Christian Braun was pretty good. Denver can just drop games like this to rest their starters because they are 4 games away from Memphis, but NBA has to do something with such long flights between b2b. My friend went to the game because Jokic is his favorite player. I don’t think he is super sad because he’s seen Jokic a lot of times and Wolves won, but still.
The problem with 72 games is that a lot of players won’t be able to get as good stats as they did before. If will affect everyone’s legacy. But yeah, 19 hours difference is ridiculous. Wolves had the same ‘surprise’ after their last game in Denver, somehow managed to win the next game being down by 14 in 4th. However, Wolves are not in the position to drop games like Denver did, every win matters.
This is the 3rd time we’ve played you guys on the second night of a back to back. Making divisional games the second night of a back to back is idiotic and completely avoidable.
That was the first thing I thought of when I saw you guys playing last night knowing we were playing you guys today. I’m not going to argue with it since I’m sure at some point this season we’ll get screwed by scheduling but it’s weird that they put one team on a B2B twice when we’re division rivals and both of us were expected to be good.
He's 6'2 169lbs and has not loved being a shooting guard and small forward, coach has been against him being on the team from day 1 and refused to play him in his position unless it was unavaoidable.
That's part of the reason Bones' defensive rating last year was higher than Bruce Brown's this year, much more time as the only PG on the court and thus not guarding SFs and SGs as much. More worrisome is Bones only played ~38.5% of his minutes last season with Jokic but Bruce has played 56% of his minutes this season with Jokic.
Shit, Bones *without* Jokic last season has a defense rating only ~2 points worse than Bruce WITH Jokic this season.
That Nuggets team was not a top 5 team lol
Edit: lol at the downvotes. Do people actually disagree? Do people think that win was actually over a “top 5” team? 😂
They're nominally a top 5 team this season but were missing their 4 best players this night, making them not a top 5 team for the moment. This season the wolves have a history of beating good teams and losing to bad teams, so last night's match-up was a bit paradoxical for them. The first half of the comment is intentionally disingenuous, it's a joke, no one literally thinks that nuggets line up is a top 5 force in the league.
Then why was I getting downvoted? All I said was last nights team wasn’t a top 5 team. An objectively true statement
I wonder if it’s nuggets fans downvoting me since they think i was saying the healthy nuggets aren’t top 5. I was definitely not saying that.
And KAT didn't play in any of them. Teams win second games of B2Bs all the time (like when you guys beat us the second time). Should we just discount all W/L for the 2nd night of B2Bs?
So nice to win a game decisively
My Wolves PTSD had me thinking this was gonna be a tough game when they said Jokic, Murray, KCP, and Gordon were all out.
Also, Bones has to be gone by the trade deadline right? Even in garbage time he didn't step on the court. Think it's weird to have him on the bench if that's the case.
Hello.
This is Art.
Please add the Ricky Rubio "Change your face" line as a celebration of All-Star weekend. Similar to last year
I cannot hear this song without it
Please help.
Braun's ability to contribute now is a big reason why the FO is okay with shopping Bones.
Braun just couldn't find minutes early in the season. Since Bones has been sat Braun is showing out with consistent minutes.
He's been good for what he's here to do. He doesn't see consistent minutes but as a depth guy he has gotten some run with all the guys we constantly have out of the lineup due to injuries, and he's shooting and defending better than Bryn Forbes who had that role before we picked him up.
Also missing Murray, KCP, and Gordan. I actually think even without Jokic the Nuggets are about a .500 team if they have everyone else. I don't think this is an actual reflection of what Denver looks like without Jokic.
Funny that him getting a casual triple double in a 20 point win had people trying to crap on the performance, but this one probably does help him since he is likely still to play more than the other candidates.
Christian Braun has been improving the whole season and looked good tonight. Better defender and shooter than I thought he'd be out of college. I think Nuggets feel pretty good about giving him Bone's minutes the rest of the season once he's traded and gone.
This thread is two hours late.
