Game Thread Playoffs Round 2, Game 1: Spurs vs Timberwolves (0-0) (Mon 05/04/2026) [8:30 CDT]

[SanAnSpursFan21]

Just read some comments on the TWolves official post about the win. Shouldn’t have done that, now I’m fired up.

Get it together boys. These goofy fans legit think they can sweep you.

 

[Mugen]

Yep and you really see the immaturity of this team as these playoffs are going on here. Really bad passes, really bad shots, disorganized
offense, etc. This is definitely the worst version of this team We will see in the coming years. Assuming healthy

And that was just Fox

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

I think the best thing is just ignore that troll. Mute or do not respond.

I’m not a fan of muting/ignoring. This Reddit quirk chungus r/nba-tier filth needs to get addressed tbh. fuck them

 

[100%Duncan]

I’m conflicted all around because:

1. I like a timeout. A good team takes a time out
2. I feel like we win in OT, I take a well drawn up play for 2
3. We are so young and honestly looked lost when we got the board
4. We are also a terrible out of timeout team. We never have a well drawn up play that’s also well executed
5. We actually ended up with a descent look anyway
6. Julz earned that shot
7. Nobody else was making shots anyway so high chance whoever gets the drawn up play misses

All these things are true tbh. I’m ok with the outcome and julz getting the shot for it

I think we werent gonna get a better shot out of a timeout tbh. I mean conceptually yes, but Mitch hasnt shown he can do that in this season.


If only he can call a play like JJ reddick tbh. Not saying he’s a better coach but yah

 

[Dbreiden83080]

And that was just Fox

Dylan Harper starting point guard timeline might be going into over drive

 

[SpurPadre]

Most people seem to think it was a pretty good luck. You don’t fine. Move on. It was a very makeable shot for him.

It was a good look but I think our stars deserve and should be relied upon to get final shot opportunities. You do that via a timeout.

 

[Arguendo]

Keldon was absolute trash. His defense sucked harder than the worst porn star

There was a stretch where Keldon's scoring kept us in the game. We get blown out without that stretch.
Keldon's D will always be extremely limited and he was on Ant a bunch. I don't fault a weak defender for playing weak D when he's in the right position and trying and active. And he was, he made them work as much as he could.

 

[Kick-Stand]

Two cents from a wolves fan tonight. I didn't see the first half I was still working. Saw the 7 block stats and was surprised it was so close. Should have been a blowout, DVD and Ayo are a huge part of this team and ant isn't 100% yet. Even if so this isn't the roster that should compete with the 26 spurs.

BUT takeaways for the second half. Your coach is trash. Pop has been a bitter corpse the last 5-6 years also and that has stifled the addition of a great coach. Denver was clearly out coached and every wolves fan was so thankful that they didn't still have Malone. I'm not a Finch fan but it was too easy to take Wemby out of the equation down the stretch on D. No reason for him not to counter the wide open curls and screens to pull Wemby out of the paint.

And Wemby was very undiscliplined. The first half block stats got me thinking that and it reafirmed it watching the second half. He is very quick to leave his feet. A guy that can score from the 5 and take advantage of that could get him in easy foul trouble. Plus the 3s he took seemed out of flow and forced. Especially with Randle/Jaden getting into foul trouble and Rudy being too slow.

Victor played like a shithead and Coach Fivehead was happy to let him throw his feces around the sandbox. He still thinks he's 7'6" Durant and can take guys off the dribble from the three point line when he's at his deadliest by far when they make him 7'6" Garnett getting the ball at the elbow or the top of the key where he can raise up for the easy jumper, attack the rim only needing one dribble if his man gets off balance, or find cutters. It drives me nuts seeing how low Victor's BBIQ often is offensively and Mitch is like the father who lets his kid eat candy for dinner. The youtube highlights look pretty when Victor gets it at the three point line and drives by his man for the dunk like the one he got on Gobert in the first quarter but getting him the ball beyond the three point line is generally an awful idea other than when it's to take a wide open catch and shoot three. Wolves are a great team but Ant's 70% at best right now and they couldn't hit a free throw tonight so an inexcusable loss.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

Just read some comments on the TWolves official post about the win. Shouldn’t have done that, now I’m fired up.

Get it together boys. These goofy fans legit think they can sweep you.

