Denver is a fake candidate – ESPN on Timberwolves beat Nuggets 111-98; Jokic 32 Pts – Edwards 25 Pts

Denver is a fake candidate – ESPN on Timberwolves beat Nuggets 111-98; Jokic 32 Pts – Edwards 25 Pts

Side Bill hansin uh h i mean there’s there’s there’s not a lot of positives here um what plagued the nuggets the most in this loss well yeah I’ll go back I said off to open it I I thought yeah you struggled some offensive but that should not affect your defensive game 62

Points in the first half for Minnesota 30 of those points in the paint easy layups and push backs they needed more ball pressure well the second half they got that but a little too late H Minnesota did just 49 points on 13 of 30 shooting that’s good enough to win a

Game but you got to have two halves like that all right let’s take a look at the standings because a lot changed here uh tonight after uh after this game this is the health health One Standings uh the Minnesota Timberwolves are now in first place they own the tiebreaker over

Oklahoma City the Nuggets checking in in third the Nuggets will not have the tiebreaker over Oklahoma City or Minnesota so hands they going they are going to have to finish with a better record than both of those teams in order to finish in first place yeah I mean it

It it’s still it’s a three- team Race the Nuggets schedule is you know they got a lot of winnable games they need Jamal back and it looked to me early on too that Joker’s right wrist he had it taped up again and that’s that that’s bothering him a little bit and you can

See Miss some easy shots that he normally makes well the guy that was not missing many shots was Mike connley uh he was really just brilliant the 23 points ties for his uh the second highest point total of the Season he’s only scored more than 20 points in a

Game four times the entire year and this is one of them well he got that feeling he got it going and uh you know he delivered dimes he had eight of those but five out of six at one point he was five for five on threo shots and uh boy

He was just big particularly that third quarter he hadit a three threes in a row and uh nuggets didn’t have an answer for him and you know Demps on the season he averages 11 a game so you go 23 well he’s maybe he averages 18 n no he averages 11

Yeah so big night for him yeah no doubt about that and he was really hot from the three-point line he was hot from everywhere but especially a three-point line uh this is our star downtown uh breakdown Mike Conley five for six from the three-point line all of them on the

Left side of the Court he’s a lefty he likes going there they they have they run a pretty good system where it’s it’s tough that you almost need to trap him even though the Big’s way out High and the nuggets were trying to force him Baseline but he’d just come back over

Top and create open open looks for himself yeah he’s a look when they brought him over along with Rudy goar they were looking for a little veteran presence uh the kind of guy that can hit shots in hostile environments uh he was able to do that here tonight for the

Minnesota um not ready to play we weren’t physical we weren’t aggressive um yeah that that first half you know we deserve to be booed off the court to be quite honest um you know and I challenge that guys at halftime because that first half was unacceptable across the board you know

And and that’s my job as a head coach to start with me getting guys ready to play um making sure they understand what’s at stake and you can tell them about it but still you know if your players don’t perform that’s starts with me first and foremost and then our players obviously

Uh in the first half not even close to the necessary level of energy physicality urgency that you need against a very good team a team that’s been in first place most of the year and uh you know challenged them at halftime and uh they came out like grown ass men

And you know we played a second half like we cared and uh you know never really got back in the game you know uh it may have appeared that but at least we played hard at least we defended at least we hit somebody I’ll give you the

One step that kind of tells that sums up first half and second half how many turnovers do they have in the first half zero you know what that means they didn’t feel us at all not at all second half nine turnovers 10 points for

Us so um you just can’t show up you know and as I reminded our guys this is not last year we do not have a cushion to hey we can take a game we can rest guys like we’re in a dog fight we’re in a dog fight and obviously Jamal being out

That’s not ideal but we have to get him him healthy and um I can live like you know what Reggie Jackson was 45 tonight Reggie left it all out there I I was really impressed with that him Christian Brown went two for 10 tonight loved how

He played so he struggle to make shots but when you struggle to make shots as we all know then everything else has to be great has to be elite in the first half you know we didn’t make shots we didn’t guard we did nothing is that disappointing that you

Didn’t see the effort immediately with you know what’s at stake like you said the seating like you guys are in a battle for you know the number one seed with a do you think lison yes were you disappointed as a fan absolutely exactly I mean that’s why I

Said I mean the fans had every right to be disappointed with that first half it’s you know again going into this game We’re Half game up in first place and uh you know the only chance we have of winning uh the tiebreaker against Minnesota is to beat them 3 to

One cuz we’re not going to catch them and the conference wins just not so you know you let a golden opportunity slip through your hands and it’s one thing if a team comes in here and beat you I think we can all walk at her and say you

Know what they were better than us tonight you but tonight I don’t think that was the case I felt uh yes so the answer your question yeah it was disappointing and I I hope that when you speak to our players I think they’ll be hopefully equally as disappointed and it

Doesn’t get any easier you know we got Cleveland coming in here on Sunday so we’ve lost two in a row and uh you know we’ll see what we make of was Nicole’s wrist bothering him at all oh he I was surprised he played tonight to be quite

Honest yeah his uh his wrist is really giving him a lot of trouble and you know that you know as we know you know Nicole is a guy that plays through a lot of things that most guys wouldn’t play through um so yes to answer your question his wrist was bothering him

Tonight you guys have pried yourselves on playing through a lot in tough situations we’ve had a lot of scheduled spots this year but with the does this outcome tonight change anything about how you’re going to approach the final eight games of the season uh I don’t think so I mean like uh right

Now obviously uh I have to make sure that I take my blinders off once in a while because I get in that Foxhole and I’m thinking about Cleveland right now um you know but sometimes you have to come up for air and think that we have

Eight games to go and like I was just talking with Jamal and like he apologized to me I said don’t don’t apologize man you’re not trying to be hurt and your health is more important than a win right now uh cuz as I said many times to you guys I have complete

Confidence that our group regardless of seed can beat anybody anywhere when we’re healthy cuz we’ve done it um so but I I’ll have to think about that when Matt about kind of where it at but I I just want to win I want to get back to playing 48 minutes of Denver Nugget

Basketball so we can walk out of here feeling really good about ourselves playing the right way and you think about it I think we’re 15 and four now since the break overall it’s been phenomenal phenomenal like that’s incredible to do you know but I just

Hate losing two in a row like that that really bothers me tell what about their defense stood out in terms of holding you guys to 98 points and that beat the number one ring defense in the NBA yeah I mean just the their size their length um and obviously

We really struggle to make shots we another night where we were two for n in transition opportunities uh Phoenix game we were one for seven so even when you think you have it and an Avenue to the rim there’s a Rudy Gober there’s a Jaden McD Daniels there’s um Nas Reed you got

A great athlete in Edwards so there’s a reason they’re the number one defense in the NBA through 70 plus games and uh when you’re not getting stops you know you only have four transition points know since the break we’re averaging over 18 but if you can’t get a stop then

It’s going to make it really hard to get out and run um so now you’re playing against a half court defense and their Elite in the half court so uh you a lot of things that we can clean up for sure one more on on night yeah I mean that as

A defensive unit that is a foreign speech fore foreign speech down can go foreign foreign foree speech for Speech Sor Dar speech spee Foree fore spee Fore For i J for spe forign speech speee speech speech oh my Speee foreign foree aboute fore speee for d yeah foree Spee e Done See

“Denver is a fake candidate” – ESPN on Timberwolves beat Nuggets 111-98; Nikola Jokic 32 Pts – Anthony Edwards 25 Pts