Pups vs Nuggets G4 GDT

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's Next Day DVR Review After Taking a Day to Consider What I Saw... and After Having My First Write Up Oddly Disappear:

- Denver won pretty easily. When they needed a bucket, they got a bucket. This game was never in doubt. The Wolves played hard! Collectively, they didn't even play that poorly. I think they win vs. most teams playing the way they did. And... it wasn't nearly enough vs. the Nuggets.

- Neither game was ever in doubt. The Wolves blew a great opportunity by laying two eggs at home... AND... Denver showed why they were NBA champions.

- Silver lining: Anthony Edwards. Good gawd, he's good. And it's fun speculating on just how great he can become.

- I predict there's an 85% chance that Towns is traded this summer. "He is what he is." Great shooter. Willing teammate. Mixed bag on the court in big games. Not the easiest guy to root for. He's simply not worth the price tag starting next year. The rub is what the Wolves can get for him.

- Aaron Gordon, Justin Holiday, Reggie Jackson and Christian Braun are shooting 25-41 (61%)... on THREE POINTERS in this series. Justin Holiday is 34 years old. Be honest... who else had any idea that he's been bouncing around that long? He's "just a guy" at every stop in his career.

- Remember when the Wolves were supposed to have the better bench? (see above) Ummm... yeah. The Nuggets got very little from Porter and KCP. And it didn't matter. KCP hasn't done much of anything this series. He's a good player... and will surely be a larger factor over the next 2 or 3 games.

- It's obvious the Nuggets made adjustments that worked. Now, it's the Timberwolves turn to make some adjustments. This is high-level NBA Playoffs basketball.

- All that being said... I don't think the series is over. Mostly, it's because I trust Anthony Edwards. I'm not seeing his ceiling yet, which is a lot of fun. The rub is that the Nuggets have Jokic. He's just too good and too smart. And he's just better than anybody else in the league right now. And then they have guys like Aaron Gordon who is such a good player in so many ways. Shirley, he's not going to keep shooting 72/66 for the rest of the series, right? He's also a terrific passer and good defender by the way. A great get for Denver.

[Q-is-here]

Abe's Next Day DVR Review After Taking a Day to Consider What I Saw... and After Having My First Write Up Oddly Disappear:

- Denver won pretty easily. When they needed a bucket, they got a bucket. This game was never in doubt. The Wolves played hard! Collectively, they didn't even play that poorly. I think they win vs. most teams playing the way they did. And... it wasn't nearly enough vs. the Nuggets.

- Neither game was ever in doubt. The Wolves blew a great opportunity by laying two eggs at home... AND... Denver showed why they were NBA champions.

- Silver lining: Anthony Edwards. Good gawd, he's good. And it's fun speculating on just how great he can become.

- I predict there's an 85% chance that Towns is traded this summer. "He is what he is." Great shooter. Willing teammate. Mixed bag on the court in big games. Not the easiest guy to root for. He's simply not worth the price tag starting next year. The rub is what the Wolves can get for him.

- Aaron Gordon, Justin Holiday, Reggie Jackson and Christian Braun are shooting 25-41 (61%)... on THREE POINTERS in this series. Justin Holiday is 34 years old. Be honest... who else had any idea that he's been bouncing around that long? He's "just a guy" at every stop in his career.

- Remember when the Wolves were supposed to have the better bench? (see above) Ummm... yeah. The Nuggets got very little from Porter and KCP. And it didn't matter. KCP hasn't done much of anything this series. He's a good player... and will surely be a larger factor over the next 2 or 3 games.

- It's obvious the Nuggets made adjustments that worked. Now, it's the Timberwolves turn to make some adjustments. This is high-level NBA Playoffs basketball.

- All that being said... I don't think the series is over. Mostly, it's because I trust Anthony Edwards. I'm not seeing his ceiling yet, which is a lot of fun. The rub is that the Nuggets have Jokic. He's just too good and too smart. And he's just better than anybody else in the league right now. And then they have guys like Aaron Gordon who is such a good player in so many ways. Shirley, he's not going to keep shooting 72/66 for the rest of the series, right? He's also a terrific passer and good defender by the way. A great get for Denver.

Good stuff Abe. I don't know what other adjustments we can make. I think overall we've done a "good enough" job on Jokic considering his greatness and we've really bottled up MPJ, who was the key in the Lakers series. But their other guys have delivered. A smart defensive strategy is to force the lesser players to beat you. Well, they've delivered big time. I honestly don't know what adjustments we can make at this point other than hope and pray that Denver starts missing shots.

