Minnesota Sports Forum

kekgeek wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 6:02 pm Paying Naz 20+ million a year to consistently no show in the playoffs

Yeah, he should be extremely embarrassed.

FNG wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 6:09 pm I'm not too unhappy about this game...I thought for the most part we played hard, especially Rudy and Donte. I didn't think the knee was bothering Ant at all, but he typically isn't very good in afternoon games. If he returns to form and Naz can start making shots again, we may very well steal a win late Monday night. But if we don't win Monday, it feels like a gentleman's sweep to me.

It's tough, because neither team played well. I don't expect Murray to go 0/8 again.

With Naz, 5pts is just unacceptable because he provides little else. How long has this shooting slump been going on? 2 months?

kekgeek wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 6:02 pm Paying Naz 20+ million a year to consistently no show in the playoffs

Trade him or elevate him to the starting unit?

TheFuture wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 6:43 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 6:09 pm I'm not too unhappy about this game...I thought for the most part we played hard, especially Rudy and Donte. I didn't think the knee was bothering Ant at all, but he typically isn't very good in afternoon games. If he returns to form and Naz can start making shots again, we may very well steal a win late Monday night. But if we don't win Monday, it feels like a gentleman's sweep to me.

It's tough, because neither team played well. I don't expect Murray to go 0/8 again.

With Naz, 5pts is just unacceptable because he provides little else. How long has this shooting slump been going on? 2 months?

Yep, Jokic had his worst game of his life and Murray shot 33%. You don't win this game how do you win any game?

It certainly feels like our dog poo regular season does translate over this time as I feared. We played the end of the year like crap and now we get playoff crap. Smelly turd of a performance. It's over.

FNG wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 6:09 pm I'm not too unhappy about this game...I thought for the most part we played hard, especially Rudy and Donte. I didn't think the knee was bothering Ant at all, but he typically isn't very good in afternoon games. If he returns to form and Naz can start making shots again, we may very well steal a win late Monday night. But if we don't win Monday, it feels like a gentleman's sweep to me.

You don't list someone as questionable the day before a playoff game if he isn't still bothered by something. Ant is 80% at best even though he still had occasional bursts of athleticism in this game. We have no chance now, as Denver is just too good without Ant at 100% and may have been too good even if he was.

I thought Rudy was outstanding overall.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 8:50 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 6:09 pm I'm not too unhappy about this game...I thought for the most part we played hard, especially Rudy and Donte. I didn't think the knee was bothering Ant at all, but he typically isn't very good in afternoon games. If he returns to form and Naz can start making shots again, we may very well steal a win late Monday night. But if we don't win Monday, it feels like a gentleman's sweep to me.

You don't list someone as questionable the day before a playoff game if he isn't still bothered by something. Ant is 80% at best even though he still had occasional bursts of athleticism in this game. We have no chance now, as Denver is just too good without Ant at 100% and may have been too good even if he was.

I thought Rudy was outstanding overall.

Ant clearly isn't quite right. Time will tell if it's a matter of easing back into things or if he's truly still hampered by the injury.
The realist in me know it's the latter, but I'm still hoping for one of "those" games from him this postseason.

Ultimately it's just one game and there were certainly positives you could take from it, but if they can't figure out the power outages on offense than this is gonna be a short post season for us wolves fans

Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 8:19 pm

TheFuture wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 6:43 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 6:09 pm I'm not too unhappy about this game...I thought for the most part we played hard, especially Rudy and Donte. I didn't think the knee was bothering Ant at all, but he typically isn't very good in afternoon games. If he returns to form and Naz can start making shots again, we may very well steal a win late Monday night. But if we don't win Monday, it feels like a gentleman's sweep to me.

It's tough, because neither team played well. I don't expect Murray to go 0/8 again.

With Naz, 5pts is just unacceptable because he provides little else. How long has this shooting slump been going on? 2 months?

Yep, Jokic had his worst game of his life and Murray shot 33%. You don't win this game how do you win any game?

It certainly feels like our dog poo regular season does translate over this time as I feared. We played the end of the year like crap and now we get playoff crap. Smelly turd of a performance. It's over.

For what it's worth, Ant and the wolves on the whole will probably shoot better going forward and Jamal isn't likely to keep shooting 16 FTs.

We didn't get Denver's best punch but we also didn't give them ours, so we'll see what happens--- one game at a time

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 8:50 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 6:09 pm I'm not too unhappy about this game...I thought for the most part we played hard, especially Rudy and Donte. I didn't think the knee was bothering Ant at all, but he typically isn't very good in afternoon games. If he returns to form and Naz can start making shots again, we may very well steal a win late Monday night. But if we don't win Monday, it feels like a gentleman's sweep to me.

You don't list someone as questionable the day before a playoff game if he isn't still bothered by something. Ant is 80% at best even though he still had occasional bursts of athleticism in this game. We have no chance now, as Denver is just too good without Ant at 100% and may have been too good even if he was.

I thought Rudy was outstanding overall.

80% was my estimation as well. He looked a hair hobbled to me.

We need a coach with a system around running the ball.

thedoper wrote: ↑Sat Apr 18, 2026 9:48 pm We need a coach with a system around running the ball.

I think we have the coach who can put in that system, but we don't have the star player who can flourish in a system like that. Folks will disagree with that, but I think it's the truth.