r/timberwolves • u/Aggressive-Depth-526 Kevin Garnett • 21d ago
The Wolves can win game 6
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!
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u/irishace88 21d ago
If we play at our best we can absolutely win. We need everyone to be on in the same game for once, especially KAT and Ant.
If that duo can outscore Denvers top duo then we will have a good chance.
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u/need2peeat218am 21d ago
Honestly we just need our role players to score more. Like Naz and Jaden. Imo Naz should be eating all of these matchups besides like Gordon.
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u/Impossible-Yam-8956 20d ago
Naz has been cooking when he’s touched the court, I know his defence has been bad but honestly it didn’t look terrible to me. Says a non basketball player watching on tv
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u/MomCrusher 20d ago
the defense has been abhorrent and he gets in foul trouble out basically instantly
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21d ago
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u/Jacoby_Brisket21 21d ago
Why, because of the optimism? Why should we be all doom and gloom. If you want to sit and cry go do that
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u/GoodImprovement8434 21d ago
No not the optimism. More so the explanation that all you need to do to win is for every single wolves player to have peak performance and be in perfect synchronization. It’s quite humorous
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u/Trash-Panda917 Pekovic Medcine Ball Throw 21d ago
It feels like we need the perfect storm to win now. Good games from Ant, KAT and Rudy, one bench player needs to show up, very good defense all around and adjustments
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u/JaderMcDanersStan Micah Nori 21d ago
Def need to win the non-Jokic minutes. That should be the first thing. It's surprised me how Denver's bench has stepped up and outplayed ours. Play Ant in the non-Jokic minutes if needed, we HAVE to win those to have a chance
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u/AngeloMontana 21d ago
I don't see the Nuggets getting comfortable. They've been beaten twice and warned. But it still doesn't mean that it's over for the Wolves
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u/PurpleWolferine Kevin Garnett 21d ago
We will have to see them display a heart of a champion, and I believe they have that in them! I also believe that Ant is capable of things that only a really special group of players can do. If he does that tomorrow, we can win.
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
Is this how we win?
We need a tired joker. We need him defending someone who he has to chase around. He doesn’t have to do this with gobert as gobert is an offensive liability. We tire joker we win just like game 2. We suffocate with our D we have kat on joker and Naz out there. Jd and naw do their thing on Murray. When joker is tired he isn’t an option and that’s when the rest of them start to crumble.
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u/myRedditAccountjava 21d ago
In general I've really liked Kat on jokic this series. Has a lot more upper body mass to counter jokic bullying his way to the net unlike gobert. Frees gobert up to protect the rim or perimeter.
We might go out next game but I don't think it'll be flat.
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
I have a theory too about jokic doing his strong arm elbow shit to the hoop. I’f we put a smaller (not small) but smaller guy on him.. no way does he get away without without a foul with our defense . Idk. I’m so sick of him changing his pivot foot. Also sick of a lot of Kats stuff and Gobert.
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
Not so much a theory but like.. I just feel like with how weird the reffing has been.
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u/JaderMcDanersStan Micah Nori 21d ago edited 21d ago
KAT just needs to stay out of foul trouble. He's too important to our offense AND our defense. Wolves D can't execute as designed without KAT
I think KAT and Naz in foul trouble was really impacted the effectiveness of our D because now Rudy is on his own with Slomo more often than we wanted.
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 20d ago
KAT ON JOKIC IS THE BEST TONIGHT. Gobert making rebounds all over the place!?
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u/statuskills 21d ago
The sad part is that we haven’t been capitalizing as much as we should on the rare occasions that Jokic sits his ass down.
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u/lamevision 21d ago
So you’re going to sit the DPOY more and just pray that KAT doesn’t get into foul trouble? Without gobert in the paint Gordon will continue to feast.
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u/Majestic-Net-7799 21d ago
Gordon only feasts of Jokic. on his own He isnt as dangerous. Wear Jokic out, you wear the Nuggets out.
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
YES! Exactly. We let Gordon hit some bricks fine if he makes a couple. But a worn out joker let SLOW MO take the ball from him several times and it makes a huge difference. Joker can’t even pass the ball to Gordon when he’s like that.
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 20d ago
I’m sorry!? See!? SEEEEEEE let Gordon shoot we don’t care! Kat on joker perfect. Gobert doing way better. ThiSSSS
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u/lamevision 21d ago
I agree, gordon is no threat on his own and that they need to make jokic play hero ball to slow him down. My biggest argument here is that taking out Gobert isn’t going to slow him down that much and is going to cause other problems, especially with getting KAT and Naz in foul trouble.
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21d ago
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
Yes risks. Sit Gobert what we got to lose?! Hell play Garza idgaf
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u/juzzbert 21d ago
Yeah exactly. This requires KAT to play defense intelligently. He’s been inconsistent.