[Coolbreeze44]

One good thing we've shown is that MPJ can be rendered less effective with tight coverage. He can't create his own shot and he's bothered with someone pressing up on him. Now about Aaron Gordon...........

[FNG]

Jon Krawczynski
@JonKrawczynski
·
21h
Big point in the game last night: W/KAT struggling offensively, Wolves started 2nd w/Conley, NAW, Jaden, Kyle, Naz. Cleaning The Glass did not chart that combo one time in the regular season.

Nuggets went from +5 to +15 in 2:21. No Jokic on floor and Murray didn't make a shot.


I'm not sure we're talking enough about the impact of Finchie's injury on this series. I love Micah Nori, but only as an assistant coach. It's doubtful that Finchie would have started the 2nd quarter with a lineup he hadn't used all season...this was Nori's decision. And falling behind by another 10 point in those 2+ minutes was the death knell for the Wolves...more significant than the disastrous end to the half IMO.

[Wolvesfan21]

Looking at the stats, I can't consistently be doubling Jokic at this point. Leave it to KAT/Naz and Rudy to guard him 90% 1 on 1. Just a rare late or sneaky double to keep him on his toes, maybe force a steal here and there. We dared the others to beat us and they have. Time to shut them the fuck down.

Make Joker score 50 if he can. It's time for KAT Naz and Rudy to really step up to the challenge. Tire Joker out having to work on offense and his defense will suffer. Cmon we got 3 guys to his one for energy. Joker is the best but let's see our guys do something.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Jon Krawczynski
@JonKrawczynski
·
21h
Big point in the game last night: W/KAT struggling offensively, Wolves started 2nd w/Conley, NAW, Jaden, Kyle, Naz. Cleaning The Glass did not chart that combo one time in the regular season.

Nuggets went from +5 to +15 in 2:21. No Jokic on floor and Murray didn't make a shot.


I'm not sure we're talking enough about the impact of Finchie's injury on this series. I love Micah Nori, but only as an assistant coach. It's doubtful that Finchie would have started the 2nd quarter with a lineup he hadn't used all season...this was Nori's decision. And falling behind by another 10 point in those 2+ minutes was the death knell for the Wolves...more significant than the disastrous end to the half IMO.

I get Nori having more say during moments of game action.

But do you really think Finch didn't have any say in the lineups after a three-minute break in the action... while sitting only five feet away?

[Q-is-here]

One good thing we've shown is that MPJ can be rendered less effective with tight coverage. He can't create his own shot and he's bothered with someone pressing up on him. Now about Aaron Gordon...........

Yes, we've done a really good job limiting him compared to the way he shot up the Lakers.

I think through four games, we've been pretty damn good guarding the top three Nuggets players. The problem is that their other guys, including Aaaron Gordon are just killing us. But isn't the strategy to make him beat us? And if we suddenly decide to start really guarding him closely, that frees up more space for Jokic and others to operate. There are no good tradeoffs here.

[FNG]

Jon Krawczynski
@JonKrawczynski
·
21h
Big point in the game last night: W/KAT struggling offensively, Wolves started 2nd w/Conley, NAW, Jaden, Kyle, Naz. Cleaning The Glass did not chart that combo one time in the regular season.

Nuggets went from +5 to +15 in 2:21. No Jokic on floor and Murray didn't make a shot.


I'm not sure we're talking enough about the impact of Finchie's injury on this series. I love Micah Nori, but only as an assistant coach. It's doubtful that Finchie would have started the 2nd quarter with a lineup he hadn't used all season...this was Nori's decision. And falling behind by another 10 point in those 2+ minutes was the death knell for the Wolves...more significant than the disastrous end to the half IMO.

I get Nori having more say during moments of game action.

But do you really think Finch didn't have any say in the lineups after a three-minute break in the action... while sitting only five feet away?

Fair question, Abe, and you would think it was his decision. I can't wrap my head around the decision though...bizarre to put 5 guys out there who had never played together at such a critical juncture. And we got the results we deserved.

[mjs34]

Why not start with what we did in game 2, and continue until they find a way to beat it. Rudy has been played of the floor before, so what not start him on the bench and bring him in when Jokic goes to the bench. Regardless of how KAT played in game 4, they are still doubling him along with Ant which may be why we got blitzed when both were off the floor.

I agree with Abe that it is doubtful that Finch didn't have any input on the substitutions.

I also don't see the Rudy effect like the regular season, so it seems obvious that having him float is playing right into Denver's hands. Start having him man up and let Jokic get his points.