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Thank you all for joining me. I'm the latest broadcast part of the CSG network. I'm, of course, host Jeff Morton. This is going to be an interesting podcast, and I always say that before each podcast, but this one is going to be specifically centered around my kind of vision about what I saw happen, and particularly in the second quarter of the Nuggets victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 4, 115 to 107 to tie the series at 2, and no team has won a home game yet. So it's one of a very unusual series so far, but I'm going to give you, and it's not the sequence that you think, but I think the pivotal sequence, and it kind of is a telling sequence about what is going on with the Minnesota Timberwolves in relation to how they're covering the Denver Nuggets, and I'm going to get to that. But first, I need to talk to you about our brand-new sponsor, Beth Online. Beth Online is your number one source for all your summer sports this season from MLB Golf NBA and NHL playoff stats. 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You know, there was a moment midway through the second quarter where I knew the wolves were in trouble. And I had nothing to do with the flurry, and I'm going to get to that in a bit, but it had nothing to do with the flurry at the end of the last, I say, 19 seconds of the first half, which everyone really has, I think, overly concentrated on, because there was a moment. And the Nuggets had gone into the lead at the end of the first quarter, and the wolves got off to a hot start. They led by, like, 11, and then the Nuggets reeled them back in, went on a big run, and didn't look back, essentially, in the game. They didn't lose the lead after midway through the first quarter. And there was this moment midway through the second quarter where I knew the wolves, the Nuggets were in the wolves' heads. And, dude, they were the first team to make a desperate move in this series. And people are like, "Jeff, what do you mean?" The wolves were up to zero, and look, it's still a series, and it's tied at two, and there's three games left. There was a moment that came in where I was like, and I texted several people. And anyone who's listening to this podcast right now who was on the receiving end of these texts from me yesterday knows what I'm talking about. The wolves rolled out a line-up midway through the second quarter that featured Rudy Gobert, Carl Anthony Towns, and Nas Reed. And it was the biggest "what the hell" kind of line-up out there. Now, they didn't lose any ground, nor did they gain any ground, while that line-up was out there. But it was indicative of a "we gotta do something" thing, and that was reflective of how Aaron Gordon played. Aaron Gordon's play in Game 4 was really eye-opening, and it kind of goes all hand-in-hand with some of the other games he had in the Lakers series. I mean, he had one game in the Lakers series where he did basically what he did in Game 4. Except in Game 4 against the Timberwolves, he only missed one shot. He was 10 of 11. The Nuggets' ability to use Gordon without deviating their approach or benching him puts teams into a crisis mode. Then you notice that a lot of teams in this spot probably would have made a starting line-up adjustment. And the Nuggets did not. The Nuggets really stuck to their guns, which is really important to think about here. Nuggets have not deviated from their starting line-up. The Nuggets generally have not altered their approach to the offensive end, other than probably setting harder screens. And I think there is some minor spacing things they have done to make the dunker spot more wide. And that's really what has allowed Aaron Gordon to help. It really hasn't been anything other than adjusting to the speed of that the Wolves were playing. And I was talking to a few people after Game 1 when the Nuggets got back on track, and they had that big blowout victory in Game 3. And I was saying the thing about the Wolves is, and I may have even said it on this podcast, is that they have Anthony Edwards. And one of their big problems is their offense is largely pedestrian. It's a very mediocre offense. A lot of great defensive teams have mediocre to bad offenses. Think of the Memphis Grizzlies. That's the latest. That's probably another team that had a defensive identity that was core to its identity. One of the things with Memphis Grizzlies, the grind city Memphis Grizzlies, is they didn't have that grade of an offense. And a lot of their offense was based on very similar to what the Minnesota Timberwolves were doing. It is very much based in the fact that our defense will make our offense. And so in the first two games, particularly Game 2, the Wolves were using their hyper-aggressive defense to change their ability to get easy baskets. And the Nuggets didn't match their intensity. And what had happened was exactly what it was the perfect storm for a great Minnesota game, which was to get the offense that they're playing against, discombobulated to the point where they can't function and use steals, use taking the ball out of the basket, use inducing missed shots to get run-out opportunities and easier baskets, and which is where Anthony Edwards thrives. Edwards doesn't necessarily thrive as well in the just rigid half-court offensive sets, which he's, once again, he's a great player, he's going to get his points. But where he really excels is in transition. And the Nuggets, once they adjusted to the speed, which is all they