuggets just gotta find other ways to score. Much like how Murray/MPJ can have bad scoring nights, you probably won't see the rest of the Wolves outside of ANT staying hot enough to keep scores close.

@@fringe_minority yes they get their points but a lot tougher than other teams would let on. Jokic took 9 3s for a reason

@@t4d0W the options are limited , it’s not like they have a naz Reid off their bench .

@@SSJRome Its not about that. The Nuggets have the shooting/playmaking to find different ways to approach defenses. It shows up especially even when games get sloppy and the jumpers don't want to go in. Wolves gotta show me they can win those mucked up games where their jumpers are shit.

It's interesting that this wasn't more prevalent, considering the strides Ant has made as the ball handler in PNR. Mike Conley is the king of the hill in that regard, but Ant has really improved his swing pass and his finding of Rudy in the short roll (the middle of the floor PNR lob still has a ways to go). I'd assume they came in with the gameplan emphasizing the corner, as Denver, like most teams, seemed to have the low man prioritize the roll, but there's definitely some meat on that bone. Rudy has gradually gotten better with his decision-making from the short roll. If the low man meets him high enough, he still has a habit of putting the ball on the floor and either turning it over or uncorking a wild shot. But, as one of the Minnesota media members tweeted out with some video from practice, he's been mixing in a couple of push shots to avoid those outcomes (it's no accident that he took that bank shot from the broken ATO).

No. He has stone hands. He fumbles the ball away, travels, makes a dumb decision 80% of the time. He needs to keep doing exactly what he's doing now. Try forcing him the ball more and it'll just disrupt things.

He's a very underrated passer. Everyone knows he's the best defender in the league but no one talks about how well he hits the open 3 point shooter when the dunk is not there

@@wubmasterdubdub8455 While still limited, I've been impressed--since his arrival to the team--with his vision in those spots.

@@suprcrzythis is accurate. They’ve said they have zero offensive plays for Rudy other than basic pnr. Rudy just have to stay in position and clean up boards and try to catch the damn ball if he’s open when the d rotates on drives to the hoop. It works.

Jokic abused Gobert back when he was in Utah

It's obviously a must win. Losing first 2 games at home has to be a path to success 3% of the time lol

I’ve got one thing to say Jamal might be injured but does have one of the best if not the best on ball defender which is jaden mcdaneils and then when he comes off he has to face another great on ball defender Alexander walker it’s tough but this might be Jamal’s worse playoff series

@@paulo2850 I’m a Lakers fan, but Murray just came back from injury like a month before the post-season. He clearly isn’t in rhythm yet. He’s been shooting well below his normal efficiency this whole post-season, and it might continue. Only thing is he’s still clutch somehow, so the T-wolves should hope to not allow the games to be too close in the final minutes.

@@paulo2850 It will not be Jamal's worst playoff series even if they lose to Minnesota. I will only call it his worst playoff series if he's 100% healthy and just throwing bricks, which is quite the opposite from the 1st round playoff. But yeah, if they don't win game 2, they might be swept by the Wolves.

Absolutely it is remarkable. But if I am completely honest I don't think that the series would go over 6 games with the Nuggets winning if Murray was the same as in last postseason run. It is really hard to beat this Nuggets team when everyone is healthy. With Murray injured you have a bigger target to attack on defense, less 3 point shooting, less attacking of the basket. The health of Murray is the biggest culprit of the Nuggets, hence why the series Vs LA wasn't the blowout it should have been otherwise.

@@johnbarkley925Murray is healthy as can be… he is moving extremely well and even made an acrobatic lay over Gobert

@@MrDiMES123 Nope, I just read article by Bleacher Report saying he has a calf injury he is playing through

@@johnbarkley925 Well like Jamal said, everyone is playing through something atp in the season. We may not know about it, but it happens. I think I remember Ant rolled his ankle in game 4 vs the Suns, but kept on playing too.

