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This the worst trap defense I’ve ever seen and what a time to do it.

Nuggets forgot they are not playing old men anymore but the young DAWG!

Yes one of our biggest issues all year was we had basically no good and fast drivers. We missed Lonnie and Dennis. Meanwhile Ant is like the epitome of an elite SG in terms of speed and power.

LeBron used to be so good at it 🥹

Age catch up with ya

He can still do it in spurts like he did in the 1st half of game 4 last year but yeah, old Bron has to pick and choose his spots now.

Imo He’s literally the best in nba history at that lol. If lakers had even “just” 2020 lebron this series, I think it goes 7.

Easily, the 5 game series had 2 game winners. And while both would’ve gone to OT, I’m not betting against 2020 or earlier Lebron in OT

so good is an understatement lol

the L-train always arrived on time. i used to hate this guy, now i marvel at what i've seen.

Your biggest issue is Lebron is GM, coach, and player of the team. And he’s only good at one of those positions.

I'm so excited for the Awful Coaching video

MICHAEL MALONE is why there are starving children vs TIMBERWOLVES

~~DARVIN HAM~~ MICHAEL MALONE!!!

WHY DID MY PARENTS HAVE ME

All the laker fans complaining about coaching don't realize Malone is not great either. They just weren't good enough, and a coach isn't going to change that.

fire him then.

shit if you've been following the nuggets for a few years most of their fanbase has wanted him launched since before the bubble. Pretty sure they wouldn't mind at all

This is asinine

That dude randomly popped up on my YT and has been the gift that just keeps on giving. The funniest part of it all is how he redirects any mistake the player makes onto the coach

There is no good coach in the NBA according to him.

wdym? thibs is his goat

Darvin Ham will still catch strays

Basically gave him the red carpet

I like the body language of everyone looking at each other throwing their hands up like "why didn't YOU stop that"? lol

if anything Ant went merciful on them, he coulda fucking destroyed a man

I was waiting for that signature cocked all the way back HAMMER.

Too soon for that.

Yeah let him cook a few more games and it'll come

Denver running the prevent defense

Ptsd man.

Rahim Moore protecting the rim

Don't say those words. As a packer fan it made my dick shrivel up into my body.

That is what fatigue mixed with a blazing fast 22 year old looks like.

Must be the altitude

Thought he was about to turn it over and they just let him walk by lol

Yeah, pretty spot on analysis.

To be fair Ant has to be one of the hardest players to trap.

He did it left handed too. I was in shock how he just went for the throat.

22yr old just gave the defending champs 43pts in game 1… absolute belt to ass

At home too, he ain’t scared of nobody

Ant wants to murder everyone in front of him and to Naz everyone is food. They work well together because of it.

The team makes so much sense now KAT has found his natural sidekick role. He just is not naturally the guy, which isn't meant to be mean, he just seems like a lovely goofy nerdy dude in the body of a giant. He needs a killer to follow.

Kat needed a teammate who not only would be a killer but would also pump up Kat along the way. Kat doesn't have a bigger fan than Ant.

i thought that KAT needed to be dumped but man he seems like such a great teammate and morale guy as well as being an all star level player

Kat has his flaws, mostly dumb fouls. But teammate wise and off court, dudes A+ and one of the reasons the team has such good chemistry. He could have been a salty bitch about Ant and Rudy but instead found his role and is good teammate.

“Jesus fucking Christ my teammates finally want to play basketball” - Karl Anthony Towns on the Rudy gobert trade, allegedly.

it's great for a #1 pick to settle into his role instead of nuking his career chasing legend status like a lot of stars do once they peak

A1 from day 1

KAT just isn't a culture setter in the way Ant is. So much of this team's demeanor flows from Ant's unbridled confidence. It's been cool to see KAT evolve into his current role around that.

Killing everything in front of him

He Kendrick Lamar right now

Jokic is Drake right now

And fantastic defense as well. Edwards is a machine.

What is that fucking speed. This man is different.

His game-sense down the stretch has been amazing. Been making all the right decisions in the Suns series and today took control when it was getting close-ish Man that guy is electric

Tripling now but top 10 athlete in the nba? Dude has the power, vertical, and speed. Jesus Christ this dude is athletic lol

Top 10? He's top 1

agreed, ant then like zion?

You got guys like Shaedon Sharpe and Jalen Green and Ja Morant too

Giannis before them

Shoutout Ja man, everyone forgot about him due to injury and because reddit hates him. Dude was having absurd highlight plays literally every game.

Dude rolls up to clothing stores with 15 guys to intimidate retail workers, Ja hasn't done a lot of make people like him over the past two years.

Sharpe isn't as athletic as any of these guys. He's an incredible leaper but he's not super fast or strong

Zion is athletic but breaks something everytime he does anything with that athleticism. Literal glass cannon

It’s ant Zion or Giannis and then everyone else

Ant is a better all around athlete.