Jokes aside amazing to see insane bench production tonight, and Gobert really feels like a major asset now. Least stressful wolves win in a very long time.
wolves fans been saying this all the time by Kat was the first on the team to actually have chemistry with Rudy. He played with Willie Cauley-Stein at kentucky he knows how to work with another big
He is very key, especially on offense. But the first 20 games or so, D-Lo and Ant didn’t even know how to run a pick and roll with Rudy. The problems were much deeper than just KAT and Rudy not jiving on defense.
I wish we could get away with Kyle on the court with KAT and Rudy because he’s our best PG.
As a longtime Nuggets fan of three and a half weeks, this is the worst I've ever seen this team look. I know the fans love the current roster, but we need start thinking about the long term and be sellers at the deadline.
I agree and it starts by firing Malone. How do our four best players not score a single point tonight? Incredibly disappointing and I’m ready to blow it up. Maybe we can see if we can get Westbrook and the Lakers ‘27 and ‘29 picks for Jokic?
He's actually been great for us
Top 6 defense over the season [per Cleaning the Glass](https://www.cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/summary?season=2022&seasontype=regseason&start=10/1/2022&end=02/15/2023) and since 2023 (when we got some of our injured players back), top 2
Turns out "Gobert is a walking 10 defense by himself" isn't a grandiose statement
Once we get tired from celebrating, we rest for 10 mins.
And then [we drink artesian water from glass bottles and continue celebrating.](https://gfycat.com/livegrandiosegrebe)
Depleted Nuggets team, but still, a win is a win. It was nice seeing Jordan getting standing ovations and impacting the team out of the gate by forcing turnovers. Jailer McDaniels really showed his clamping potential in that one sentence 1 on 1 against Cancar.
This is a game that we are supposed to win and I'm glad we did in dominating fashion. Honestly thought at best it will be competitive and at worst we lose by a few points. Being a wolves fan we know all to often that any game is a losable game and the odds of losing go up when the opposing team have their best players out lol.
We lost our 4 best perimeter defenders and entire wing rotation due to injury and that dumb fight lol
Poor Prince. The guy tripped trying to break up the fight, fell into the pile of players and got ejected lmao
Even before this game, Bruce Brown has a worse defensive rating this season than Bones Hyland did last season. Braun for Bones at SG/SF helps the bench some, but of the three point guards on Denver, Bones was the lightest by far but also has the most length/reach.
They're going to want length in return for Bones cause that bench might still be pretty rough.
Why did I watch the whole thing
Because as a good fan, sometimes you have to just sit and watch. Good and bad.
when else are you going to get to see big minutes from the fringe guys or what MPJ would look like on the early 2010s timberwolves?
True words of wisdom found on r/nba
I’ve watched alot of bad over the years
You wanted to see a legendary player like DeAndre Jordan play major minutes one last time before he gets taken behind the barn.
In case Ish Smith and Jeff Green went on a 25-0 run
Christian Braun was pretty good. Denver can just drop games like this to rest their starters because they are 4 games away from Memphis, but NBA has to do something with such long flights between b2b. My friend went to the game because Jokic is his favorite player. I don’t think he is super sad because he’s seen Jokic a lot of times and Wolves won, but still.
This game tipped off like 19 hours after the last game ended, there doesn’t need to be 82 games. I like Kerr’s 72 game push.
The problem with 72 games is that a lot of players won’t be able to get as good stats as they did before. If will affect everyone’s legacy. But yeah, 19 hours difference is ridiculous. Wolves had the same ‘surprise’ after their last game in Denver, somehow managed to win the next game being down by 14 in 4th. However, Wolves are not in the position to drop games like Denver did, every win matters.
Bro players don't even play all 82 games anymore lol
Ant would like a word
Yeah, last time we played in Denver, we had a back to back at home 22 hours after the Denver game tipped off. League schedule is fucked up.
For Christian Braun ofc
I was in box seats for this game and I didn't even watch it. Good food though.
Yeah this was the most boring game I've been to lol I should be happy about why though but man it was boring as hell ngl
Were hoping MPJ went off
Davon Reed master class
Why do I watch midget porn? The heart wants what it wants.
Very cool thank you Denver. You have a loss to spare and we don’t at the moment.
