20 years later to the day...Another Game 7. GDT

[LongGame]

An amazing year and playoffs. We can all feel good about the future with a loss. BUT, it ain’t happening! Agree with Lip that the law of averages will tighten things up, but I truly think we are the better team and if we show up, we will advance. Not sure my stomach can handle it, but an Ant game winner seems fitting. Go Wolves!

[Q-is-here]

I watched the recording of game 6. A few things stood out. First, Denver missed a lot of good looks they’d normally make so it wasn’t just the Wolves defense. I don’t think the Nuggets will miss those shots in game 7. Second, the Wolves completely dominated the boards, out-rebounding the Nuggests by 19. The Wolves should win the battle of the boards tomorrow might, but I don’t expect anything close to the same 19-rebound margin. We also had 12 steals to Denver’s 6 and I don’t expect to see quite the same disparity in thievery tomorrow might.

The Nuggets’ energy level and shooter were both way below par Friday night and I don’t expect to see that again from them in game 7. At the same time, I don’t expect KAT and Naz to each have only 10 points shooting 40% of less from the field with no three-pointers. I also see Ant’s 27 point total in game 6 as a floor for what he’ll do tomorrow night. Bottom line is this. The 45-point margin in Game 6 means nothing in Game 7. Denver will bring high energy to the court and make shots you’d expect them to make. If the Wolves match or exceed Denver’s energy and intensity, the game will be close and I think the Wolves will win.

Lip, I re-watched the 24-2 epic first quarter run we went on. In the 11 possessions Denver had during that run, there were 4 TOs, 6 missed shots, and 1 made shot. Of 7 shots taken (including the made one), not a single one was uncontested. Some of them were better contested than others, but in every case, there was a hand up or Wolves player closing on the shooter. And they were all jump shots too.

So I'm going to chalk up that 1Q run to great defense. I think after that you're right, they started missing some more open shots and I remember talking about regression to the mean in the game thread because Denver's non-Jokic/Murray/Porter players made a ton of shots they wouldn't normally make in the regular season.

[Q-is-here]

Unlike some of the national media pundits, I don't necessarily think Ant needs the game of his life for us to win this game. Conversely, he could play the game of his life and we still lose.

I think the keys to the game are as follows:

1. KAT and McDaniels stay out of early foul trouble.

2. Wolves hit more 3s than Denver. We really need the trio of Jaden, Naz, and NAW to make a decent percentage of 3s because those shots will be there for them.

3. Wolves win the non-Jokic minutes.

I agree that Denver should be favored to win, as they have already proven in this series that they can bounce back from a blowout loss and put together a dominant performance. And they have the advantage of having the best player on the floor.

[Coolbreeze44]

Brothers is doing the Dallas game tonight, I thought we might get him. Has anyone heard who the crew chief will be? By the way, it's great we aren't getting Brothers.

[60WinTim]

Brothers is doing the Dallas game tonight, I thought we might get him. Has anyone heard who the crew chief will be? By the way, it's great we aren't getting Brothers.

Yeah, a few minutes into the OKC/MAVS game and we are lucky to not have Brothers!

[BloopOracle]

Amazing how well a hobbled Luka can play

Edit- nevermind

[Jester1534]

Unlike some of the national media pundits, I don't necessarily think Ant needs the game of his life for us to win this game. Conversely, he could play the game of his life and we still lose.

I think the keys to the game are as follows:

1. KAT and McDaniels stay out of early foul trouble.

2. Wolves hit more 3s than Denver. We really need the trio of Jaden, Naz, and NAW to make a decent percentage of 3s because those shots will be there for them.

3. Wolves win the non-Jokic minutes.

I agree that Denver should be favored to win, as they have already proven in this series that they can bounce back from a blowout loss and put together a dominant performance. And they have the advantage of having the best player on the floor.

There might not be any non Jokic minutes on Sunday

[FNG]

Well, it's Scott Foster guys. I know he has the nickname "the Extender" because his bizarre record for favoring teams on the verge of losing a series, and that was true in Game 4. But that doesn't mean anything in a Game 7. There's the Rudy Gobert issue, and he did whistle Rudy for 5 fouls in Game 4. But he called 21 fouls on us in that game and 20 on Denver...pretty even. Still, that's 10 more fouls than there were in Game 6 with the Davis crew. I think we would all rather see Davis again, but this is not going to determine the winner of this game.

[60WinTim]

Yeah, I'll take Foster over Brothers any day...

I didn't think Foster impacted game 4 much at all. Wolves played okay except for KAT and NAW's 1-7 from three. Add in an 11-12 night from Gordon and their bench hitting 6-9 on threes, it's amazing the game was just an 8 point loss.

Anything can happen, but there a lot of reasons to be cautiously opTIMistic tonight!

[kekgeek]

Yeah, I'll take Foster over Brothers any day...

I didn't think Foster impacted game 4 much at all. Wolves played okay except for KAT and NAW's 1-7 from three. Add in an 11-12 night from Gordon and their bench hitting 6-9 on threes, it's amazing the game was just an 8 point loss.

Anything can happen, but there a lot of reasons to be cautiously opTIMistic tonight!

Wolves are a combined 11-2 with these refs during the regular season and playoffs