Finally? Dude, he got 3 DPOY rewards, isn’t that already attention he deserved? What should they do? BJ him? He got all the attention and awards he deserved…

​​@@johnnaysmith7218no. Because people like you think Wemby is better than him lol. Btw Jokic averaged 38ppg on Wemby

Gobert makes more players miss easy layups than anybody. He doesn't go for blocks all the time, hes better than that

@@kingdinodragonite3470 sure, where did I say so? “People like you” like you know people, and as a matter of fact you have no clue what I think on Wemby… Stop jumping to conclusion when you have no clue about what someone thinks…

Gobert played all 5 games last year, you just typin... There are 3 main differences this year: Edwards rise to super-stardom Naz Reid being available Jaden MacDaniels being available Those are the reasons why this will be a 7 game series this year, Minnesota can matchup in all 5 positions against Denver defensively and have Naz comming from the bench to spark-plug the offense when KAT and ANT are not there. McDaniels is a BEAST on defense too.. It is NOT just about Gobert, theres a reson why Utah got folded in the playoffs every year when he was there, they werent built like this Minnesota team. Btw, I think Wemby should win DPOY this year, he did more to impact his team deffensively with less minutes on the court, his team is just trash but DPOY is NOT a team award.

it's more of a stunt at Jokic, trying to bait the lob and it worked. Gobert didn't have both covered, and just gambled. if Jokic just drove it was an easy basket as Gobert was already preparing to leap backwards (look at his footwork). Impressive play for sure but that's not a consistent way to stop both options 1 vs 2

@@Sotanath86q Yup, I don't think the Gobert stunt would work again. Jokic will just drive or do a floater next time unless he's further away from the basket. And if it wasn't Gobert in front of Jokic, that lob play would work 99% of the time if it's available. Credit to Gobert though. He recognized the situation and didn't try to contest Jokic immediately.

@@LLawliet-tv9ig @Sotanath86q Yeah fair enough. My point was less that the play will never work again, and more that no one ever stops the Nuggets in the clutch from executing that play once the advantage is created. The one time it did happen is the same game where all game long, MIN made them uncomfortable.

Who’s here after game 5? The amount of delusion all over this comment section has been astonishing to read

Who says he has a polished game? He can be much better

If MJ and Kobe had a baby.

@@edgardoMurnia i just did

They're gonna try to switch defender between KAT & Gobert so Jokic can ISO on Gobert rather than KAT + Gobert roaming behind him.

they responded with their worst performance in recent history, without facing Gobert lol I have no idea what happened, they like prepared for it and got shook for some reason

he was ATROCIOUS the first half. Like... literally the worst player on the court. He can play MUCH BETTER

Rudy Rudy Rudy chants at Target Center all season...Wolves fans know what they've seen from Rudy, and his teammates know too.

He’s a better scorer this year too lol he made a mid range j last game

@@_ajack then he blocked a couple of the other teams shots and turned away a dozen attempted drives into the paint into unplanned passouts some of which led to forced turnovers, and closed out in a hurry on corner threes, then he tipped away 2 lob attempts, then he sealed off someone on offense leading to a wide open 3 for the wolves, then he set 20 picks at the 3 foot line for Conley or Ant, then he swallowed up Goron on a drive, then he swallowed up Porter out at the 3 and forced him into a turnover.

We saw him get cooked in Utah year after year

@@MrDiMES123 you saw the Utah Jazz team get cooked

4-1 might be 4-2 at the best game 5 t wolves 🐺

Or 6

He looks like a better shooting D wade vibes

For me it’s Kawhi when healthy especially on defense

Agreed. Watch the video comparing MJ and Kobe’s footwork side by side. It’s literally identical to Ant when he backs down and turns left or right shoulder into a fade away.

What advantage?

On defense Nuggets do not even have one!

Etiandro you make it seem like every team could run a twin tower lineup. Duncan and Robinson , Olajuwon and Samson and now Gobert and Kat are the only twin tower teams to actually be dominant. It is difficult for a team to combine a top 3 shooting big man ever with the best defensive player of this era

@@johnbarkley925 yeah but if u have a well oiled defense where everybody rotates, covers, switches and slides, I think could be done.

@@EtiandroRosa I think it could be affective against some offenses but a team with dominant perimeter players like Dallas would be able to overcome that. I think that type of team would work against Denver or Milwaukee . I also think that in this Minnesota team we might be seeing the best defensive team since the 04 Pistons. McDaniels and Walker might be the two best perimeter defenders in the NBA along with Caruso. Ant is a great defender. Kat in his simplified role is a great defender and Rudy is the best paint defender of this era.

