Post Game Thread: The Denver Nuggets defeat The Minnesota Timberwolves 112-97

Everyone was food for jokic and no one could get it going offensively, just a whole team let down.

Jokic is good at basketball

Coaching staff needs to find a counter to the Ant double teams.

We’ve lost the mental game, and thus, a good chance the series.

Aaron Gordon fade-away bank lol

We didn’t play our best game but I don’t know how you are supposed to win when Jokic is playing like that. Just unbeatable

Literally no idea how to feel.

So frustrating to feel like we had a chance at a championship for about 3 days - and come down feeling like we’re only one round better than last year.

We’re gonna have to dig so deep to win this in Game 7.

Jokic is amazing…

Man Ant was completely neutralized this game. Every time he called a screen, the Nuggets would double and he could never spot KAT or Naz Reid popping for the three. Even when Gobert wasn’t clogging the lane, Ant had no answers for the Nuggets defense.

Hello darkness my old friend…

I know it’s a minor thing that doesn’t matter, but I’m tired of watching 42% three point shooter Karl Anthony Towns pump fake open threes contested by guards to drive into traffic

MVP was on another level tonight. Win or go home on Thursday. Keep the faith Wolves bros.

Daddy I don’t want to play with the nuggets anymore

That was probably one of the best single performances I’ve ever seen played against my Wolves

Dray gloating over Rudy's demise. What a professional dick

Playing a team with zero rim protection and you struggle to crack 100 every game. its a total disaster

I think this team has the talent, but honestly think they’re not smart enough to contend with the nuggets. So many stupid plays tonight.

Could still come back, but less hopeful than I was before

The people blaming Rudy are absolute idiots/casuals. He was super efficient on offense and played great D. If Joker makes some tough shots, that's just how it is. They were clapping hands on several of those shots, Joker just made them.

There's been a huge diff in mins Rudy is on/off the court this series defensively in games he's played.

Kyle Anderson is the worst player in the league still getting minutes this far into the playoffs.

Really shows how important the 1 seed was. it’s a cripple fight in that series

Winning 2 in a row is possible and will be there for the taking. That being said this is the saddest I've felt after a loss since Favre's pick in 2009.

It took 4 days to go from planning parade routes to pondering the offseason. Sports are cruel. I'll hope for a flicker of hope on Thursday.

If it's all over on Thursday and you're satisfied with the progress made this season, that's awesome. If you're let down and annoyed with a 2nd round loss, that's ok too. Everyone can be allowed to feel the way they do.

I cannot believe Kyle Anderson played 16 minutes in a massive playoff game.

Not really a wolves thing but how does draymond get on the inside the nba panel, and a kia endorsement?

Does anybody outside California think this dude is anything other than the biggest punk in the league?

The reason wolves are losing is because they’re losing the jokic rest minutes. That should be 10 points per game. 

Kyle Anderson has to have some dirt on someone in the front office or one of the coaches cause ain’t no fucking way that dude should be getting minutes

ELI5 what worked the first two games that isnt working now. How come Jokic doesnt look gassed at the half anymore?

They blew their load after game 2

Jokic is so good. Just mad respect. That’s why he’s fcking MVP.

Denver is a way way way better team in last 3 games. After shooting 30% from 3 in Lakers series they decided to shoot 45% against the Wolves. Wolves probably had a chance to get game 4 but Gordon could not miss. Wolves made only 1 out of last 12 threes while their guys just cannot miss in last 3 games.

Fuck Wemby for winning at the end of the season. I’d rather lose to OKC in semi-finals than watch Denver score on 10 possessions in a row every game.

Fuck

I'm not trying to excuse the performance, but the offense we showed was so disorganized without Mike. It shouldn't have been that bad

Naz has just been playing awful. I hope he returns to form G6.

Can we go back to playing with Rudy spying off Gordon on Joker with KAT guarding him? It’s not perfect and it burned us with Gordon before, but we know what guarding Joker 1v1 does.

This game proved to me Jokic robbed Kyle of MVP this year

Not a word about the refs. This was all Timberwolves (and Jokic, of course)

So all Denver did was let Gordon bring the ball up and double Ant and that's all it takes for this team to get shitted on. Coaching dif?

I don’t think there is much you can do to stop jokic tonight. Everyone saying Rudy was terrible or is a fake DPOY needs to look at some of the shots jokic made. You cannot guard that spinning hook, late 4th quarter three, or fadeaway in the first quarter. Those are just a couple of examples. Rudy played great to excellent defense on all those shots. You just hope he misses. Hopefully in games 6/7 he misses

Jokic is a monster. Rudy was good tonight and couldn't do a thing.

Historic underdog story incoming.

First two game: everyone shows up, plays their role. Game 3 nobody shows up, game four KAT goes mia with the bench, game five Ant goes MIA with the bench. Woof what a fucking collapse were in.

If Slomo plays 16 minutes again in the next game I’ll just assume Finch isn’t taking this shit seriously

The Lakers were just so bad that the Nuggets got rusty playing them.

They are playing perfect, nothing you can do. Sadly happens

Jokic unbelievable player to watch.

Fuck you for getting my hopes up like every other stupid ass sports team in this fucking cursed state. Fuck you.

We’ve made zero adjustments.

I fucking hate Minnesota sports

:(

Draymond sure is a nice choice TNT. You gonna lose all this anyway.

