How the Wolves clamped the Nuggets

How did the Minnesota defense slow down Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and the Nuggets offense to advance to the 2024 Western Conference Finals? This detailed film breakdown & scouting report explores their scheme to stop Jokic, adjustments throughout the series, Game 7 comeback, Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, Defensive player of the Year Rudy Gobert and more.

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Music by Nemesis (instrumental)

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[Music] what a turnaround again in one of the craziest back and forth series in NBA history the nuggets rebounded from a game six blowout to take a 20po third quarter lead just to see the Wolves Redux their game six defense and outscore them 42- 17 over the next 14 minutes back in game two Minnesota’s defense put on an absolute Master Class the the nuggets and much of the basketball World Shell Shocked only for Denver to come back and solve the Wolves scheme with a bunch of small adjustments that let them dictate the action by game five one of the key developments was Denver working to switch Rudy goar onto Nicole yic so he couldn’t Roam and help on Joker’s moves and the MVP cooked the defensive player of the year in that game dropping 20 points on 10 scoring attempts when he was guarded by goar but in the final two games jic had just six total scoring attempts when guarded by Rudy because the Wolves avoided the matchup instead of switching Joker’s screens Carl Anthony towns usually went under them so he could stay with jic and keep goar off ball as a RoR playing The Possession on Minnesota’s terms and it almost didn’t matter where the screen was set C scrambling to go under here even if that meant conceding space to joic he goes under at the foul line on this and Joker almost begrudgingly shoots an open three and look at how extreme this one is Murray sets the pick for Joker cat goes so far under he’s near the charge Circle and the tradeoff is they give up another open triple remember this is the same wrinkle they busted out in game five for backto back SC scores but in game six the Wolves weren’t switching it so they conceded the outside shot only the Nuggets were ice cold and this also works against that dangerous haot cut the Nuggets love to run cat goes way under Mike Conley lingers and this is where the wolf’s defense is comfortable Rudy’s waiting at the basket towns is banging with Joker they send a double and jokic’s pass pulls Michael Porter Jr out a little because he’s worried about Conley jumping the route then Conley denies the corner pass Porter doesn’t drive because goar’s in there there’s an open man in the corner but he takes a tough three instead here’s the same screen for jic in game seven cat goes way under again and that pass is a little late because Nel Alexander Walker’s hounding Murray so there really isn’t a penalty to pay and he forces joic into a tough shot and in that sense Minnesota picked the right poison jic and Murray came into the playoffs hitting 47% of their open threes in their postseason career but in the last two games of the series they shot just four of 18 on these wide open triples and maybe that’s luck but maybe it’s fatiguing playing against such a ferocious defense either way they wanted to protect the paint with that scheme we discussed from game one goar’s roaming in front of the rim so he takes away Murray’s cut when yic screens towns doesn’t want to leave him open on the roll Rudy can come help on the ball and that’s Aaron Gordon’s last three-point attempt of the series this time goar’s roaming in the paint and Cat FS toward Murray before letting him go and recovering to joic and he’s always trying to stop jokic’s roll touches but he doesn’t care as much about him popping out for three and this is why yic took so many threes in game seven Denver wants that switch but cat goes under again and niola finally lets it Fly and this one to start the game is even better with towns thinking about going under at the foul line goar says just get back to jic and maybe Nica is too open on some of these as the series progressed they also threw yic and Murray different looks instead of sticking to jic towns late switches to Murray here while Anthony Edwards takes Joker again he leaves him on the outside to help on any drive and the trip goes nowhere so when Murray runs the pick and roll in game seven he assumes cat will stick with yic but instead jumps out to contest the shot and yic is able to clean up the glass because of that switch but for the most part this change up worked mpj is expecting to have space here cat lunges at him instead and that leaves Joker again and he could not buy a jumper so all this keeps the Denver ball handler on his toes because goar can fake like he’s picking him up and then Retreat to the rle man and when Murray comes back for it a second later he does switch onto the ball and completely Smothers the shot there was no box out there but this Gambit came up huge in the comeback where out of a timeout Reggie Jackson comes off the screen and Cat stabs at him that catches Jackson off guard so he picks it up to hit yic but cat’s stunting just to recover back to Joker and it’s a huge turnover then late in the game Murray’s wondering if Nas Reed’s going to stay with the ball or recover back to the roll man he stays just to switch back to Joker when ant recovers and then Nas can use his length in the post against ni Cola and that’s a massive stand and watch goar come help only to sit on the pass to Gordon which makes jokic think about it and so he’s stuck having to shoot goar was sitting on these passes to Gordon on the Baseline all series and there was even one play in game five where yuch was able to squeeze the pass through only to get stuffed when Rudy h helicoptered around and he was exceptional at psyching out Shooters while playing Gordon behind him note that right hand to defend the pass and then he bothers Murray into a short Miss so Minnesota’s scheme took away the heart of the Twan game between joic and Murray and kept Gordon