[Highlight] Guarding in isolation with the game on the line, Rudy Gobert gets the massive stop on Kevin Durant
I thought he was cooked for sure seeing him on an island with KD. I guess only him or Wemby could stop that. Scott Foster was so mad had to foul him out right after this.
KD took one more dribble and that was enough for Rudy to recover. Great highlight for Rudy!
Yeah that dribble was ill-advised for sure. Bet he’s regretting that one.
I’ve seen him do that crossover pull up a million times, I don’t know why he took one more dribble
Rudy’s perimeter defense gets seriously underrated.
Yeah he had him, but I guess he had his mind set on shooting from somewhere else and couldn’t mentally adjust in time. I don’t know, that’s all I can think of because Rudy was completely turned around after that crossover, that was obviously the opportunity.
Agreed they the only 2 who could’ve stopped KD right there. Also foster deserves to be in prison.
We literally just saw bam force kd into a double clutch brick last game lol
I would argue Mitch Robinson could pull this off as well. Its a great play, but its not a “only guy who could pull that off” play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMrKaldoo9A
As a reminder, same playoffs Luka hit the game winner over Gobert and everyone decided he sucked massively in isolation possessions, he held the best players to 7⁄24 shooting, like 29% shooting.
As a t wolves fan when we got him I was afraid of these situations I’m kinda surprised he’s gotten better with that as he’s aged I def thought it was going to look nasty in these years
I’m genuinely shocked that Gobert has aged like a fine French wine. When the Wolves made that trade, I thought it was going to be an absolute disaster by this point because guys as big as Gobert typically don’t age well in the NBA. But somehow at 33 and 7’1, Gobert still moves so well and is still one of the very best defenders in the league. I thought he’d be an injured, broken down husk at this point, and instead he’s still one of the 3 best defenders in the league AND has played in 73 games. It’s honestly kind of wild.
did this to luka in isolation in the playoffs last year too
funny how people have selective memory
People act like Gobert has been a failure in Minnesota when they’ve made back to back WCFs equal to their deepest run in franchise history
They’ve had their best years as a franchise with Gobert as the defensive anchor next to Ant that’s just a fact
Ya. If it was the lakers then it would be considered a failure but its fucking us most of our fans would think back to back wcfs would be impossible before hand.
If you told me in 2016 when a beer was twice the price of a ticket that we’d make back to back WCF in the next decade I would’ve laughed in your face.
Are there really people who act like he’s been a failure in Minnesota? That’s nuts. That trade turned out SO much better than I expected. Two WCF appearances and the fact Gobert still looks like this at 33 makes that trade a huge win. It blows my mind anyone would think otherwise. I thought Gobert would be a broken down husk by this point in his career, and instead he’s blocking KD jumpers.
Yea but Luka hit one shot on him once so he’s actually garbage
Funny thing is Gobert locked him up multiple times last year, but no one likes watching those highlights here
Defense doesnt bring in karma
I do!
People don’t like Gobert. He was the face of Covid in the NBA, has had a number of high profile flagrant fouls, believes in crystal power bullshit, punched a teammate, and is French. Great player, though.
common r/nba user listing French as a reason to hate Rudy, when tons of French players have been just fine or even loved teammates before. nobody hates on Wemby or Yabusele or Batum (except us Hornets fans, but that’s cuz Batum quit on us and not because he’s French, Clippers love that dude)
And it’s not like it was a poorly defended shot either
Right? That’s what gets me. Like you can’t really contest that shot better unless you somehow block it or foul. Luka’s insane and just makes shit with a hand in his face, but it’s Rudy so he’s obviously a failure.
This is the unfair problem defenders have you can be perfect for 24 seconds and no one will care if the shot goes in. Guy on offence can make bad plays or do nothing for 23.5 seconds but no one will care if the ball goes in at the end.
Watching highlights of guys like Kyrie get posted talking about how he cooked defender x and you watch it and sure he did get by but takes them like 5 moves to actually get the defender off balance to make that move so he was defender perfectly for the first 4 and then gets ‘clowned’ for not being perfect on the 5th
Before that it was James Harden, and before that Steph Curry.
Funny how a center keeps being beat on the perimeter by some of the best guards in NBA history. So weird.
the problem was everyone in the world knew luka was about to cook him the whole time
It’s so annoying cause Luka makes any defender look silly from time to time. Every the best perimeter on ball defenders will get spun around or pump faked into oblivion. But people only talk shit about Gobert cause Luka crossed him bad once. And he still got a decent contest out of it.
Yeah that discourse was so annoying, and it’s just because Gobert has so many haters. In 2021-22, Miles Bridges was second in DPOY voting and then got absolutely torched by Luka in that famous Suns-Mavs playoff series. I think by the end of the series, the Suns were barely trying to put Bridges on Luka anymore.
And yet Gobert caught 1 million times more criticism for Luka hitting a single shot over him.
I made a youtube video of all the times he stopped Luka and Lebron just from that playoff series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlzsXQJz9_M
People will still remember that one shot over all of these clips though
tbh that shot is just such a great shot its unfortunate
Luka attacked him relentlessly game 1 and 2 then he stopped lol.