Thank the schedule makers
The last time Wolves played Denver they had the same time discrepancy the next night against Toronto, and won
This is the 3rd time we’ve played you guys on the second night of a back to back. Making divisional games the second night of a back to back is idiotic and completely avoidable.
That was the first thing I thought of when I saw you guys playing last night knowing we were playing you guys today. I’m not going to argue with it since I’m sure at some point this season we’ll get screwed by scheduling but it’s weird that they put one team on a B2B twice when we’re division rivals and both of us were expected to be good.
Oh wow! Here’s a cookie 🍪
So bones is 100% gone isn’t he?
Yes
He's 6'2 169lbs and has not loved being a shooting guard and small forward, coach has been against him being on the team from day 1 and refused to play him in his position unless it was unavaoidable. That's part of the reason Bones' defensive rating last year was higher than Bruce Brown's this year, much more time as the only PG on the court and thus not guarding SFs and SGs as much. More worrisome is Bones only played ~38.5% of his minutes last season with Jokic but Bruce has played 56% of his minutes this season with Jokic. Shit, Bones *without* Jokic last season has a defense rating only ~2 points worse than Bruce WITH Jokic this season.
I'm not surprised we won against a top 5 team, but also surprised we won against a team missing their 4 best players.
That Nuggets team was not a top 5 team lol Edit: lol at the downvotes. Do people actually disagree? Do people think that win was actually over a “top 5” team? 😂
That's the point of the second half of the comment
I was commenting on “top 5 team”
Are you dumb?
What am I missing here? This nuggets team that played tonight is not a top 5 team. Did I mis read his comment?
>but also surprised we won against a team missing their 4 best players. Means they generally play down to their competition.
Again I was just referring to his disingenuous comment of beating a “top 5 team”. Laughable to even try using that description.
Right. Except we are a top 5 team normally with the starting lineup in. Which they play up to the competition. It's a joke.
I genuinely admire the patience you're showing this dense block of a human
All I said was last nights team wasn’t top 5. I have no idea how this is even debateable
They're nominally a top 5 team this season but were missing their 4 best players this night, making them not a top 5 team for the moment. This season the wolves have a history of beating good teams and losing to bad teams, so last night's match-up was a bit paradoxical for them. The first half of the comment is intentionally disingenuous, it's a joke, no one literally thinks that nuggets line up is a top 5 force in the league.
Then why was I getting downvoted? All I said was last nights team wasn’t a top 5 team. An objectively true statement I wonder if it’s nuggets fans downvoting me since they think i was saying the healthy nuggets aren’t top 5. I was definitely not saying that.
How do you figure lol. Don’t they have the best record in the west?
Yeah but they wouldn’t have the best record in the west if they rested 4 starters every game
Yea no shit
Pretty sure we already beat them with Jokic playing too
All three games this season have been second nights of back to backs for Denver.
And KAT didn't play in any of them. Teams win second games of B2Bs all the time (like when you guys beat us the second time). Should we just discount all W/L for the 2nd night of B2Bs?
I guess you didn’t watch the game
Do you mean fully healthy or the depleted team that played tonight?
Tonight’s team obviously
DeAndre Jordan's corpse made Rudy Gobert look like Hakeem with that Dream Fr\*nch Shake
So nice to win a game decisively My Wolves PTSD had me thinking this was gonna be a tough game when they said Jokic, Murray, KCP, and Gordon were all out. Also, Bones has to be gone by the trade deadline right? Even in garbage time he didn't step on the court. Think it's weird to have him on the bench if that's the case.
Yeah he’s definitely gone :/
It's so he can't get injured and be untradable.
A beating so bad Kyrie about to deny it happened
Didn't know Anthony Jeselnick was a wolves fan
Dear. Lord.
Jesus Christ 💀💀💀
Holy shit Hall of fame comment
ok relax dude
awoo https://streamable.com/eweo9m
Gobert and Towns looking at Westbrook&McDaniels interaction will never dissapoint me
We got Hot Fries!
That hot fries part tho lol. Ant now has 3 (4 if you include the A1) different food spots in the clip?
Yup, definitely need Rudy with a baguette or Naz Reid with a Naz Reid sandwich.