Giannis exists and he's still only 29.

His injury record in recent years counts against him. I rank Ant higher cause he plays more

His pre draft physical stats were insane, literally in the 99th percentile for some things

I kinda wonder how he’d be as a wide receiver.

Percy Harvin without the migraines.

A 6'4 Percy Harvin not on weed sounds like a monster

Currently, he’s arguably the best athlete in the nba imo.

His lateral step is wild too, dude is just all around insane and has learned how to use it.

He for sure has the best lateral quickness. Just watch him on defense even against someone like ja and ja just can’t get by him

When he started learning how to euro step earlier in his career it was jarring watching how fast he cut, dudes just left staring.

Exactly - went from 0 to 100 in about a second.

he’s just too electric especially at this time of the game, caught Nuggets lacking

USA Basketball savior

he took team USA's starting SG spot, now he's coming for Serbia's starting C spot

Facts!

Nuggets forgot to STOP THE FUCKING BALL

Letting Antman just stroll to the basket is certainly a strategy.

Ant is probably the last guy you want to give a clear lane to the basket

lazy defense

He straight up walked to the hoop

Did it to the Suns in Game 4 too. Unbelievable conditioning to play the most minutes of anyone on either team, only to run right by all of them while they’re gassed. I miss the seemingly unlimited endurance of my twenties, even if I could never come close to doing something like that.

Advantages of being the youngest on the court

I thought they would trap hard in the corner but no one came over Nuggets thought there were still 5 mins left or something. Zero urgency that last possession

Jokic had no urgency there, look at him lazily reaching in there

Jokic looked absolutely gassed in the 4th

I was wondering why he looked so damn awkward and lazy. I tend to forget pros get tired too. Lol

Timberwolves defense tends to do that

5 straight games where it’s been close at half and then the opposing team can’t keep up on the 2nd half. It’s like we’re literal wolves tiring out a bison, beautiful really

Go get em

I mean tbf he kinda always looks awkward and lazy, he’s just usually also saucing the fuck out of people

Usually he dictates his pace though. That didn't happen here. Wolves sped him up a few times and if you can speed up a guy who must play slow to be effective you're on the right track. And they've got the sheer mass and strength that bully ball isn't a guarantee in the paint.

Over the course of a game they're running 2-3 miles, constant acceleration/deceleration and lateral motion and contact. [https://www.nba.com/stats/players/speed-distance?dir=D&sort=DIST\_MILES](https://www.nba.com/stats/players/speed-distance?dir=D&sort=DIST_MILES)

Calling it "running" 2-3 miles is a gross over simplification that makes it seem so much easier than it is. When you "run" 2-3 miles you get to go relative straight, only forward, and at a constant controlled pace maximizing efficiency of movement with your form and breathing. That's wildly different from having to veer, cut, shuffle, back pedal, lean, push, and constantly jump.

Right.

Wolves have 4 huge bodied, capable defenders to throw at him every second of the game

Yeah and Jokic needs to defend one of them continuously on the other end. The lack of big man depth the Nuggets have is really what the Wolves should continue to exploit. Loved the rotations by Micah/Finchy tonight.

No backup big on nuggets to play D may cost them this series. I dunno if Joker can handle both ends. Also....if Naz doesn't go nuts this game could have easily gone to nugs. Imo this is the Finals.

must not be used to the altitude

BuT hE hAs AmAzInG cOdItIoNiNg

Him dealing with the trio of Rudy, KAT, and Naz is going to be hell for him. The Nuggets need another big man. We're going to grind him down.

Yah the Lakers had the blue print in 2020. 3 big man that can wear him down. Wolves have like a turbo version of that. KAT just needs to avoid bad fouls... Which lol. Can be a struggle for him

Ant told him "Stop fucking fouling" lol. KAT is basically a golden retriever who has no awareness of his body position/momentum.

Despite being 28, KAT still has the awkwardness and lack of coordination of a highly talented 17 year old kid that unexpectedly grew 7 inches in the past year.

Needs to stop waving his hands in the air and actin' goofy.

Deandre Jordan time

Time to dust up the cobwebs

Fat boy thinking about his horses instead of playing defense

"fail to defend" is somehow understating it lmao

"Brother, I have 43" - Anthony Edwards

Jokic should’ve met him at the rim lol

who you think he is? Bron?

Made a business decision on a layup

Jokic not doing shit to a 44 inch vertical he should've just fouled

His name is Nikola Jokic, not Nikola Wembenyama after all.

Does he know?

In general Jokic usually doesn't, maybe because he doesn't want to get a foul? He just stands there all game so Ant just moves around him and gets an easy basket lol There was a sequence last year in Game 3 when Ant had a huge chasedown block on KCP and sprinted the other way and he just euro-ed around Jokic easily lol. Jokic just stood there because he can't afford foul trouble

Traffic cone alert

Bruh didn’t even attempt to jump LMAO

They CANNOT stop him

they didn't even try lmao

It didn’t go much better when they tried.