in mind as goar clogged the paint here it is in game seven where jic has a switch against the Slender Jaden McDaniels go comes to double then instantly recovers to Aaron and again that throws off jokic’s lob and it’s a turnover and this time it’s Murray who breaks free and into the backline he’s looking for goar to retreat to the lob only he stays and kills the shot and then tips it to start the break so Rudy did an amazing job playing multiple players at the same time in tight quarters and just freaking people out into shooting near the rim and that was one of the primary reasons the Nuggets had so much trouble scoring at the basket in the last two games of the series it also helps to have great perimeter Defenders watch Edwards stay connected to Murray through multiple screens on this possession and then goar walls off any Drive ideas and this is why Denver had an 85 offensive rating without yic on the floor ant switching on to muray in the third quarter of game seven really helped stall out Jamal’s big game and turn the tide and Edwards was amazing with his ball pressure and then ability to go under the screen and just rematerialize right back in front of the dribbler here’s one from game six where he slides perfectly with Murray’s crossover then Ducks under the screen at the last second and makes life very hard for Jamal and Murray’s used to having a size advantage or bullying slender defenders in the post but Edwards is quick and strong so he can chase him around like he’s handcuffed to his shorts and then Stonewall Murray when he tries to bully him this is from the fourth quarter of game s where ants glued to him while bobbing and weaving underneath a series of picks he finally pushes Murray into goar and there are four wolves in the paint but Conley’s sitting on that corner path so jic is the only open nugget McDaniels fakes the close out and they end up with a contested three instead so this defense can help and recover instantly cat attaches back to jic goar roams to help Edward sinks down to Gordon Aaron actually tries to screen him but he slips out to contest then nearly blocks it after the pump fake and that is superhuman recovery to LEAP out like that and still pounce like a cat on the second jump here’s the same scheme from game six with Reed as the RoR this should be an open three for casy p but ant runs him off the line and takes away the show and go and then it’s McDaniel’s turn because on the reset he gets picked off by yic only to track down Murray and smother him from behind my word so the length and quickness of this defense ifies some of Denver’s cutting actions that are usually effective and that brings us to the most important part of all of this Minnesota’s defensive rating was nearly two points better in this series than in the regular season and that defense generated easy offense for them especially when they needed it most they had a number of Defense to offense sequences in that incredible second half comeback that was a foul but even the best refs miss a few but this one was clean as a whistle from Conley and again the defense isn’t back and that leads to wideopen clutch offense for the Wolves remember in the last video we looked at how good Denver’s halfcourt defense was during this series especially with jic defending the pick and roll where they held Minnesota to a 95 offense of rating According to second Spectrum during the regular season the Wolves averaged 114 points per 100 after their opponents made a field goal against Denver that number was down to 110 so they underperform when the Nuggets mostly set their defense after true set pieces free throws timeouts or dead balls they had a 110 offensive rating during the season but were 18 points worse against the Nuggets meaning the Wolves mustered up just a 103 offensive rating against mostly set or set Denver defenses but after a defensive stop Minnesota’s offensive rating went from 121 in the regular season all the way up to 128 against Denver their defense was their best offense and this could be subtle too the Poke away here leads to a 4 on three towns is ahead of porter on the wing so that means cat has inside position on the offensive rebound and joic isn’t vertical enough to save save the day given the stakes and competition this might have been the best game of cat’s life he made a number of huge shots especially when Minnesota’s halfcourt offense was completely stuck in the early parts of the game he did a good job using his strength to bang with yic in the post and keep him off his spots and he mixed up those looks in their funky pick and roll coverages really really well there were even a couple plays in the series where yic out cut towns away from the ball but in game seven cat was ready for that cut jammed up the Joker floater and then he held his ground on the Block as the Wolves defense did its thing finally I thought Minnesota outlasted Denver in this Marathon they were built to take down the nuggets and all that size length and depth took its toll they scrapped Kyle Anderson this game so they all always had two true big men on the floor and it was fitting that six Man of the Year Nas Reed came in and dominated the final 5 minutes of this series so while their halfcourt offense is still a bit bumpy this Minnesota defense looks like it’s historically great and after a wild back and forth series that was enough to knock off the defending NBA champions and move one step close closer to an NBA title if you want to work in basketball I have the place for you its Sports business classrooms immersive program inside summer league in Las Vegas past instructors in this program have included Commissioner Adam Silver Mike Danton and tons of other industry leaders in the NBA and in media sign up using the code great day for $300 off there’s more information in the description box below if you are interested to support this channel directly check out patreon.com thinking basketball that is the best way to support the thinking basketball podcast and this channel thanks as always for watching all the way through and especially in Minnesota I hope you are having a great day