NBA Official 2026 NBA Playoffs Thread

Ant wasn’t good in the 4th quarter but Jokic and Murray weren’t much better so they survived.

Ant’s knee lingering knee injury is definitely something to keep an eye on from game to game.

The Gobert hate is almost pathological at this point. Last night he put a on a clinic on how to play big man defense.
 
LeBowen said:
Hot take: I'd rather play the Nuggets.

Timberwolves exploit two of our biggest weaknesses, 3pt defense and Kornet's lack of mobility.
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I go back and forth tbh. I might be leaning that way too though for the reasons you stated and because we can exploit Denver's defense more. That and I think Minnesota's physicality, especially in the Playoffs where the zebras typically swallow their whistle more often, could really present some issues for our young guys. But either of these veteran teams will be tough.
 
LeBowen said:
Hot take: I'd rather play the Nuggets.

Timberwolves exploit two of our biggest weaknesses, 3pt defense and Kornet's lack of mobility.
Click to expand...
IMO Jokic’s ability to get Wemby two first quarter fouls throws games off kilter and guarantees a long series. I’ll take playing 4 on 5 against that klutz gobert, who can’t defend Wemby at all
 
The Ballsbreakers said:
Everyone seems terrified of Denver. Not me.

Vic will show the next stage in his evolution (and this Spursian revolution) by dominating that series. I got the Spurs in 5.
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Appropriate fear tbh. Spurs will need all 7 imo.
 
we can play Gobert off the floor. Who is he going to guard? He can't guard Wemby and if they put him on one of the other guys, his lack of mobility gets exposed. They can try to put him on Castle, but Steph has tortured more mobile centers before.
 
RC_Drunkford said:
we can play Gobert off the floor. Who is he going to guard? He can't guard Wemby and if they put him on one of the other guys, his lack of mobility gets exposed. They can try to put him on Castle, but Steph has tortured more mobile centers before.
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On the other hand, Naz runs Kornet off the floor.
I'd say we'd match those 12 to 15 minutes Kornet plays with Gobert.
 
Gobert is a legitimately great defender. The fact that he still doesn't hold a candle to Wemby says a lot more about Wemby than Gobert.
 
I didn't think gobert played great defence tbh, on that clip 3 out of 5 are open uncontested shots that jokic happened to have missed. also the last two seasons he has been on and off with his performance, which is why he didn't get in the top 3 this year. Only good against a specific matchup that barely happens anyway, isn't good enough. That said, I always liked his game.
 
spurraider21 said:
My guy @Spurminator ranting about Gobert being overrated as he was giving jokic fits was pure comedy imho :st-lol:
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Seventyniner said:
Gobert is a legitimately great defender. The fact that he still doesn't hold a candle to Wemby says a lot more about Wemby than Gobert.
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I will not be deterred. Jokic could have easily gone 4-7 on Gobert's defense in the 4th. He had space and missed shots he normally makes. I'll give Rudy that he was certainly trying harder than he usually does, which is probably why so many viewers and the announcers were seduced by it, but that level of effort from an athletic 7-footer should be table stakes.

LMAO at him bitching about not being top 3 when he's already won two (minimum) undeserved DPOY's. I can't even count the games where he's had to be benched in the 4th because teams go small and run circles around him. (See Dallas in just about every series matchup against him since Luka was drafted.)
 
SpursFan86 said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2046469039036535149

Need this attitude from our guys instead of jacking up 3s all game tbh :st-lol:
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It is one thing to let your actions speak for themselves and another thing to taunt an entire team calling them "bad defenders". Doing such things will only rev up a team that is already a championship winner and has a player who is top 3 in the league and a multiple MVP winner and a supporting cast that is possibly the best that Jokic has had in years.

It is stupidity / arrogance of this kind that really puts me off as well and makes me want to root for players like Jokic who just go about their business and leave it all on the court.

As much as I want... as a Spurs fan to avoid the Nuggets in the Conference semifinals.. it is difficult to root for a trash talking team like the T'wolves.
 
LeBowen said:
Hot take: I'd rather play the Nuggets.

Timberwolves exploit two of our biggest weaknesses, 3pt defense and Kornet's lack of mobility.
Click to expand...

It's a tough call. Denver is a very hard matchup because we struggle to guard Jokic and Valunciunas just murders us off the bench. Jamal Murray is the kind of guard that really kills us, too.

With Minnesota, Gobert has a hard time with Wembanyama and the team makes a lot of dumb mistakes that can be capitalized on.
 
Benefits and challenges with either opponent.

May the better team win, and may we beat them if we are Championship worthy.

I lean towards Denver because if we lost to them, I could at least see them being a credible NBA Champion. The Wolves would just get smoked by OKC.
 
bozhemoi said:
It's a tough call. Denver is a very hard matchup because we struggle to guard Jokic and Valunciunas just murders us off the bench. Jamal Murray is the kind of guard that really kills us, too.

With Minnesota, Gobert has a hard time with Wembanyama and the team makes a lot of dumb mistakes that can be capitalized on.
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I'm not that worried about healthy Kornet againast Valanciunas.
Naz is a way bigger matchup problem for us. If Kornet can't keeup up, our only other option is to either play Wemby on Naz or have CB as the backup big.
 
spursfanfromafar said:
It is one thing to let your actions speak for themselves and another thing to taunt an entire team calling them "bad defenders". Doing such things will only rev up a team that is already a championship winner and has a player who is top 3 in the league and a multiple MVP winner and a supporting cast that is possibly the best that Jokic has had in years.

