Rudy Gobert hits a demoralizing fadeaway jumper over Nikola Jokić in Game 7 of the 2024 Western Conference Semifinals
That is was one the most shocking shots I saw live.
Can’t wait for the Rudy 3pt swish next playoffs, got close in the last one.
On jokic again, for old times sake
I remember that shot. Gosh it was hilarious seeing how much yall owned the nuggets
Look, I don’t know a lot of basketball history but this has to be one of the objectively funniest things to ever happen on an NBA court
Nuggets window closed when Rudy made this bullshit 😭
That Game 7 choke will haunt them forever. Could’ve went to back-to-back finals easily
That was the moment I knew we were losing.
The bench knew it too ;)
It was truly unbelievable. I knew we would win the game after that shot fell.
the spirit of basketball possessed Rudy for that moment
Kobe came up from the afterlife and taught Rudy how to be a menace in Colorado
Might be the best comment I’ve ever seen on this subreddit🤣
REDDIT ON STRANGER, AND FUCK MY WIFE!
jerked too close to the sun homie
Got it in without jokic’s consent
His ghost rose from the depths of hell just for that possession
Ey yoowww that’s a foul!
Lakers fans down voted 🤣
“look at me, I am the Luka now”
There’s no way we didn’t win that game afterwards
Yup, there are some plays like that where there is just an irrational “nope, this shit is over, the sports gods have spoken” sense to them.
Ray Allen’s 3 was the basketball gods punishing the Spurs for benching their franchise GoaT for two clutch defensive plays (bench Duncan once, give up a rebound and a 3, do it again and same results, don’t disrespect the basketball gods).
The Tyree helmet catch was the football gods saying “no perfect season for the patriots.” I was not surprised at all when a few plays later the patriots dropped a game deciding interception. A play like the helmet catch isn’t so easily erased.
This was that type of play.
Like watching my Kentucky Wildcats lose in the final 4 while undefeated because we wouldn’t adapt and then missing out on a UK/Duke final.
Or my Mariners sticking it to the Dodgers and winning the world series. I had a nightmare they lost in 7 to Toronto after being up 3-2 and then Toronto collapsing in game 7.
Or my Bills.
good to at least one M’s fan is living it up
Jokic over Chet in the 2nd round against OKC should’ve been that as well. Insane clutch 3 to no avail.
Yup. Jokic had one of those over AD in 2023 where my reaction was “oh, this is going to be a sweep” but that magic did not hold true in 2025.
Even though they had already led in the 4th, this was the first time I legitimately thought they might win.
Denver was so good at just out executing down the stretch (and the Wolves were so bad at it most nights) that any lead didn’t feel safe. I also thought the Wolves might have expended too much energy clawing back from 20 down, especially in a game 7 at altitude.
But when Rudy hit that shot, I figured that maybe it was just one of those nights.
Yeah I remember watching it and instantly being deflated. I knew it was over. You don’t lose a game after that.
Is this the game where Minnesota was down like 20 points at halftime?
Yes
Absolutely knew it was over right then
Yeah as a Jokic fan I accepted t was gg’s after that, but I also felt like the Nuggets didn’t deserve to win anyway
“OH my goodness! He’s got 11” lmao
Then it showed the graphic: ”3/7 FG”
Jokic got Jokered
As a Lakers fan, part of me felt like “This is what you did to us over and over again in the WCF. How does it feel?” lol
Bro, I’m still shocked how Rudy even hit that
So effortless too. Is he secretly a great jump shooter he just doesn’t want to
nuggets blew a second half twenty point lead on home court and this was the final nail in the coffin
The largest blown game 7 lead of all time for those that forgot
Never trust a Nuggets lead. Never.
The Nuggets with a 20 point lead are commanded by the basketball Gods to crank their IQ sliders all the way down
Thats why I get the move for Westbrook two years ago, negative times a negative energy sixth man meant to keep up energy in non-Jokic minutes. Have they filled that role this offseason (genuine q)?
Not really, no. We have signed Alpha Diallo and Marvin Bagley and drafted Trevon Brazile and Bryce Hopkins while losing Valanciunas and Hardaway
Apparently Diallo is a big hustle guy. But few players have the heart and effort of Brody. I loved having him here, genuinely. I think that was the year we were actually the closest to winning a second
You can be hustle guy all you want, if you cant dribble like Diallo cant, you dont affect game tempo
Thats why russ is so valuable
Russ is a double edged sword though. He takes a lot of bad shots, turns the ball over a ton and often makes some brutal decisions in clutch.
