Chuck Says Timberwolves Will Sweep the Nuggets After Game 2 Blowout | Inside the NBA

Inside the NBA reacts to the Minnesota Timberwolves blowing out the Denver Nuggets in Game 2 and Charles Barkley is confident the “series is a wrap”.

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wow 51% shooting for Minnesota points in the paint 52 to 34 points off turnover 19-2 in favor of Minnesota and they just absolutely Hammer the Champs 106 to 80 I don’t even know where you start but I think the Minnesota defense would be a good place to start check yeah the defense was stifling all night you know they played you know they just came out listen they got game one they they they knew that they didn’t want to mess around in game two and they was all over the place guys out there playing their roles this guy right here McDaniel had a hell of a game Alexander also played great the team played great this why they’re the number one defense in the playoffs and in regular season stifling defense and they just kept playing they weren’t complaining about calls they were touching them up roughing them up running them over that’s how you got to play in the second round if you want to you know move on continue to move on they contest everything so uh so AGG aggressively Kenny yeah contesting that the one thing that you I’m surprised not be surprised but we would think we were trying to figure out between Murray Gordon and um Porter you would feel that they would be difficult to match up against with joic in the paint creating possible double teams that has probably been the easiest part is them matching up with those three guys and that’s typically has been in their championship run last year the deciding factor you you who’s going to guard Porter if you don’t you put the right guy on him don’t don’t put the right guy he shoots threes and he kills you you don’t put the right guy on Gordon he kills you on the offensive glass he runs the lane and gets dunk you don’t put the right guy on Murray he doesn’t go three for 18 he goes 15 for 18 um so that is probably been the most surprising thing that they’ve outmatched the three guys that really take them over the top and be a championship well I think the main thing they just not they playing Joker one-on-one the Nuggets don’t have but two guys can get their own shots that’s Joker and Murray look at the team muray you saying that negatively they won a championship last year yeah because when guys would uh Porter doesn’t get shots on his own he gets shots off Joker’s double uh same thing with Aaron Gard they don’t get the ball and go one-on-one they only have two guys who get their own shot uh maybe a little bit CP uh T is co pop po but they’re playing The Joker oneon-one they shut down Michael Porter cuz he’s not getting wide open shots same thing with Aaron Gordon but their perimeter defense they uh I mean to play those guys one-on-one is pretty impressive the length they play with uh but man you know you we don’t have them on that much and you see like what they the number one defensive team you’re seeing why they are the number one defensive team they held Denver to 35% shooting in this one hold them to 80 points for the game they’re up two nothing they’re 6 and0 in the postseason and here’s their head coach Chris Finch Chris just what did you see from your guys collectively tonight to dominate the way that they did on on both ends you know we’ve had some really really good defensive efforts this year but that has to be right up there the best of them uh on the ball off the ball the physicality um execution of the game plan um just you know doing it over and over and over and over again requires like a physical and a mental toughness they had that um yeah I thought uh just really locked in on defense so I think uh Rudy’s absence just did that even heighten everyone’s awareness and focus or what how do you explain it with without the best player on your on your floor defensively well listen like I mean Rudy’s driven a defensive culture here and you know I think it’s it it’s a testament to you know to his his his impact his presence um and what he’s infused into the team on how important defense is and how great we can be when we play it um you know that aside we’ve always had we expect to win no matter who’s with us and who’s not and um our guys truly believe that and you know we’re very very very very happy for Rudy you know extremely happy happy for him and guys feel that way but they’re ready to go it’s just um tweak a few things to the game plan and um kind of just went at it Chris you touched on it just a second ago but what does it say about this team the way they defended even when they’re up 20 they’re defending like it’s a tie ball game just what does that say about the effort and dedication of this team yeah I that me we keep harping on him you know it’s been our identity all year um this team is well known by its ability to come back from one Hall several times so how optimistic are you to come back from this two Hall uh yeah it’s going to be a challenge you know um you know the body language of our guys you know is is not where I think it needs to be but you know we just got beat up in our building we got embarrassed in front of our fans um the good thing is we don’t play till Friday we have a chance to kind of get away and and think about what we want to do moving forward and um I’m not worried about anything other than trying to win game three and really just trying to win the first quarter of game three and build it from there take a one