It is stupidity / arrogance of this kind that really puts me off as well and makes me want to root for players like Jokic who just go about their business and leave it all on the court.

As much as I want... as a Spurs fan to avoid the Nuggets in the Conference semifinals.. it is difficult to root for a trash talking team like the T'wolves.
Click to expand...

I dont think McDaniels was taunting. I just think he answered the question as bluntly as he could. Some guys aren't about the finessing of answers to the media, they just want to hoop. I think McDaniels is that kind of guy tbh.

The "trash talking" and bulletin board stuff is highly overrated IMO. I don't think Denver being a bad defensive team is a matter of motivation tbh.
 
RC_Drunkford said:
I just want the Nuggets - Wolves series to go 7 games, so whoever we face in round 2 is exhausted already. Both teams are bad matchups for us, but beatable.

I'd still prefer Minnesota because we can completely ignore Gobert on defense, since they never pass him the ball cause of his bad hands. They don't have a PG and you can force Ant into taking bad shots. When their shooting is off they are terrible, which led to them losing plenty of games against inferior teams in the regular season.

Beating Denver would be tougher since Joker shoots 3s and they can play 5 out. Also Valanciunas and Tim Hardaway always go off against us. Their defense is not good, but they give us a lot of trouble on the other end and they are a team that won a ring before. Gordon and Murray were tired in crunch time with their shortened rotation, let's hope they run them into the ground in this series.
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thats pretty much how i feel, i think we would beat both teams, but Minnesota is more inconsistent and would be an easiest series. Saying that, i think Denver still will win this in 7
 
McDaniels and Ant are a nightmare on the perimeter tbh. They'd make life very hard for Castle/Harper. Even DiVencenzo is not bad and they could just put him on Fox if he's doing his 3pt chucking thing.

That leaves Wemby trying to go 1v1 against Randle with Gobert playing free safety. It's a lot tougher matchup on that end than Murray/Braun/Cam tbh. But yeah, either one would be a great matchup and a huge test. I still think Denver eeks it out in 6 tho.
 
Mugen said:
I dont think McDaniels was taunting. I just think he answered the question as bluntly as he could. Some guys aren't about the finessing of answers to the media, they just want to hoop. I think McDaniels is that kind of guy tbh.

The "trash talking" and bulletin board stuff is highly overrated IMO. I don't think Denver being a bad defensive team is a matter of motivation tbh.
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Modern NBA fans are never happy.
They complain when the players are all best buddies, but when we see some actual rivalry, disrespect and antagonism, they also don't like it.

McDaniels didn't say anything controversial. Everyone knows that the Nuggets are the worst defensive team out of all the contenders.
 
In re: to our desired 2nd round opponent...I'd still pretty easily pick Denver over Minnesota. Ant's health just seems like a major question mark right now, and ultimately I feel very confident we'd have the best player in that series whereas there's a very real possibility that Jokic could outplay Wemby for a best-of-7 series.

Not that I think Minnesota would be a cakewalk, but if I had to throw some half-assed odds out there...I'd say we have like a 50-55% chance of beating Denver and maybe 60-65% chance of beating Minnesota.

Regardless, this 1st round being a slugfest and going 6 or 7 games would be big for us. Was great to see Minnesota come back and pull off that win last night.
 
LeBowen said:
Hot take: I'd rather play the Nuggets.

Timberwolves exploit two of our biggest weaknesses, 3pt defense and Kornet's lack of mobility.
Click to expand...
All I want after last night is for the Nuggets/Wolves to have a tough back and forth series and for the Spurs to take care of business. Get some rest before round 2.. It is highly likely Denver/Wolves will be 2-2 going back to Denver. Spurs have to win tonight..
 
spursfanfromafar said:
It is one thing to let your actions speak for themselves and another thing to taunt an entire team calling them "bad defenders". Doing such things will only rev up a team that is already a championship winner and has a player who is top 3 in the league and a multiple MVP winner and a supporting cast that is possibly the best that Jokic has had in years.

It is stupidity / arrogance of this kind that really puts me off as well and makes me want to root for players like Jokic who just go about their business and leave it all on the court.

As much as I want... as a Spurs fan to avoid the Nuggets in the Conference semifinals.. it is difficult to root for a trash talking team like the T'wolves.
Click to expand...
I mean, Denver is bad at defending, they are easy to score on, they win games with their offense, just not let them score 136 every game like we do all season :ROFLMAO:
 
The "back and forth" or "tough" series before to wear them out stuff doesn't really play a factor until late in the playoffs (WCF/Finals) IMO.

Unless one of these teams suffers a key injury in a game they wouldn't have played had they matched up against a lesser opponent, I actually think it's more of a disadvantage to the Spurs. Coming off a sweep or relatively easy 4-1 series against a Round2 opponent that's been playing high-level playoff ball for the last 6-7 games is a pretty tough ask especially if you can lose HCA in Game 1 tbh.
 
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