Local wolf very depressed

the players obviously need to be better but finch and nori for three straight games haven't made any adjustments

I don't understand why the narrative is always "good offense beats good defense" until it's Jokic vs Gobert, and then suddenly it's "not my DPOY"

How much do we pay Jaden to not affect the offensive end?

Losing game 4 when ant poured in 44 was brutal

I can't say I'm not disappointed, but how do you stop this version of Jokic? He looks like a completely different player than the one in the first 2 games.

I'm not giving up hope - if we win game 6, we've got a chance. But more than anything, I just want to see the guys get their mental game back up. They've had too good of a season + playoff run to let them go out looking so mentally defeated.

I just wanted to say fug draymond green. That’s all

We went up 2-0 and the 3 games after haven’t been remotely close at all…. It’s like Denver sat up and said “alright let’s try now”. Where’s the fucking pride and passion to win at all of a sudden ? This roster construction will have to be looked at if we lose the next game, losing 4 games in a row would be an utter disaster

Pretty simple, really. We got complacent up 2-0 and thoughts we’d cruise into the WCF.

They had enough time off to figure out what we were doing, adjusted, and our staff has been flat footed to respond.

We wasted a chance in game 4, we could have won that game.

Tonight they got all the 50/50 calls, and bounces. Their scrubs are making shots and our depth has no showed and we have been chucking bricks.

We need to play flawlessly in game 6 and then will have a punchers chance if we get it to game 7.

how can they be that bad at making a 3

I know people will shit on Rudy tonight but Jokic does that to pretty much everyone, even AD, even Wemby.

Let's see if they are able to grind a game 7.

Ant has a stinker but that's going to happen more and more when he has to entirely carry the offensive load in most games. Hopefully he gets better at it as he grows older. Looking towards next season I think Kyle's time here is done. He's been a great veteran presence but doesn't really help the team out on the floor enough to warrant a spot. KAT is mad unlucky but put together some great games in the first 6. Mcdaniels offense has been disappointing to say the least. NAW and Naz still are great despite NAW's struggles. Rudy actually was good before Denver and I just think it's a bad matchup for him plus having his first child. On to the next one boys

I understand it's pretty sickening to lose 3 on the bounce after having 6 great games. The Nuggets are the best team in the world for a reason, Jokic was simply unstoppable, sometimes you have to hold your hands up and simply acknowledge it. Yes we didn't turn up, Coaching haven't made adjustments etc etc but

How can we expect this team to win at home and have the belief to do it and make it 3-3 if we ourselves don't even believe in them? As I said, we've regressed but let's get behind this team and get them over the line. I still trust them.

Keep ya heads up , teams take years to get to the point of being champions. It’s all one step at a time.

A real Minnesota collapse.

Feels bad, man. Goodnight, and see ya Thursday night for another episode of Let's Fucking Come This Far Just To Throw It All Away.

I want to die thank you very much

What the hell is wrong with this team

If Jokic can play like that then he should win the fucking finals again, that dumb bitch

Those 3 charges in a row on us in the 2nd(?) quarter looked like bs. The defender was still moving on all of them.

Everything going for Nuggets. Nothing going for Wolves. Jokic is unstoppable. Fuck the refs and fuck the NBA. Murray should have been suspended.

Nothing brings Minnesotans together like jumping on a bandwagon only to ride the Viking funeral barge down to the bottom of the ocean.  See you fuckers next year, one day we will reach Valhalla! 

I am very sad

Feels bad, man

Absolutely can't give up and it's far from over but with that said it is very likely the wolves will lose this series

I wish i hadn’t got my hopes up

Praying Jaden isn’t just a Andre Roberson man fr

Jokic showed us why he is the MVP. That combined with the terrible choice in jerseys for this series has been our downfall.

Can someone explain why the team can’t huddle around Finch during timeouts? Can’t they go to him? Bench guys pick up chairs and let the head coach COACH

Jokic was going crazy but the fact we couldn’t adjust our lineup to compete and give us some points is not okay.

I don’t like Nori as basically head coach. Finch should be giving the talks during timeouts.

1.) Bring back the retro jerseys for Thursday. 2.) Give Conley all the medical attention he needs. 3.) ??? 4.) Force game 7.

Jokic is an all-time great. We had no chance of winning that game. Should be a 4xMVP

Drays bias is hard to listen to. Rudy played hard and they’re acting like he played “bad” defense. It wasn’t bad D. It was just an absolute showcase of how great Joker is. He was hitting from 3, spinning both ways and using both hands, moving without the ball and driving hard to the basket. He showed how unstoppable he is.

I think the wolves need to find a way to not leave Rudy on an island that many times. Wing guys need to figure out a way to pounce on the ball when his head is turned. It has worked on occasion.

Losing Mike is like being in a war and having your general get blown to all hell. All the little things he does that doesn’t make it to the stat sheet showed up in this game. That spacing all night was horrible.

I wonder if it's a worse feeling watching the Wolves go from 2-0 to 2-3, or being a Suns fan who felt like maybe their team didn't suck after the first 2 games and now have to come to terms?

I see a lot of Gobert hate, especially about his offense. I don't get it. He's 7/7 FG, only 1 TO and been decent at the FT line. Why not feed him more? He's often left alone or against a guard. I don't care if he's clumsy, at least make them foul or think twice before doubling Ant