really needed to do, it very much, what I have noticed is like, and this is why I'm coming back to that adjustment in the midway through the second quarter, or excuse me, second quarter, was the Nuggets saw what the Wolves were doing and identified that it wasn't any different from what anything that the Wolves had done before. It's bog-standard Wolves defense, and the Nuggets were just not playing very hard. The one minor thing that they have done is get Jamal away from having to bring the cabal up the court, which is they were harassing him. I said this once before, it was 75-foot offense that the Wolves were playing, not 90, excuse me, defense, 75-foot defense, not 90-foot defense, 90-foot defense would be pressuring them. It would be basically doing what the Indiana Pacers are doing to the New York Knicks right now, pressuring them as soon as they imbound the ball on the baseline. That is not what the Wolves are doing. The Wolves were getting Nikki Alexander Walker and Jade McDaniel's to harass Jamal Murray as soon as he gets to about the free-throw line, maybe the top of the circle, and then establish that pressure in order to basically get the Nuggets to start their offense with 15 seconds left on the clock. What that did was throw the Nuggets off a bit, but really it was just the speed with that the Wolves were playing that the Nuggets weren't getting used to. What the Nuggets needed to do was slow them down. Where Aaron Gordon figures into this is like the more you break that initial pressure, what really it becomes is the 2021 Utah Jazz with Rudy Gobert, not a terrible defense and actually a good defense, but you are depending a lot on Gobert trying to clean up penetration. Because once the Nuggets are able to get into their actions, you've got Aaron Gordon hanging out in the dunker spot, and really he's still there. This is the Nuggets just adjusting to the pace. So it's been resulting in quicker decisions, and the quicker decisions have resulted in open shots. And that has thrown off the Wolves. When they threw in and line up of Gobert, Nas Reed, and Kat, it showed to me that they were like, "We've got to try something, because Aaron Gordon is kicking our ass." And Aaron Gordon turned into basically one of the funniest things, as soon as the second quarter began, you could tell Kat was just so frustrated with Gordon that he started making irrational decisions, and we all know that Kat is prone to poor decision-making, but this got worse. And one of the reasons it got worse is because Aaron Gordon was just, the Nuggets know the Wolves. And this is something that we kind of don't fully bake into our analysis of these things. We don't bake in the fact that these teams have already faced each other four times in the regular season. And three times in a very short succession at the last month of the season. So these teams know each other. There's nothing you're going to do that's going to surprise them. The other thing that surprised them, the Nuggets, was the fact that they came into these playoffs, the Nuggets specifically came into these playoffs very lazy. And they lazyed, if that's a word, themselves through the Lakers series, and they did not do that. And they did that in the first two games of the Wolves series, it's particularly game two. And the Nuggets were just needed to snap out of it. And snapping out of it just meant playing quicker decisions. And what we have really seen last two days is that the Nuggets decision-making is superior to the Wolves decision-making. And when they rolled out that lineup of that big lineup, that was an indication that the Wolves were very aware that the Nuggets were now playing at the same speed as they are. Because the Wolves tried to hit the Nuggets with a knockout punch at the very beginning of the first quarter. They really wanted to put the pedal to the medal and get the Nuggets dismayed and get this game over with quick because even that was an acknowledgement that they needed to put a killing blow in there. Otherwise, let's face it folks, the Nuggets getting two wins on your home court after being down 0-2. There's a different psychological thing at work here. And the Wolves were very aware of that. The Wolves coaching staff was very aware of that. And when they put in Nas Reed to go with Go Bear and Cat, that was an indication to me that they felt they were at the point where they needed to try something. And they became the first team to go there. There's always, you always wait for the first team to go there. And in this run with the Nuggets, their approach has not been to deviate from anything. They will do what they do. And what teams want to do to the Nuggets is get them to break what their standard thing is. And no team has been able to do that. Even though the Wolves won the first two games, they weren't able to break the Nuggets of that. And that was reflectant in the way they approached the game. They were midway through the first quarter. And then the way they made the Wolves adjust, the way they did. Which was the first, like I said, major we need to try something thing. And it was very notable to me. Alright, in the second half of the podcast, I'm going to be talking to you about the little thing. The little stretch from Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. and KCP in the 19 seconds of the second quarter. And then I'm going to kind of talk to you about Wolves team president Tim Connolly and a little news item that leaked today from Sean. So we'll be getting it in the second half. But