For the late night crowd who want to fall asleep celebrating the win listening to two fans wax poetic about tonight
Donte DiVincenzo gets the 🎟️
Randle redemption game 🙌
4th quarter defense puts Murray and Jokic in jail 🚨
Every player that saw the floor got some love tonight in a team win 🫂
Genuinely made me laugh out loud for like 30 seconds. Zero fucks to give from Jaden as always 😂😂😂
Let’s fucking go!!!!
Attack the paint and win. It really is that simple.
It's game like this that are also why whoever wins this series may have nothing left for the next round.
Having Ant, Randle and Jaden off the floor was a lineup that really hurt the Wolves in game 1… risky choice here to close the 3rd.
Finch asking Naz to guard Jokic on an island on 6 straight possessions as he gets going is absolute insanity.
To be fair, this crew doesn’t either 😂
Experience says no, but that won’t stop my naive belief as a fan 😂
I didn’t mind Edwards’, but Randle and Naz following it up was too much.
They know how to beat this Denver team… question is can they stay focused and disciplined enough to do it for the next 24 minutes without let up.
Was just thinking this… best case scenario is just a no call on a player that only would have 1?
Worth making a mental note of that moment of Bruce Brown preening after a meaningless poke away while guarding Ant.
Glass half full: Wolves attempted to break an NBA record for low IQ plays and they are only down 14!
Been watching basketball a long time… don’t think I’ve ever seen this many 4-point plays in such a small stretch of time.
My greatest hope for tonight is that I get to use this gif because we get a special kind of playoff Ant performance.
This is a totally fair criticism of the state of officiating - flopping and embellishing contact is rewarded.
But I don’t love that it’s one of the main topics since Denver (Murray specifically) was much more aggressive at attacking defenders and the Wolves ( Ant/Julius) were too passive.
The week of preparation didn’t bring the rebirth of a new, laser focused, postseason pack of Wolves… but rather today’s game felt like an extension of the regular season warts that have plagued them all along.
Rudy takes home the 🎟️ for his effort against Jokic on both ends
Ant 🤕
Randle 📉
Naz 📉
While I’m going to see if I can dig out any optimism when we record our recap episode tonight, this perfectly encapsulates my big takeaway.
All talk of strategy/advantages pale in comparison to playing hard.
The Wolves spent a large portion of the game jogging in transition and taking low IQ shots
TJ is definitely a lever Finch should pull against that defense.
Lots to digest about the effort today, but the reality is that if Ant is only 70-80% of himself, hard to find the optimism.
Julius Randle so far today
Denver took advantage of the all-bench lineup and then Rudy/bench lineup.
Needed a much better gameplan to attack the non-Jokic minutes.
Jaden McDaniels has been the best player on the floor through 6 minutes.
Always has been a playoff riser.
Noticeably attacking Ant early and it has been effective.
An early warning sign for Ant’s overall health/effectiveness.
If that’s the precedent for a flagrant, every three point shooter needs to jump forward and fall over - that’s a joke.
Not only not a flagrant foul ... not even a regular foul on Jaden.
30 minutes to go - here’s what I’m most curious about heading into game 1:
1. Ant’s health, mobility and aggressiveness.
2. Rotations. Can make the case for a lot of guys seeing minutes, but only so many to go around.
3. Superstar game plans - what is the plan for Jokic/Ant?
Almost time!
Great episode great analysis, I really enjoyed it! Wolves in 6
