Nuggets at Wolves R2G3

[Yosimar]

Well my superstitious ass is gonna have to go back to watching games delayed on DVR. First game all postseason I caught live and they get whooped.

Keep those heads up boys it only counts as 1 loss.

[kekgeek]

It's not that simple Kek. This is worse than a normal loss.

It’s 100% as simple as that

I wish. What's your confidence level now compared to before the game?

Same as before. I knew it was going to be a series. It’s the nba. Bad playoff games happen all the time

[SameOldNudityDrew]

I wish. What's your confidence level now compared to before the game?

Mine's not as high, but I was also checking myself going into the game. We've been getting too much confidence from these wins. And now we need to be careful not to get too low from this loss. The head needs to regulate the heart.

You're right Drew and I think the challenge ahead is huge. I hope we're up to it, but I'm not so sure.

I appreciate Ant telling guys on the bench "Hey, this is a series" at the end. That was the right message at that point. It's crazy that our 22 year old is one of the mature guys on the team.

Bottom line, we got roasted. It happens. But the players have to stay mentally focused, maintain the effort through the end of the game, and not lose their cool. And we need to do the same as fans. Don't get too high from the wins, and not too low from the losses. It's easy to get caught up in all the attention we're getting at this point. We're about to hear a lot of negative attention now. Just like we should take the positive attention with a grain of salt, now we'll need to do the same with all the negative attention about to come our way.

[WildWolf2813]

Look, if we won tonight and Denver did this in Game 4, we wouldn't really care.

Just gotta take care of Game 4.

I'll bank on this team avoiding any prolonged losing streak at any point this season.

[TheGrey08]

Such a disappointing game. Some will say they just played like shit, but I think the biggest thing was ice cold shooting. Numerous higher percentage shots that just rimmed out along with laying bricks from 3. I'm not even factoring the 4th quarter as the game was pretty much over.

Beyond that there were more tough calls from this crew that had the super quick whistle in game 2 or 3 (I forget which) of the Suns series. Having that happen during a cold shooting stretch certainly didn't help. KG eluded to the refs possibly clamping down in game 3 and they absolutely did. Others pointed out it would be that crew from PHX and thus expected a some weak calls. Joker shoving and throwing himself into Rudy with a knocked backward Rudy getting the foul called on him was the officiating in a nutshell.

I'm not saying the refs cost them the game (bad shooting was by far #1) but ffs it just ruins the product. Inconsistent officiating, win or lose is maddening. How can a guy get away with full extending and shoving a defender with their off arm while on the other end a defender gets called for bodying up while moving his feet lol. Just wish we could get some consistency across the damn board.

[60WinTim]

I'm with kek -- it's one game. We missed a lot of open shots from 3 and shots at the rim. Denver gets a lead because of it, and it's a heck of a lot easier for them to hit shots when they are comfortable with a lead.

Come back strong on Sunday. The biggest question is "who's gonna start the GDT?!?"

[Coolbreeze44]

We had earned a little house money, but it was squandered tonight. The pressure flips to the Wolves now. Let's see what we're made of.

[Lipoli390]

I just got back from Target Center. We missed a lot of shots we should make and they made their shots. But I thought the Wolves’ lack of intensity tonight was shameful. Missed bunnies like the many we saw from the Wolves tonight often reflect a lack of intensity. Our defense was poor and we were out-rebounded, more signs of a lack of intensity. We played as if this was a regular season game in December rather than a playoff game - in this case a home playoff game with a loud capacity crowd in the arena. Rudy was probably the worst offender on the squad. He looked like he was taking his second game off. Seriously, he looked like his mind and most of his body were elsewhere. Inexcusably poor game and lack of effort from Rudy tonight.

I’m typically not one to complain about officiating, but the officiating tonight in the first half was absurdly skewed in favor of Denver.

The Wolves should be embarrassed by their performance tonight and we should expect them to come back with a vengeance on Sunday. If they do that, they should crush the Nuggets on Sunday and win the series the next game in Denver. If they don’t come out with that sort of fire on Sunday they will lose on Sunday and lose the series.

[kekgeek]

Worst part of tonight is the 930 tip on Tuesday now

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's Disappointingly Meh DVR Review:

- That's the Timberwolves that I've known all these years!!!

- Flat. The team was flat... and the crowd seemed flat (via tv) even early when it was a game. I've heard of that before... a team or environment gets too amped up... only to waste it all in anticipation.

- Denver won a championship. They proved that they're legit tonight. Great bounceback game from Murray. He set the tone right away.

- I skipped the 4th quarter... but I noticed the Wolves shot more FTAs than Denver? How'd that happen? Officiating was not why the Wolves lost. At all. But Jokic got away with a couple. Heck, he punched Gobert and drew a shooting foul in the 1st quarter. It was pretty amusing, sad, predictable.

- The Nuggets did some crafty stuff to get Murray momentum bringing the ball up the court and into the frontcourt sets. Having Jokic walk down the center of the court "randomly" as a de facto moving screen was smart. It kept the heat off Murray. In the frontcourt, I actually felt Jokic set quite a few good screens (compared to other NBA moving screens).

- Aaron Gordon looked like a legit shooter tonight. He didn't hesitate. He just fired away... and they weren't even corner threes.

- As someone else said... nobody played well tonight.

- Just one of those nights for the Wolves. Bad games happen. But for Denver... this could be a legacy-defining game. They answered the challenge and kicked ass.

- It's a series. Buckle up.