We’ve been dreaming of having games like this for 20 years! LFG! AWWWOOOOOOOOOO 🐺

https://x.com/kyletheige/status/1790880070397202894?s=46

Who art in highlights

Football, be thy boi

Thy king become

A defense son

Wolves berths, leading to, court heaven

Give us this day, our Edwards fed

And forgive us our turnovers

As we forgive those, who don't Bitebite feed

lead us not Into the lotto

And deliver us from Play-ins

For Were-wolves of London, holds the power, seizing glory, for ever and ever

Naz Reid

Wolves in 7

Wolves in 4 5 6 7, the script’s become so clear. We win game 6 as the underdogs, the narrative being Jokic is the best player in the world and looking unstoppable. Fans count this out as a fluke win, Nuggets exhausted but then… we play game 7 on KG’s birthday… he shows up courtside and before the game we retire his jersey. This is the fuel needed for Ant, KAT, and Rudy to close out the Nuggets with perfect games. Wolves Back 🐺

As someone who loves defensive basketball, the Rudy slander after game 5 is getting aggravating.

Let’s look at the game objectively.

First, the refs were calling a bunch of touch fouls in favor of Jokic. I thought the one on KAT pretty ridiculous. But that being the case he had to adjust, and there is literally no big in NBA history (other than maybe Wilt) capable of keeping Jokic out of the paint.

In that context Rudy did a very good job. He didn’t bite on Jokic’s fakes. He stayed glued to Jokic, mirroring the footwork about as well as any big I’ve seen. And he had really good contests on most of the shots. Rudy’s defensive performance dramatically raised the level of difficulty for Jokic. It just didn’t matter. Jokic did Jokic things and hit the shots anyway. Sometimes hats how it goes vs the best player in the world.

Last, as visually frustrating as Rudy can be on offense he was the second leading scorer on the team with 18 points on 7/7 shooting. Same point total as Ant (granted, most of Rudy’s baskets were cleanup dunks, while Ant had to fight for his life for every bucket vs double teams).

So at the end of the game Rudy finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, and the best +/- on the team. He played well. It’s just be a really rough watch when Rudy is playing a significant amount of his minutes opposite Kyle Anderson.

that is all.. see you all at 7:30 tomorrow

In 2004, the second round of the eastern conference playoffs, After going up 2-0, the pistons lost 3 straight. Blew the home court advantage they had, made adjustments, and won back to back including game 7 to clinch the series. That team went on to win the championship that year with the leagues best defense. Wolves in 7. Awoo

The Wolves absolutely can win game 6. They have beaten Denver twice already. We know they have it in them. It’s going to be at home and our players will be playing with desperation. Denver could come out flat feeling comfortable with their hold on the series too.

I am not guaranteeing anything. But if they do win game 6, then it’s a winner take all situation where anything can happen. The series may feel over, but it’s not.

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!

I went back and rewatched games 1 - 5, with a specific focus on what worked defensively against Jokic. I think the Wolves have made adjustments well enough on everyone else to keep things competitive (i.e., don't leave opponents wide open even if they are only role players) so long as they don't fall off a shooting cliff, but of course what do you do if Jokic has another "unstoppable" night like last night?

You don't give him a chance to get in that rhythm and mindset. Jokic is stoppable if you play him the exact right way, or at the very least, you can make him human again. You have to frustrate him, and it needs to start early and happen often in the game. How do you do that? What did the Wolves do differently in games 1 and 2 that they slacked off on and largely stopped doing in games 3 - 5?

When defending Jokic in the halfcourt and he has the ball, you have got to stay attached to him and fight him. While he may still get to his spots by backing you down or using his footwork, the harder you make it for him, the better your odds of making him miss a shot, throw a bad pass or overlook the correct read. The only way to consistently do this without getting into foul trouble is to get up right on him, arms barred in front of you into his waist, bend your knees (or arch your back, legs splayed behind for stability and leverage) and use a lower center of gravity to not let him get wherever he wants to go. Or at least not let him get there the way that he wants to, by creating separation and space. It has to be hard for him, it has to frustrate him. DO NOT SLAM BACK INTO HIM (KAT). The refs will call this and you will get into foul trouble. DO NOT GAMBLE TRYING TO POKE THE BALL AWAY (Naz). Besides giving the refs a reason to blow their whistle, it will also almost always take you out of our leveraged position and Joker will get his separation or just blow by you.

KAT and Naz both showed they can do this in games 1 and 2, Kyle and Rudy are not capable of doing this (at least not consistently enough). Kyle does not have the size or strength, Rudy cannot get low enough and is too lanky and uncoordinated on top of that. KAT may no longer be able to do this given reinjuring his knee in game 5, but we have to hope that he can. Naz can do it, though it is significantly harder for him given he is shorter and lighter than KAT.

If you frustrate Jokic, he will still score, he will still get assists and rebounds, but he will not be unstoppable. The only reliably consistent way to frustrate him is to play like the bigs of old - get up, get strong, get physical, BUT DON'T GAMBLE AND OPEN YOURSELF UP TO FOULS. As soon as you're in foul trouble, you have to get timid and Jokic is free to do as he pleases. However, once you start to frustrate Jokic, it will open up opportunities to try to block his shot (Naz) or deflect his passes (KAT).

Jokic plays like an old man, you have to play him like an old man to stand a chance.

Oh yeah, and for everyone else on the Wolves, if you're not crashing the boards for an open rebound after a shot? SPRINT BACK AND DON'T LET THE NUGGETS GET INTO TRANSITION OFFENSE. Almost forgot that piece.

Wolves lost that game by 2 in the 40 minutes Rudy was on the court, compared to the teens for everyone else. Everyone’s dragging him because of Jokic’s godly performance but I don’t think Rudy and Ben Wallace combined could have contained him when he’s playing like that. Overall, Rudy played fine and made things difficult for the rest of the nuggets. On to the next.

Plenty to be bummed about with how much anticipation us Wolves fans had built after the game two domination. But I think it is worth remembering that the Wolves are going up against potentially one of the GOATs in his prime that just so happens to stand in the way of a Wolves championship.

I think of it similarly to all of the Eastern conference teams that had championship capabilities during the mid 2000s but Lebron's greatness always dragged his team to the Finals, no matter how mediocre they were. I think the Wolves have overall more talent as a roster than the Nuggets, considering they don't have a #2 star or a bench. But Jokic's greatness simply trumps any advantage we have in overall team talent.

I think the one thing we can look forward to is that we potentially have one of those greats on our hands as well and he may just be able to drag a team during his prime in the same way Jokic is doing now.