Good luck with that

 

[KDKSpurs24]

It's a really tough matchup for us and their veterans are playing better and smarter than ours. We have no one that can battle Randle/Reid. Lots of wasted possessions. If Harper is injured, we are truly fucked. I Hope CB comes back soon. He'd be great on Shannon

On Shannon?? Who do you think CB is? Did you see how fast Shannon was? CB doesn’t have the foot speed for Shannon. CB on Randle would have been better but he would still get in foul trouble

 

[timtonymanu]

Just read some comments on the TWolves official post about the win. Shouldn’t have done that, now I’m fired up.

Get it together boys. These goofy fans legit think they can sweep you.

Can you really blame their fanbase when everyone else was saying this will be an easy series for the Spurs?

 

[SupremeGuy]

Like I don’t understand why him and even kornet just don’t grab the ball and reset

Yeah, it was weird. Like I said, I've seen him to do similar things before, but he did it a lot tonight. Felt like he kept trying to make a highlight play instead of just getting the board.

 

[LeBowen]

It is NOT a great look. That is kinda the point! Its a dribble step back 3! When has that been a great look for Champ? When did he become a good step back shooter? The Spurs best person shooting step back 3s is Fox and almost everyone here is annoyed when he does it which should tell you how good that shot actually is.

Champ is 3-9 for the season on step back shots.
Made just 5 unassisted 3s all season long.
28% FG on jumpshots after taking a dribble.

I'm not blaming him for missing the shot, he got the most out of the situation, but that's not his game.

 

[Ice009]

He was looking for a timeout. Then when he realized it wasn't coming it was oh shit better figure something out.

Yeah, darn. He's a young player and was probably looking for that timeout. Fuck. Mitch probably hasn't even gone through scenarios with these guys on what to do if down two with the rebound and 8 seconds to go etc. and no timeout. I thought teams go through these types of scenarios all the time, but I guess not. Probably Dylan was thinking timeout.

Keldon was absolute trash. His defense sucked harder than the worst porn star

Unfortunately, Keldon, I'm not a believe in. I believe in most of the guys in the rotation. Not sure what I can say about Keldon at this point. It was a bad look him mouthing off to Edwards after getting scored on multiple times.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

It was a good look but I think our stars deserve and should be relied upon to get final shot opportunities. You do that via a timeout.

I mean, it’s a game of inches as they say

Champ makes that shot and we yank a victory out of our ass at the last second. Unfortunately, he missed.

 

[SickDSM]

It’s not about the damn HC in this case/matchup. We don’t have the personnel. If we had a REAL PF with size in the rotation this game doesn’t play out the way it did with all of those mismatches for Randle. But we don’t even have one on the team so we have to live with what we have and the HC has to do what he can.

None of that happens if Wemby guards him. Game plan seems to be him playing free safety coming in from offball but there's no problems with the personnel. What's Randle going to do, dump it off to Rudy so he can get blocked by a guard or punt it out of bounds?

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

There was a stretch where Keldon's scoring kept us in the game. We get blown out without that stretch.
Keldon's D will always be extremely limited and he was on Ant a bunch. I don't fault a weak defender for playing weak D when he's in the right position and trying and active. And he was, he made them work as much as he could.

Yeah criticizing a guy for sucking at something he’s always kind of sucked at is wasted energy.

What isn’t is wanting your max player to marginally contribute and not be a purely negative force lmao

 

[DaSlicer]

Several observations I made from this game

1. This first one is not really from this game alone but from what I have seen all year. Anthony Edwards hates Victor and always plays with a lot of fire when he sees him. I saw earlier this year during the all-star game when he called out Victor. I have seen it in that commercial in which he insulted Victor. I think the hate comes from jealousy and competition of wanting to be the face of the league granted Edwards says he doesn't want to be the face of the league but I think he's bullshitting when he says that and really wants to be the face. The hate gives him a lot of juice and adrenaline to perform at a high level despite having bad knees. Spurs might just have to concede that they won't be able stop this guy and either focus on quick double teams and have a concentrated effort to stop everybody else.

2. Victor has been shooting like shit since coming back from that concussion. I have a theory that his bad shooting is still the side effects of that concussion injury he had. I remember many years ago back in 2015 Klay Thompson suffering a concussion in the close out WCF game against the Rockets. His shooting in the next series against the Cavs was bad for a few games before he got back his rhythm. I remember Klay saying in an interview once after that series was over that the concussion messed up his shooting for a few games.

