Before you judge Rudy Gobert, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year who just let Nikola Jokić score 40 points in a crucial Game 5, ask yourself a question.
How would you guarding the Denver Nuggets superstar if you were 7 feet tall and had Gobert’s agility and wingspan? If you have an answer, you are wrong or you need to contact the Minnesota Timberwolves ASAP.
They certainly could use the help after a 112-97 loss that gave the Nuggets a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinals, a series in which Minnesota once led 2-0 and looked unstoppable. A must-win Game 6 awaits in Minneapolis on Thursday.
Getting back to the Jokić issue, let’s go through some highlights and see if we can figure out what Gobert should have done differently on a night where the MVP dropped 40 on 15-of-22 shooting with 13 assists, seven rebounds and – take take a deep breath – zero turnover.
Here Gobert matches Jokić step by step and ultimately forces him into a difficult hook shot, which he makes.
Here he meets him in the paint with Kyle Anderson trailing him, leaving only a split second in which a shot is even possible. Of course, Jokić finds that window and takes the photo.
Here he has to follow Jokić to the perimeter and stay with him because there is no viable help defense waiting for them in the paint. Gobert actually gives up and commits a foul that throws him off balance. Jokić takes the contact, then… and-1.
That was all in the span of about six minutes, in a third quarter that featured 16 points and four assists.
Then came the dagger in the fourth quarter, when Gobert kept his hand in Jokic’s face for the entire shot.
Gobert is one of the best defensive players in NBA history, a man whose presence in the paint can single-handedly make a defense great. When he joined the Timberwolves’ supporting cast, he anchored the best defense in the NBA during the regular season.
The goal of any game plan is to get him in front of a player with the ball in the paint.
The problem for the Timberwolves, and every remaining team in the playoffs, and every team hoping to challenge for the title in the coming years, is that a fully functional Jokić seems to be a problem without a solution, even if Gobert orders you gives what is closest to an answer key. What do you do when a 7-footer has the best court vision and basketball IQ the NBA has ever seen from a big man, combined with a 284-pound weight, a shooting touch and the fastest hands in the West?
Minnesota seemed close to solving him early in the series, but then lost all momentum. They entered Game 5 missing veteran Mike Conley and saw Karl-Anthony Towns struggle with an apparent leg injury in the second quarter.
It honestly felt like a win as the Timberwolves went into halftime trailing by just six points as they had turned it over 11 times, while Anthony Edwards was 1 of 8 from the field and Towns and Naz Reid were in foul trouble . It seemed like a turning point when they scored the first seven points of the third quarter and briefly took the lead.
Denver quickly responded with a 9-2 run as Jokić went to work. A massacre followed.