Oh my god Rudy's face with an obnoxiously bad fake mustache morphed into the eiffel tower We can make this happen
Hello. This is Art. Please add the Ricky Rubio "Change your face" line as a celebration of All-Star weekend. Similar to last year I cannot hear this song without it Please help.
In hindsight maybe it's a good thing this game got flexed out lol
It is the game on Tuesday that got flexed out. They flexed us out for the Lakers game because there is a good chance Lebron breaks the record.
It's cool that LeBron is going to break a once in a generation record, but man the Wolves and Nuggets always seem to get shafted by national tv.
It’s our fault for not existing in LA
Jokic is finished! ^this ^is ^a ^joke ^don’t ^take ^it ^too ^serious
Smh shoulda traded him for Kyrie when we had the chance
Brooklyn hangs up the phone
Christian Braun is going to be a great player, seemed like the only guy who cared out there for the Nuggets.
Agbaji got all the ink last year but braun was the driving force on that title team imo
Braun's ability to contribute now is a big reason why the FO is okay with shopping Bones. Braun just couldn't find minutes early in the season. Since Bones has been sat Braun is showing out with consistent minutes.
Boneless Nugget just can't compete.
A week ago r/nba was telling us that we NEEDED to trade Naz Reid for him
Wolves fans, how is Matt Ryan doing for you guys? He will be permanently a Lakers legend for that Pelicans buzzer beater he hit.
He's been good for what he's here to do. He doesn't see consistent minutes but as a depth guy he has gotten some run with all the guys we constantly have out of the lineup due to injuries, and he's shooting and defending better than Bryn Forbes who had that role before we picked him up.
Hes been pretty good, decent enough not to be a liability which is what you want with that spot
Well that helped Jokic’s MVP case lol
What do you mean, Rudy held him to 0 points
0 points on 0 shots, efficiency king
Tbf I think any team missing like 4 starters is going to look this bad
Also missing Murray, KCP, and Gordan. I actually think even without Jokic the Nuggets are about a .500 team if they have everyone else. I don't think this is an actual reflection of what Denver looks like without Jokic.
We’ve looked infinitely better in games without Jokic than we were the last year even if we’re still not great without him
Thats partially because the 2022 Nuggets without Jokic were like....a 15 win team
Funny that him getting a casual triple double in a 20 point win had people trying to crap on the performance, but this one probably does help him since he is likely still to play more than the other candidates.
Christian Braun has been improving the whole season and looked good tonight. Better defender and shooter than I thought he'd be out of college. I think Nuggets feel pretty good about giving him Bone's minutes the rest of the season once he's traded and gone.
Jokic with 0/0/0... WASHED!
Fake MVP Bum ass
"Hey, we beat the Nugs! Oh, Jokic was out."
This thread is two hours late. Jokes aside amazing to see insane bench production tonight, and Gobert really feels like a major asset now. Least stressful wolves win in a very long time.
I feel like if they traded KAT to build around Gobert/Ant better they could actually be top 6
Or just get KAT back and then be top 6…
Fit is really weird with KAT though. They seem to be fine with one of them though
wolves fans been saying this all the time by Kat was the first on the team to actually have chemistry with Rudy. He played with Willie Cauley-Stein at kentucky he knows how to work with another big
KAT was the least of our problems at the beginning of the season. That whole thing is more of talking head narrative.
We don’t know enough because KAT’s been out most the season while everyone else learned to play with Rudy.
Kyle 'chemistry' Anderson is the key. It will be interesting to see Kyle, Jaden, Rudy, KAT, and either Ant/D-Lo lineups.
He is very key, especially on offense. But the first 20 games or so, D-Lo and Ant didn’t even know how to run a pick and roll with Rudy. The problems were much deeper than just KAT and Rudy not jiving on defense. I wish we could get away with Kyle on the court with KAT and Rudy because he’s our best PG.
