Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors player, thoroughly analyzed the Western Conference semifinal series between the Denver Nuggets and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have opened the series against the Denver Nuggets brilliantly. They have made two road wins in Colorado and have a 2-0 lead. The defending champions failed to find a solution for the outstanding performance of Anthony Edwards. Similarly, they also struggled to deal with the aggressiveness in Chris Finch’s team defense.
Four-time NBA champion Draymond Green thoroughly analyzed this series on his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show.”
“Man, the Denver Nuggets are down bad right now. No, not because they’re down 0-2, but because you can tell their confidence was snatched. Their belief was snatched. There’s a lot of doubt. When they head to Minnesota, they get on that plane doubting, uncertain if they can compete with the Minnesota Timberwolves. I’m uncertain that they can. I still see the Nuggets going to Minnesota and possibly pulling off a game, but they don’t stand much of a chance in this one.”
Green emphasized how the Timberwolves are doing an excellent job guarding Nikola Jokic
“The Timberwolves took on the challenge and Karl Anthony Towns did a hell of a job on Nikola Jokic. And Naz Reid did an incredible job when he was guarding Joker. They made it tough, they got under his skin, they got him frustrated, and in turn, they were able to do that from the very beginning of the game. And guess what? You cut off the head of the snake, the body dies.
The Denver Nuggets were extremely out of character. Jamal Murray was going back and forth with the refs more than he normally does, coach Michael Malone on the court going crazy at the refs. You got Kentavious Caldwell-Pope arguing with the ref a bit, which Caldwell-Pope don’t ever get rattled, you had Joker kind of pouting a bit. They were rattled. Then you had Aaron Gordon start to take a bunch of turnaround jump shots and midrange jumpers.
I don’t know the team that I was watching. I don’t view that and think it was a flake. The Minnesota Timberwolves are real. We shall see what happens with this series, but I’ll tell you what: It ain’t going no longer than five. I thought Minnesota would beat them for sure, but I didn’t know it would be this way. It looked like one team doesn’t belong on the same court as the other team. And that my friends is a big a** problem and I don’t think it’s solvable in this series.”