first I want to talk to you about Blanchard Family Wine. He's located between 18th and 19th. And Blake and Wazzy. And beautiful over downtown, Denver, Colorado. Just a couple blocks away from Coorsfield, right? And the middle of Dairy Block, they're always online. BFWColorado.com. They're on Facebook and Instagram and they're Blanchard Family Wines. Basically you're one stop shop for any place you want to go to, for any place you want to go. For any type of wine you want to get. And it's a Colorado based business. They got an original location in Sonoma County. They got a location in Fort Collins. And they've got a location, a tasting room located in Golden. But the Dairy Block location, it's really a great place where you can go in, get a good class of Pino, a class of Cabernet, a class of White, a class of, you know, Rose, any local Colorado wines, partnerships they have with Western Slope wineries, any of those. You can get that. And then you can kind of go walk to a restaurant right there and lower downtown. It's really conveniently located to where you don't have to worry about having to go to five different places. And it's all within walking distance. And you could stop at Blanchard first, get yourself a drink of wine. Then go have a lovely dinner somewhere else. It's one of my favorite places to go in there. They were a great vibe. And I highly recommend, as always, the last five years. I don't get paid for doing this breed. I do it because I enjoy them. And they are one of my favorite places to go and get in Denver. Once again, they're located between 18th and 19th. And Blake and Wazzie in beautiful lower downtown Denver, Colorado. Just a couple blocks away from Coorsfield, right in the middle of the Dairy Block. They're always online at bfwcolorado.com. They're on Facebook and Instagram and they're Blanchard family wines. When you go in, are you talk to home tell them Jeff Morton from CSU podcast sent you. That stretch at the end of the second quarter was quite notable. It was quite spectacular. It was very indicative of the way the nuggets play and the way the wolves play. And if you really want to boil it down to something, both that stretch of basketball said something about the wolves and it said something about the Denver nuggets. The wolves cut it to seven on an Anthony Edwards three. And then the nuggets went through a long offensive possession, almost using all 24 seconds of the clock. Yokech throws it cross, circled to KCP four or three. And then what was really interesting is that Anthony Edwards kind of walks the ball up that leads back to ten. Anthony Edwards walks the ball up and immediately like with five, six seconds left turns the ball over and really bad turnover. It was one that he shouldn't have had. He just had it poked away by Yokech. He got closed in on it got poked away and there was he had no control of the ball. Michael Porter gets a run out dunk. Then Jade McDaniel gets the ball and throws a terrible pass. Terrible pass to the base to the sideline. It hits no one. Jamal Murray intercepts it. Heaves a half court shot that goes in. And the lead went from seven to fifteen. I'm not going to say that's why the nuggets won. Because if we really think about it, the lead never got to less than seven until the weird free throw thing at the end of the game. The nuggets were really just in control. The lead vacillated between thirteen, fifteen, and seven, eight. There was this narrow band of margin that the nuggets would just kept the lead at. And they just, they had the control of the game midway through the first quarter and never let up. But that stretch of basketball where it went from seven to fifteen says a lot about the Denver Nuggets and how they just are opportunistic and we're willing to do what it takes to get where they need to be. And it said a lot about the Wolves making some terrible decisions. And one of the things that it will let down the Minnesota Timberwolves is decision making. They suffer from bad decision making. I don't think, and this is one of the reasons throughout the year that they had issues closing games in the fourth quarter. They sometimes just don't have the best decision making. They got players like towns, go bare. Edwards makes mostly good decisions but he doesn't, he's sometimes, he's young, you know. And Jade McDaniel's. And guys who have a ton of talent but need to mature. And I don't mean Cat's been in the league for nine years now. I don't know about maturity there. But I mean, and Rudy Gobert has been here since 2013, this is eleventh year in the league. But this, the Wolves melting down like that at the end of the second quarter indicated to me exactly what we always knew about the Wolves. That they have a lot of athletic talent and when they're locked in they are very impressive but they also suffer from poor decision making at times. And that was a stretch of horrendous decision making particularly from Edwards and Jade McDaniel's. The Nuggets were aggressive and they knew they have the confidence of a team that went through 16 and four last year to win a championship. So it's that stretch of basketball more than being quote unquote the reason the Nuggets won because that's not necessarily true. The Nuggets had the lead. If we take out the five points in six seconds, the Nuggets were still up by ten. And then they, if you take out the desperate heave, the Nuggets were still up by twelve. So we're not talking, you know, this is not the reason the Nuggets maintained control through the game. You know, they