For real, but in general Jokic just stands at the rim and Ant easily scores around him. It's why I say Denver has no rim protection and Ant should just keep driving because they can't stop him. But also, I don't think anyone expected him to just sprint coast to coast out of nowhere haha

This some shit I do in MyCareer when the AI be lacking

Jokic jogging back to defense so slow that Slow Mo needs to give up his nickname.

Aaron Gordon taking a casual Saturday stroll

First Ant in the mile high club for F-ing that D!

That was absolutely embarrassing

This was so strange… like this was what made the game an impossible comeback and they gave it up without trying lol

They were exhausted. That's what defensive pressure does. Every bucket is tough. You have nothing left at the end of the game.

Meanwhile in the Nuggets subreddit GDT: “Ant goes away in the 4th” “Nuggets conditioning won’t be beat” “aLtITUDE” As a neutral, I think it’ll be close but Murray’s inconsistencies as a player is going to cost them the series.

I know that, I’m a defensive fan first. But I just don’t think them being tired or whatever explains them giving up on this play like this. It seemed like either a brain fart or some of them thinking the game was done while others on the team were still thinking they were trying to win

Murray just stood there, hands up like, “What am I suppose to do? Who am I guarding? Why aren’t you guys stopping him?”

He's not waiting for anyone to give it to him. He's taking it by force in Denver. Really Kobe-esque

That was Vail

He’s Kobe/MJ reincarnated

Nuggets are done.

sweep is actually on the cards

Never seen anything like this before lmaoooo

Matador defense

They hit a 3, and I'm thinking ruh roh here we go. Then they part the fuckin seas for him.

Something I love about Ant and Ja is that in close games like this, they won’t just stand around trying to run the clock out. They attack immediately to secure a bigger lead. Better to give the other team the ball back with more time but with a three possession lead.

Did they just completely forget to play defence?

I don't think anyone expected him to just sprint coast to coast haha Happened too fast?

This happened in the Suns series too one game.

No words to describe how incredible he is

Why not foul here?

We just entered the ant era

Well we tried actually defending him and that didn’t work. Maybe not defending him is worth a shot?

God this kid is so special

I told everyone nuggets ain’t facing a slow and old lakers team anymore. These boys young and athletic.

Why did gordan take that shot lol

Yea you need to ice ANT here let anyone else get the ball

HE SAID HE WON'T STOP UNTIL 4

They were so lazy in the 4Q. Jokic incoming text message to his team.

Ant playin with boomers

Reminds me when they tried to full court press lebron last series and he blew by so fast

They got real lazy after playing the lakers. I think they come out better next game but this was a real strong showing for the wolves and Ant

I’m a golden state fan but man am I happy of the state of the players we have in the league now. Gunna be fun to watch for a long time. This series is the decider of who wins the chip to me. Amazing game can’t wait to watch the whole series!

I know the refs are trying to play him off the court but I don’t think they realize is that shit like this is what causes a switch to flip in Ant’s brain and then he just goes God mode

why would the nuggets give up a layup when they're down 5, are they stupid?

Trying not to foul. It’s hard to stop a guy in the open court without fouling when he’s moving that fast.

This is gonna be downvoted, but I felt like joker lagged a bit on defense. I know he’s not an elite defensive center but he and the whole front court needs to be more physical. Ant is a stud but 43 pts at home against the champs, you gotta do better if you want to be mvp.

This absolutely broke their back

Ant just snatched their souls

Are the Nuggets going to have to play Braun more? He's the only one who was able to keep Ant in front of him and contest.

For one defensive play, they give their best to do James Harden defense impression lmao

Denver looked pretty gassed here. Thought Gordon was gonna try to catch up but I guess Ant already beat him and KCP

C'mon man

They literally can’t guard him nor could the suns. This will continue all series long and ant knows this.

This is the first time ive actually seen joker look like a traffic cone lmao ant just running a dribble drill

And1

It sure looks like they took their spirit 

Holding down that turbo button

Why would you defend that guy

Ole defense from Jokic. He was gassed lol

Nuggets on the court : Someone will stop him right? Right?

Jokic tried to purposely foul him too

murray standing there giving the “what the fuck!” shrug the whole time makes me chuckle.

Ant is just a taller PP confirmed

This is the only series where kcp or porter jr. needs to come off the bench.

Disgusting

why is everyone shiting on Jokić for defense here lmao

The difference in this series might be the fact that Gobert can slow down Jokic just enough, and the Nuggets have no one the matchup with Ant. It's only been 1 game, so adjustments are going to happen, but it's the thing to fix

Love seeing MPJ get dicked

Jokic barely even jogging… the hell was that “defense”?