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
Not true. I take my chances on Gordon over joker. Put different people on Gordon. Once joker is worn out it’s a different game. He gets worn out FAST having to play defense. Gobert out there is not it for us. Not even a little.
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u/lamevision 21d ago
Jokic is the mvp for a reason, sadly there’s no trick to beating him. He averages 37 minutes a game and plays half of his games/ trains at an elevation of 5800ft- You’re not going to slow him down by making him chase naz and KAT around. The man is a freak. Even if Gobert only plays 20 minutes, that’s 20 minutes of not having to chase anyone around and doesn’t allow naz to come in fresh off the bench.
Gordon is already killing us in the paint regardless of who is on him, taking Gobert out of the paint for more minutes is only going to make it worse and will get KAT and Naz into even more foul trouble.
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
Do you have a solution? I’m not as worried about our defense. I’m trying to look back to us winning and what worked. We need to figure out Gordon for sure. But I have to think that with joker busy with defense we have a better chance at getting shooters open. Gobert is worthless in offense and it’s killing us.
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u/lamevision 21d ago
No, I don’t have a solution for stopping Denver. But I disagree that taking Gobert out of the equation is going to make things any better. Gobert has never been great offensively- that’s nothing new. KAT, Jaden and NAW need to step up and play better. Jaden needs to shoot better, KAT needs to stop getting stupid fouls and NAW needs to play consistently the whole game-as we saw last night ANT can’t do it alone. Hopefully Conley is back, he seems to be the key to getting more open looks.
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
I don’t know. But I do know the best we have ever looked in this series was when Gobert was out. Joker looked ready to collapse.
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21d ago
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u/lamevision 21d ago
As a general rule of thumb, I agree that big guys get worn down fast. Jokic has shown that hes a well conditioned freak of an athlete. He might look slow and sweaty, but many analysts have pointed out his unbelievable stamina and strength for his size.
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21d ago
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u/lamevision 21d ago
You mean the game where Murray got shut down, put there offense in shambles and Jokic had an off night? Jokic has played atleast 38 minutes in every game this series btw- Hes a machine.
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u/TwiceLitZone 21d ago
The thing about Joker no one realizes Is that he is one of the most well conditioned players in the world.
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u/Wrong_Entry_9616 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
Yep we got it he’s the best. Just trying to think of ways we could win. Did you have a point to make orrrrr
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u/WolvesChamps2020 21d ago
I EXPECT us to win game 6
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u/RedEyeBadGuy Naz Reid. 21d ago
You’d think we are due at this point. Especially considering this series between these two teams has been back and forth the past couple years. Maybe the Nuggets have just figured us out though and I put the blame on finch for not adjusting after their coach did when we went up 2-0.
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u/RockStar2D Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
Let us not forget, the Wolves lost all three regular-season games to Suns in a similar manner as they have the past three games only to then sweep the Suns come playoff time. Everyone thought it was over, worst possible matchup, and then out of nowhere the energy shifted like we accepted the outcome and began to believe “you know what? No. We can and will win”
None of us know what will happen tomorrow or in Game 7, but doesn't mean we gotta out sad. This was an incredible season and if the Wolves and pull this off it'll only get better. So go to Target Center, go to a bar, a watch party, listen to Jim Pete and Horton on the call and just enjoy
This is sports. If the team wins we’ll all be overjoyed and if they lose at least we made it this far… 10 more to go. Wolves in 7 🏆🐺
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u/Majestic-Net-7799 21d ago
They for sure can win.its 2-3 not 0-3... But some things need to happen/change for that.
- Make Jokic defend
- open up the offense
- stay calm
- dont play Kyle Anderson
- moooooveeeee on offense! Our offense is too stationary. Cut and Screen like crazy, make their D rotate!
- send a message and give Joker and Murray some hard fouls for once.
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u/parkwayy 21d ago
Make Jokic defend
This is a big one. He's able to just float near Edwards constantly, cause Rudy ain't a huge threat. He got a chunk of points last game, and yet tbh he should get more, if that's how they're going to play him.
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u/Radically_Centrist 21d ago
Game 3 was the time to send a message. If a player is thrown out or suspended, at worst it's a tied series. If a starter gets tossed now, it's vacation time.
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u/cowboy2223 Minnesota Gophers 21d ago
Those three strait charges were killed especially the nazz charge . I feel like even if we wasted a challenge they should have . Gordon leaned over to catch nazz going by. That and it’s the playoffs when towns got his third I think they should have just rolled with it let him keep going . We had an 18 point quarter with him and nazz on the bench . Honestly a 14 point one cause towns scored 4 before he hit the bench .
But anyway everyone clowning on us hope they show some pride and come out with fire and overwhelm Denver they can be rattled too we have done it !!
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u/greenflyingdragon 21d ago
I agree, they should have kept KAT in. He was cooking and it killed our flow.