quarter at a time um I think it was a four-point game late in that first they closed 40 now we’re down eight and then they started off the second quarter 110 and uh and that’s that’s when the game got away from us um their physicality our our ability to get into our offense get a shot off uh we played in in in late clock situations all night long long so yes you have to give credit to them but you know we we didn’t own our spots and we didn’t meet their aggression and physicality um at the level that we needed to so I’ll have a much better idea on that question you know come Wednesday when we get back in the gym and get a feel for our players and where their energy is at and um My Hope Is that yeah we’re down 20 not ideal um but it’s a long series first run to four can we find a way to believe in each other believe in ourselves and and win game three that’s all that matters coach knowing that now you guys have been through this we’ve talked about it before yeah lose first two games at home and still manage to come back and win a series I’ve been blessed to be on a team that was able to do that uh there was there’s several factors that has to come about and I think the first is there has to be a delusion of grandeur you have to believe outside of your body that you can do that as a team and that has to translate from your secretaries to your ball boys to everybody that’s around your team they have to have that delusion the second thing obviously if you have a guy you know we had a guy in AIM alijan but in him but the the the problem that’s going on is the guys are not helping jic or AEM so there there has to be a night where a Kenny Smith has to get 25 bery Maxwell has to get 30 Sam Cel has to get 30 there has to be Porter the Murray those guys have to because what happens when a when a great player i’ I found when a great player like Shaq or Charles if they have a bad game and you and you have a great one and you win you pull them through the hole and everyone forgets but if you don’t allow them if you don’t allow them to have one night off in a seven game series then you can’t win a championship and people remember the nights that they didn’t get pulled through the hole joic that didn’t get pulled through the hole tonight or the other night no one pulled them through and you know you know you’ve had Big Shot Bob you’ve had Rick Fox you’ve had obviously Kobe you know and yourself you’ve had Kevin Johnson Dan Marley they’ve had 30-point nights that maybe at night you were good you weren’t a superstar 19 points and 10 rebounds that’s not those are great numbers but they’re not Charles barckley numbers and someone pulled you through the hole to met you get 54 the next night yeah we momentum we all know momentum is very important in in the playoffs you know momentum wise Denver has not played Championship caliber basketball the first series or this series you know Mike’s been Haring on about how bad they start the first quarters they’ve been playing with the switch that me and Charles you know always talk about you know down when when they played the Lakers they were down they flipped the switch was able to have miraculous come back against a team like Denver who’s number one during a regular season and number one in the play I mean excuse me Minnesota number one in in regular season and number one in the playoffs and defense he can’t mess around it’s going to be tough uh they’re going home it’s going to be a lot of energy you know the pressure is on Denver they play well at home and everybody is is is is playing their role to a te for Minnesota they outplayed them they out toughed them they punked them and I expect the same thing to happen for game three well listen Kenny has got some good points Shaq got some good points this series is a WP Mota is better than the Nuggets no disrespect they don’t have an advantage the MVP is getting outplayed they don’t have an advantage anywhere Jamal Murray I think he’s still hurt a little bit but other than that they don’t have an advantage anywhere this series is a rap the Minnesota timberwoods you know I said before the season I didn’t believe with them in them they have changed my mind 100 100% they are going to win this series I don’t know who they going to play the other series could be very entertaining but man they are for real they have that guy if you have that guy and that boy for that that bulldog is he might as well be a damn wolf because he ain’t messing around he’s like boys y’all come on and follow me and the other guys are following him but when you have a guy like that and you have some other good players cuz you no team is going to be good unless you have a guy you know you don’t think yic is a guy he is a guy but not this series them two guys like he couldn’t even think about this he could even dominate one of them the other ones at home congratulation for having baby he couldn’t even dominate when the other one was there you know how rough it’s going to be going to Minnesota against them two guys cuz he he you saw what happened in game one and he didn’t play T I said well the Joker can dominate tonight cuz Rudy’s not here you never thought the Denver was going to win that game tonight uh the Minnesota timber are for real they’re going to sweep the Denver Nuggets period they uh they hold the Nuggets to sweep 80 points in this when winning 106 TNT 80 without guarante TNT guarantee somebody needs to throw yeah TNT go ahead and start making those reservations that hot pack that’s right get the hot packs ready we going to Minnesota [Music]