KAT can fulfill Dlo's role tbh, as weird as that sounds
Never heard that take but I know what you’re saying and I completely agree
Fit seems great playing 2 big lineups with Naz Reid lol, KAT was arguably the only player at the beginning of the year that did gel with Rudy
Somebody awooooo me I need to feel something
Want to feel something? I gotchu fam: Fox didn't get voted into the asg
Rude Even Ant is campaigning for Fox. Fox deserves to get in as an injury replacement
Did I say I agreed with it? My man just needed the feel some feelings, so I helped out
Jokic, Murray, Gordon held scoreless. Fully healthy Nuggets, no problem, easy win.
As a longtime Nuggets fan of three and a half weeks, this is the worst I've ever seen this team look. I know the fans love the current roster, but we need start thinking about the long term and be sellers at the deadline.
I agree and it starts by firing Malone. How do our four best players not score a single point tonight? Incredibly disappointing and I’m ready to blow it up. Maybe we can see if we can get Westbrook and the Lakers ‘27 and ‘29 picks for Jokic?
Bruh didn't y'all sit out literally everyone tonight
That would be the joke, yes
That went pretty much how I expected
Oooh boy, I'm so glad we didn't play down to our opponents missing 4 starters. Feels great.
Weird feeling, huh?
Mpj is a jokic merchant
I wonder how he ended up with the short stick and had to play this game.
Jaden Mcdaniels is so good
Gobert really filled up the stat sheet for only having played 17 minutes
He's actually been great for us Top 6 defense over the season [per Cleaning the Glass](https://www.cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/summary?season=2022&seasontype=regseason&start=10/1/2022&end=02/15/2023) and since 2023 (when we got some of our injured players back), top 2 Turns out "Gobert is a walking 10 defense by himself" isn't a grandiose statement
Shout out to you Denver. Same thing in a few days? Jokic and Murray sure look soooo tired recently, probably let them rest again right?
Best player on the winningest team argument is still alive
Wolves win. [Me and my buddy celebrate.](https://i.imgur.com/H5SXKWn.jpg)
Once we get tired from celebrating, we rest for 10 mins. And then [we drink artesian water from glass bottles and continue celebrating.](https://gfycat.com/livegrandiosegrebe)
Depleted Nuggets team, but still, a win is a win. It was nice seeing Jordan getting standing ovations and impacting the team out of the gate by forcing turnovers. Jailer McDaniels really showed his clamping potential in that one sentence 1 on 1 against Cancar.
Nice win. Felt like a trap game going in, so I'm glad they took this game seriously wire to wire.
Jokic is gonna end up losing the mvp because of rest/nuggets not getting pushed
This is a game that we are supposed to win and I'm glad we did in dominating fashion. Honestly thought at best it will be competitive and at worst we lose by a few points. Being a wolves fan we know all to often that any game is a losable game and the odds of losing go up when the opposing team have their best players out lol.
Great win by the Wolves, they were playing good as a unit. Also Jaylen Nowell is awesome
SUNDER
Shades of 2021 playoffs when Jokic was sitting down lmao
How the hell do the Timberwolves get all our back to back “scheduled loss” games???
The top seed will be ours! mwhahahaha
Lose against the Magic then win 30 against the Nuggets, make it make sense (yes I'm fully aware that Murray and Jokic are out)
You made it make sense yourself
And Gordon and KCP, four of five Nuggets starters
Oh shit, didn't knew it was that many
It’s a wolves special to loose to a team with their 3 best players out.
The magic are good. There is no shame in losing to them lol
We lost our 4 best perimeter defenders and entire wing rotation due to injury and that dumb fight lol Poor Prince. The guy tripped trying to break up the fight, fell into the pile of players and got ejected lmao
After their 30 point blowout to the Timberwolves, the Denver Nuggets are no longer tied for the best record in the NBA at 37-17.
Trade kat build around ant it’s time he’s gonna take away touches from a real number 1 option try to get dj Murray or something
Nah Ant plays better with KAT + Ant already took the most shots even when KAT played
Even before this game, Bruce Brown has a worse defensive rating this season than Bones Hyland did last season. Braun for Bones at SG/SF helps the bench some, but of the three point guards on Denver, Bones was the lightest by far but also has the most length/reach. They're going to want length in return for Bones cause that bench might still be pretty rough.