Yeah, I'd be shocked if they didn't put the ball in Gordon's hands more often--it forces Rudy to guard him honestly. The only time I can recall them running an empty-side PNR with Gordon-Jokic resulted in an easy lob, as KAT has always struggled in drop coverage (which is why Finch instituted their high-wall concept in '21).

They should also start setting double screens. It allows the ball handler to decide which way he wants to go, and ppl are inevitably going to get tangled up/in the way, which can lead to easy buckets. Either way, they gotta try something different, cause what they did in game 1 didn't work.

@@suprcrzy So more like a traditional horns set and less so drag screens? I would actually opt for drags, as Rudy is damn good at pre-switching so many of those actions. The Suns didn't run nearly enough drag screens with KD as the screener (unlike the screening they had in their regular season meetings with the Wolves, albeit with KAT on Allen in those games) and thus weren't able to punish KAT in PNR or isolation as well as they maybe could've. They finally in game four got to more off-ball screening on him--something the Kings do every time they play the Wolves with KAT--and it led to confusion on the backside far more often. The way the Wolves matchup with the Nuggets is just really ideal. Ironically, the weakest link, the one you'd like to poke at most, is perhaps the best man for the Jokic assignment, given that it allows Rudy to muck up all the cutting/driving lanes.

​@brendancallery1077 Yeah, I thought the same thing. I wonder how some drible hand offs between Jokic and Gordon would work. In the first quarter, Denver was successful in a 5-out offense when Jackson and Holiday were in the court (teams used to put the man Rudy was guarding in the baseline to avoid have him roaming close to the basket). I don't think this series is over yet.

wolves just gon switch that jokic gordan pick and roll, not much effective

AD is DPOY, wolves don’t need gobert.

You should do that much earlier, in basketball world cup american squad with Tatum and Myles Turner wasn' t able to score a point over Gobert reason why in Europe there is no 3 sec defensive rule

For what ? He’s guarding a non shooter/scorer which is what he’s good at. He falls apart when teams go 5 out.

They won by 20 without him !

we never doubted that he can defend in the paint 1v1 vs jokic. we doubted that he could handle murray on the perimeter.

⁠@@johnmarkson1998Are you joking? Jokic has made Gobert look like a small child that needs his mommy out there. Some of you fools really don’t understand basketball at all

even games that go into overtimes we still have a guy at the end of the bench that can bump inside and can put up a scoring burst from 3 or inside...Luka Garza. He might never see a minute these playoffs but he can, if needed.

Gobert is not a clean player by any stretch of the imagination. He does a lot of holding and grabbing...like when he grabbed Jokic's jersey from behind, and Jokic scored on him anyway.

@@garyaugustus690 as if every player doesn’t hold jerseys. Come on dude.

@urbanrain3622 ... YOU said he was a clean player, though. Because other players do the same dirt, it doesn't make his dirt clean. YOU "come on, dude..", and try to reason intelligently instead of with some namby-pamby slipshod philosophy.

@@garyaugustus690 think "The Glove", Neon Dion, etc? name a great defender in any sport who didnt have all those little moves. He's not dirty is what that comment meant. He plays blue collar, always challenging, effort all game D...how's that not respected?

@charleybarley914 .... You have the same fallacy as the previous guy...it's entirely possible to play defense in any sport without obvious cheating... If someone gets the best of you, you don't revert to breaking the rule of the game regardless of who else might be getting away with it. You take your loss, learn how to get better, and go on to the next play or game. But apparently, it's too hard to do the right thing, too hard to play the right way, and set a standard of excellence for yourself and others. Cheat a little, and you end up cheating a lot eventually...there are lots of guys in the sport of basketball at every level who know how to play a full game close to the fouling out limit, but don't foul out. That's because they've DISCIPLINED themselves to play proper, effective, and CLEAN defense. It takes intelligence to be able to do that... If you notice, Gobert is usually close to fouling out or fouling out in most games he plays...in spite of his height, reach, and illegal "tactics".