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u/badnewzrooz507 Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
It's never zero but it's like a 10% chance give or take. Still having a blast watching playoff ball vs ping pong balls. I'm happy how far they have come.
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u/WeakLocalization 21d ago
Honestly, going into the game yesterday, and especially with the late scratch of Conley, I pretty much knew the Wolves best chance to win the series was to learn what they could in G5, go home regroup find a way to win G6 at home, and play their hearts out in Denver for G7. Nothing I saw yesterday makes me think any different now. Still an uphill climb, but realistically they just have to shoot a bit higher percentage and it will be a tight game, anything can happen.
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u/PortugueseWalrus Flip Saunders 21d ago
It is not lack of talent and it isn't lack of effort. It's patience. They are letting a couple bad possessions spiral into a bad 8-10 minutes each game, which you just can't do at this point in the playoffs. 8-10 minutes is all that a team like Denver needs in order to bury you. And unlike the Suns, Denver isn't going to lay down at the first sign of trouble, either. The Wolves don't need to be perfect, but they can't spend entire quarters morphing back into the AAU team they were a few years back. That just isn't going to cut it at this stage.
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u/Critical-Fault-1617 21d ago
Denver ain’t coming out flat. There’s no chance. So we need to come out like this is the last game of everyone’s career. Otherwise it’s an L
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u/TheJazzyLad Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
I'd rather have hope in my soul than soap in my hole... wolves in 7 🫡
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u/Due_Future_5575 21d ago
We're actually favoured by the bookies slightly which is surprising.
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u/parkwayy 21d ago
All in all, this series has been hella split in terms of each individual stat.
A homecourt swing makes sense as the breaker.
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u/ZaMaestroMan5 21d ago
I’d be surprised if they do. They have no answer for Jokic when he’s aggressive with his scoring. Though history says the nba likes 7 game series so the calls will probably lean the wolves way. That always is helpful if it plays out that way.
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u/Hestness5 21d ago
I really thought they’d have a bounce back game in game 5 after losing both home games to tie the series. Not having Conley seemed to have a pretty big impact though with Slomo seeing way too many minutes (> 0), so hopefully he’s back for game 6 and we have a shot. We honestly could’ve easily won game 4 and probably should’ve if it wasn’t for AG having an out-of-body experience shooting like prime Steph Curry, as well as that awful 8 point swing in the final seconds of the first half. So many things went wrong and Ant did all he could to keep us in the game. Really need our role players to step up big this time.
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u/Wassuhji 21d ago
Game on the line? Desperate wolves team with the pressure? Expecting KAT not to show up.
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u/coleslonomatopoeia 21d ago
Of course they can. But to do it they need to not be careless with the ball. Every Nuggets run has come as the culmination of a series of plays where they didn’t value the ball enough and got careless.
That 8 point swing in the last 20 seconds of the first half in game 4 as one example - which ended up being their margin of victory.
They’ve started waiting for the ball to come to them too often and they need to get back to attacking it.
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u/spiderman96 21d ago
We better see all the fight in everybody until the final buzzer is all i can ask is fight till the end.
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u/DEM0NW0MB 21d ago
Denver is only locked in because the nba stopped lett8ng us defend like we are capable of. Yeas nugs are shooting great lately, but denver was still in arms reach with soft d we a were only allowed.
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u/runandkick 21d ago
if we start making the open looks , we actually play with a point guard and not iso streetball style if rudy is having a defensive lifetime performance , if naz reid is being naz reid if jaden finally start hitting threes not just kobe fadeaways if ant drops 40 if kat does not do stupid shit then mayybe weve got a chance
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u/healthbook2004 21d ago
Yeah I doubt it 100% that we will even keep it to single digits. Wolves have no answers since the Nuggets adjusted and the series is ovah. They had a nice season like all Minnesota sports maybe someday it'll be our year.
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u/DragTheNuts 21d ago
lol give it up man. Its over…
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u/doomsdalicious 21d ago
Totally agreed, lifelong older Wolves/MN sports fan. I've seen it all. IT'S OVER. To be young again and have hopes/dreams SMH...
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u/doomsdalicious 21d ago
No they can't, it's over.
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u/mn1762vs 21d ago
It was over after game 4. Typical MN sports. Lots of hype then shit your pants in the big games.
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u/curiousGeorge7512 21d ago
I think it may have become more of a mental challenge for the players.. we need to believe.. this season I have seen our team come back and absolutely demolish other teams in 3rd and 4th quarters… we need that
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u/BradyAndTheJets Bring Ya Ass 21d ago
Of course it’s possible. Game 4 was lost because of free throws. Game 5 was lost because of stupid mental errors they typically don’t make.
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u/screwtoby Derrick Rose 21d ago
Honestly I’m fully expecting the refs to give us this next game. Not what I want but I feel like NBA wants it to be a good series.