3. Gobert I believe is unplayable in this series for the Wolves. This is something the Spurs can exploit if they play smart. The Wolves went on their biggest run in the 4th when he wasn't there.

4. Julius Randle is going to be a problem since the Spurs have nobody of size to defend him, box him out on the boards and he can screen Victor from protecting the paint. Mitch has to do a better job of at least calling out the refs when Julius is grabbing and holding and setting illegal screens on Vic on the defensive end.

5. Fox is trash. I don't have to explain that. This is the series where he really proves his worth going forward.

6. I have said for years coaching is overrated in the NBA since Players determine 90 percent of the game and at best coaches determine the 10 percent. In a series like this the 10 percent could really determine whether the Spurs win or lose since both teams are closely matched. Mitch made some dumb decisions that cost his team the game while Finch made some decisions that gave his team the edge to win.

7. The refs are not allowing the Spurs to play physical in these playoffs. We saw it against the Blazers how they were allowed to hack with impunity but the Spurs were called for ticky tack fouls when they tried to play physical. This game was the same type of situation with Castle fouling out and other guys getting in a foul trouble. Mitch needs to bitch and complain about this stuff because that's what coaches do to influence how the game will be called.

8. This is going to be a close series that I believe will go to 7 games. I can't imagine the Wolves continue to barely squeak by every game and win in a sweep or 5 games. They will also lose some heartbreaking games where things don't go there way. Eventually it will even out.

 

[KDKSpurs24]

As usual, Mitch doesn’t play him. We’re going to need him for some defense and bodies on Randle we have nobody who can guard him. Keldon has a big body and might be more useful this series but CB has got to play 10 mins for some length and defense.

CB was out for this game. He was injured did you not see that?

 

[bignono]

LOL Wolves in 4 my goodness

 

[Ice009]

What was up with Wemby trying to rebound and shoot at the same time? I hadn't seen him do that shit so often in one game. The whole team just felt off tonight.

That was weird. I don't know what he was doing. Seemed like some sort of malfunction where he thought the shot clock had run down or it was the end of the quarter or something.

 

[Rafa]

Dylan Harper starting point guard timeline might be going into over drive

I think there’s a fair argument on who’s been more valuable this post season, at least enough of one to stir the pot

 

[MannyIG]

It was a wide open shot, that’s he’s drilled a number of times. I don’t know what you saw from Wemby tonight to think whatever he would have attempted against a set defense would have been better… but we’ll never know.

This all feels like second guessing going for 2 for the win instead of kicking the XP for OT, because the 2pt play failed to convert.

We can’t do the math, because we don’t know what shot a set play would have yielded… so we can’t all just argue until we’re blue in the face… but I’m very happy happy giving the guy who’s shooting 50+% from 3 in these playoffs an open look at a shot he’s made plenty of times before (including in this same game)

Yeah man, he has not been hitting step back 3s.

I wish I had the 2nd Specturm stats because Champ is great on catch and shoot shots but the moment he dribbles I feel that percentage nose dives. And add in a step back? Yeah no.

But ultimately they didn't lose on the last shot either way. It was everythign that came before. But Wemby going to the hole was actually very good all night, he just didn't do it enough. 5-9 on twos and one of those was a mid ranged jumper he missed late and the other was that weird offensive rebound where he stupidly decided to not come down but just threw it back up.



I'm not sure what hte 2 misses where, but assuming they were off drives thats 5-7 on drives tonight including a late dunk. Yeah, I think that's a much higher percentage shot than Champ's step back 3, but at least Champs shot gives you an outright win. But you're right and we'll never know if we even get that since they almost certainly send a double team at Wemby if he drives and its someone else shooting or a badly contested shot.

I don't like that Champ shot, but its not the end of the world there because when it geos in you win. They definitely didn't lose on that shot but rather many of the stupid decisions that preceded that one.

 

[bignono]

We are not ready for playoffs whatsoever

 

[SpursFan86]

I refuse to get on social media until Wednesday’s game tbh. I absolutely cannot handle seeing T-Wolves fans gloat (as they rightfully should) or other fanbases dunk on Wemby for the next 48 hours