Lol

I mean the game was out of hand by the 2nd half so there isn't really much time for Malone to apply adjustments that will help them close out game 1. I do think Nuggets will come out of game 2 showing adjustments. Then when the Wolves are forced to make the move again then this series is more of a chess match.

@t4d0W it is not a matter that the game resolved in the 4th. Malone should have prepared for this kind of defense and he did not. He had a full half time to see that Joker was off with how he was defended by Minnie, yet he didn't adjust a bit in second half. Seems to me he sticks too much to his belief and he is saved by the greatness of his players sometimes (Lakers series was an example).

No curse, the Timberwolves are just STACKED

Relax man , t-wolves need Ant to score 40 to win. Jamal will get better and Joker will figure out a way to be more impactful as he always does. Wolves have one game plan and that is it , granted pretty fucking good game plan , regardless with each game Nuggets will adapt more and more as that is their main strength . As long as they don't drop next game its all good.

​@Makyura43 you don't have to undermine the wolves to have faith I Denver

@@le4-677 I'm talking not just about this game but the Lakers one too. The only ones I've been able to watch instead of just seeing numbers go up on google are the ones they lose.

@@Makyura43 Yeah I hope, and I do have faith in Denver, but I want them in their usual form and not so much anxiety inducing games.

Nah Jamal Murray dunked on lebron last week. That’s boy is fine

@@LonoBristolhe making excuses lmao

@@LonoBristol He has a calf sprain. He is playing through it. Lebron is trash and anyone can dunk on him nowadays

The younger guys on the bench will have to do some more for them to get wins. Also AG will have to work a lil more for those passes to make it around Rudy. Cause he put a stop to those points. The Twolves had a lot go right for them so we will have to see if they can still get a win after the nuggets make their adjustments. But they showed they can do it for sure.

Jamal has been way off...Joker looks off too a bit.....hopefully they will snap out of it whatever it is....they need it all to beat this team...TWs are f ing good

The only problem tho is that the Nuggets don’t have another reliable shooter off the bench besides maybe Strawther

Take Gordon out and the Nuggets also don't have a good body defensively to throw at the Wolves. Besides I feel the Nuggets playmaking has more than enough layers to find spots on the floor even with Gobert anchored.

Jesus that is a terrible take 🤦🏾‍♀️

Murray is an over hyped above average at best player. He seems amazing when Jokic makes it work and helps him become great. The moment Jokic struggles, the true Murray comes out

Bruv its the playoffs. What business do those casual clowns have watching exciting playoff basketball?

Any real fans know the issue was always the utah rosters around him that played defense worse than wet tissue paper and let every player by them so he had to play 1v5 on D

All stupid people including some nba player like T-MAC AND TV SPEAKERS .NO GOBERT ,NO RINGS!!!!

same with the Rudy only stays under the rim to collect blocks...he's baseline to baseline contesting...Hell he picked up KD at halfcourt and forced a turnover that led to an AntSlam.

He gets exposed when teams go 5 out. He’s good at guarding non shooters and non scoring threats where he just stands in the paint and puts his hands up.

🤔

As a Kansas City Chiefs fan...I completely understand this message. We'll see if your 15 is as great as ours

Gobert is the x factor!!!

I don’t think jokic can isolate Gobert and score . It’s getting locked up he always struggles iso vs paint protectors

@@MrDiMES123 He’s literally getting whatever he wants against him

@@MrDiMES123What on earth are you thinking? Why even write such a pathetic take in the first place? I don’t think basketball opinion making is for you MrDimes 🤦🏾‍♀️

@@JMV0711you can thank Calvin booth for that 👏

Jokic and Murray played about 40mpg themselves in last years playoffs. Gordon played 35. This is nothing new other than not having a real 6th man in Bruce Brown to fill down the stretch. If anything MPJ can probably handle more minutes if he's to get more involved with his shooting.

Credit for standing around the basket and holding his hands up ?

He literally says Jordan Peaked higher than Lebron.

@@taptiotrevizo9415 yes and he literally spent 80% or the video criticizing Jordan while 80% of Brons video praising him. To say he’s not a huge Bronstan when he did that and did everything I mentioned in OP is just being willfully “blind”.