talk about, I mean, Adam Maras has talked about momentum with the Wolves and it being important to them. Well, what I would describe it as they're a young team that needs to get downhill. Basically, that's what it is. They need to, and they're the ones who need the momentum. The Nuggets aren't a momentum team. They are a methodical team and a methodical team is hard to beat because by and large they're not going to beat themselves. And by and large, they're not going to let you back in. And that's what happened the last two games specifically. That the Wolves couldn't get that, what they needed is a dominating lead. And the Nuggets just wouldn't let the Wolves get any advantage. And really, really truly, it was, I would say this game for win was more impressive than the game through win. Because the Nuggets just really came in and we're like, we're going to take this game. And we are not going to let you have that moment of hope, which says a lot about the Denver Nuggets. So that stretch at the end of the second quarter was more about letting you a window into both of these teams and letting you know exactly how these teams are built and their mentalities. Before I go, I want to talk to you about this little news item that came out from Shams that the Detroit Pistons could pursue, Tim Connolly, former Nuggets general manager and current Minnesota Timberwolves general manager. I don't have any insight info on this. I just want to talk to you about the context this is all happening in. The Wolves are in chaos, as I've discussed before on this podcast, and the ownership chaos is never good. And it's in that backdrop that Tim Connolly has an option to exercise on his deal. And most people in the league say he will opt out. I don't know whether he will or not, but most people in the league and the reports indicate he will be inclined to opt out. And that does not mean he's leaving the Wolves, but Tim Connolly has an enormous amount of leverage right now over the Minnesota Timberwolves. And I do believe that he would be foolish not to explore his leverage in this situation, if that's what he wanted to do. Tim Connolly doesn't seem to be wired that way. That's not what I know of him. But he is in a unique position right now with the ownership of the Minnesota Timberwolves devolving into utter chaos right now. He's got to make a decision whether it's it's okay for him to still be doing what he's doing. I don't know what's going through Tim's head. But it's in a unique amount of leverage that he has, and it would be interesting to see if how he explores it. The Shams report said something along the lines of $15 million per year from the Detroit Pistons in order to lure Tim Connolly out of Minnesota. I don't I don't know if any team is going to be doing that to be honest with you. That's that smack to me of a speculative thing on Shams's part. I don't I didn't I don't know any team that is going to go that far unless they're a big market team. And certainly I don't know if Detroit is in that position, but I mean at the same time it is illustrative of where Tim is right now. And his unique as I said again unique leverage in this situation where he is a man who has. He has a unique position right now as a team as a guy who really helped get this wolves team in an exciting direction. While the ownership structure in Minnesota is going through utter and complete chaos. And that sort of thing can just be it's just something to watch. I don't like I said, I don't know what's going through Tim's head. I don't I don't know what his decision making is. This is just me talking. But I think as an outside observer, I think Tim Connolly would be foolish not to. Explore every avenue of leverage that he has at the current moment considering what's going on in Minnesota and considering his status in the league. It would just be completely foolish for him to unless he is completely comfortable and wants to stick it out. And he thinks that say Glenn Taylor is going to do something he's never done and keep a team together and not and will be willing to pay a significant amount of tax. He'd be he'd be foolish not to explore his relatives his leverage and his options right now. And I would be interested to see what Glenn Taylor who who knows if he's going to be the owner or not. But if Glenn Taylor is willing to stick to his guns and be a guy who's willing to pay tax and is willing to keep this team that the wolves are building together. Which is the reason his valuation has increased which is why he wants to keep the team. It's really interesting to think about and I think Tim Connolly is in a rare position that you don't know often see executives in. And I'm going to be interested to see how he explores his value on the market and where he goes with that. So it's going to be something to watch going forward. I'm curious. I mean like I don't know what's going through Tim's head but as an outside observer I mean this is what I would do. So alright thank you all for joining me on the latest more cast. I'm going to be back after game five with a guest with another episode. Goodbye. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] This is the story of the one. As a maintenance engineer he hears things differently. 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The Denver Nuggets tied their series against the Minnesota Timberwolves at 2 games apiece on the back of Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon. The Nuggets forced the Wolves into some interesting lineup decisions.