The media has a certain narrative to uphold, so they wont post these highlights on YouTube and such. And so the casuals only got the lowlights instead
Without Rudy wolves would be 10th seed at best
People underestimate how good Rudy has been on defense over the last half decade or so, just because the dude plays like flightreacts on offense.
His fumbles are mostly face palm worthy that people usually remembers it more than his defensive greatness.
Casual fans just overall don’t know how to appreciate defense, so even his highlights don’t stay registered for long, and especially not all the little things he constantly does to throw opposing offenses out of rhythm.
Dude is a genuine tower of terror, folks should go back and watch how much Houston was absolutely selling out to try and prevent him from getting rebounds.
Best defender in the NBA in that period
His defense is elite, and while he isn’t going to give you volume, statistically he is one of the most efficient scorers in the NBA (best eFG%, 4th best TS% this season). When needed he can get double digits and every once in a while will give you a 20+ point game. For someone who is always going to be the fifth scoring option on the court that’s pretty good, and it’s bolstered by his ability to screen for our primary offensive players. Definitely not someone you’d love on a max with the new CBA, but at 35m/year he’s one of the best contracts in the NBA imo. Without Rudy we are a play in team at best.
When you say people.. do you mean KD? He has led the Gobert hate.
Also the entire Inside NBA crew
Draymond is always talking shit
Also the entire NBA
KD is just a hater in general lol, so he would probably count in “people”.
The Rudy Gobert redemption arc has been so good
A1aaààc
One of the greatest defenders ever, and higher than most would admit
Totally agree and yet I still see people say it’s debatable if he makes the Hall Of Fame, I don’t think k he is first ballet but Rudy should 100% make it
4 time DPOY? (tied for most ever) Yeah he’s a lock
Great recovery after that cross shook him out of his boots
Yeah, that’s kind of the thing with Gobert. He looks awkward as fuck moving around, but he’s stupidly long and weirdly quick for how doofy he can seem. You get past him and he just shows up in the rear-view mirror again, still off-balance but somehow keeping pace.
That recovery is insane. Defensive footwork isn’t praised enough
You know how hard it is to block a KD jumper, insane.
Especially after getting juked so hard that you almost fall. Insane recovery.
It is the Gobert experience - looks like a baby giraffe until the shot is ready to go up. He’s always stumbling around on the perimeter but still gets off great contests.
Rudy is so massive to winning. Glad the team rallied to get this win because no Rudy is a big uphill battle to win.
4x DPOY type shit
RUDY WITH 5 BLOCKS BTW!!!!!
That’s my clean eating French man, oui oui
Casuals will conveniently ignore this play.
Does it make you feel cool suggesting that you’re in some elite group that knows ball and somehow that makes you above a “casual” fan? Lol
still the best human defender in the league
I understood this reference.
KD had a WIDE open shot right there, that’s like a 90% shot for him. Can’t believe he took that extra dribble. So unnecessary.
Between this and him not being able to pass out of a double team, it just highlights how his bbiq is pretty bad for someone with his talent
Great recovery but KD really let him back in by taking that extra dribble. He had a wide open jumper
I agree, this Durant guy doesn’t know what he’s doing out there.
ahahahha Lmao.
A younger KD would have taken that shot but he’s old, lost a step.
Should’ve pulled up from that 2nd cross.
ELITE MOTOR. ELITE CONDITIONING. OMELETTE DU FROMAGE
KD needed to take the shot as soon as Rudy felled.
KD lives for this shit
Gobert gets clowned because of a few high-profile cases where he was guarding on the perimeter and gave up a 3 but he’s actually really good guarding ball handlers in isolation, at least for a big. I always hated the criticism he got for giving up that 3 to Luka in the playoffs because Luka also cooks wings and guards too
Can I get a clip of the KD missed FTs, and the previous foul? My stream froze with like 8 seconds left in overtime, shortly after the inbound
Kd is not unguardable anymore
Dude is actually so good at defense. Especially for his size in these spots. He just has terrible lowlights so he gets clowned
Didn’t some dumb-fuck just post about how defensive doesn’t really matter in basketball?
Dude channeled his inner Kevin Love
That’s for the Olympics 😤😤😤
elite balance and recovery. he looked like he was about to fall on his ass from that crossover
Love how polarizing he is. On his highlights he’s underrated but when he fumbles a pass 10 times in a game he’s overpaid
Scoot Fister needs to go to prison for many years
Rudy has this weird way of stumbling around looking like a dinosaur that lost its balance but then recovering and getting a great contest. It’s pretty wild. He’s rarely ever just beat so bad he’s out of the play. Even when a guard will turn him around and get a step, he still manages a really decent contest on a jumper or layup.
This was such a good game
He had him on the cross if he read it right, should’ve went back to the right but seems like he wanted the pull up on the left
Tbf he fucked up on the very next play and almost screwed us
That’s one of the greatest recoveries I think I’ve ever seen… bro was absolutely cooked and recovered crazy
KD has him beat at about 10 seconds, but then all 4 other Rockets and Timberwolves are standing in the paint in front of KD so he has to pull up for a midrange instead of driving in for a layup or kicking it to a shooter, which lets Rudy recover to block him. Don’t get me wrong, that’s good defensive effort from Rudy, but what the hell were the Rockets doing there?
Gobert’s footwork in this clip to recover is a work of art.