But I will say, in the playoffs that year he was amazing
If you have negative bench thats gonna bleed points anyway, go with the wild card, if you mitigate point bleed in bench minutes once every few games, thats still a positive
I agree with you. He was great for us
I remember watching that game 7 get away from them early, was really hoping for a Wolves/Nugs WCF for the sake of rivalry and hate of how ugly the Thunder play outside of SGA midrange godhood. Not sure it ends well for MIN, even though Aaron Gordon’s legs were shot. Wolves might have been swept by Pacers, though. DEN wouldve matched up well against them, especially in the halfcourt.
All I remember was Jokic played 47 minutes of this game, played the entire second half. With a huge lead, he got 1 minute of rest in the first half.
Wolves took a 4 point lead with 7 minutes left, but damn did it feel like that was a dagger.
7 plus minutes left and this was still the dagger lol
funniest shot of all time
If it’d been a three I think the simulation might’ve actually broken.
i thought the devs had accidentally transposed Jokic and Rudy here, cuz the other way around would have made 50x more sense
It’s not just that he hit the shot, but it’s the smoothness of the form and the release that is so funny about this. Rudy is the king of awkward offense and then he busts this out in one of the most pivotal games in Wolves franchise history.
Timberwolves are nuggets/ jokics bullies
Packed them up even with half their team gone 🤣🤣🤣
You’re thinking of last year, not this series, but you’re still not wrong
Demoralizing is accurate as hell. I knew the universe was not going to allow us to win after this went in
You know how ass you gotta be on defense for Rudy to feel comfortable doing a fadeaway
Nobody was expecting him to shoot and I think he knew that. Plus, at his height, the fadeaway has a great chance of going over someone.
I love Goober, but a great chance of going over someone does not equate to a good chance of going in the hoop when it comes to Rudy. That is so funny. His problem is not getting it over other players, his biggest issue on the court is getting the ball through the hoop!
You got me thinking though, if they changed the rules so any shot that made it over a defender regardless of making the shot was worth one point, Gobert might become an all time great over night.
Depends how long is on the shot clock
The shot clock was expiring, it was basically a hot potato because NAW couldn’t find anyone else to get a shot off. The only other person open was Jaden on the other side of the court which would have been a dangerous inbound.
So it wasn’t so much about the guy guarding him that had Gobert take that shot
it’s remarkable how jokic gets a pass for blowing a 20 point lead in game 7 in this series. he’s the most protected superstar of this generation
20 point lead AT HOME
It is because some people actually the games, and it would be incredibly illogical to blame a player who put 34/19/7 when he only had one other teammate score in double digits (Murray, who had two second half points).
But this was like a Westbrook game for Jokic. He was inefficient, he was obviously dogshit on defense. His PRA was alright but you could tell the gameplan was to let Jokic get his shots up and the Wolves were leaving jim wide open from 3.
At one point, Jokic was 11 of 26, with 28 points which usually means an automatic loss for Denver as Jokic in order to outweigh his defensive limitations should be shooting atleast 60%TS to break even or Denver gets clobbered (just like what happened against the Wolves this game as well as against the Wolves 3rd stringers last season).
All I know is he got a single minute of rest that game. As a center.
This comment is just full of lies yikes.
“He was inefficient” — He was NOT inefficient. Jokic had a TS% of 55 TS%. That was higher than the TS% of BOTH teams and obviously then higher the average TS% of the game. So he was literally above average efficiency.
“He was obviously dogshit on defense” — Um no he was not LOL. He played 47 minutes (so approximately the whole game), and Minnesota scored just 98 points on 39⁄29 splits (53 TS%). He anchored a great game 7 defense, Minnesota struggled to score inside the arc all game, and the eye test was good too. Denver didn’t lose the game because of their defense LOL
“His PRA was alright” — you’re pretending 34/19/7 is “alright?” Only 8 other players in NBA history have recorded that line in the playoffs (Wilt, Kareem, MJ, Garnett, Barkley, Baylor, Pettit, Hawkins). Lot of all time-greats there lmao
“the gameplay was to let Jokic get his shots up” — not only is there obviously no evidence of that being true, but that would have been a bad gameplan considering Jokic was the best scorer on his own team.
Just an impressively wrong comment from you. Wow
Coach literally said the plan was to make him a scorer:
https://www.covers.com/nba/nuggets-vs-timberwolves-prop-picks-and-best-bets-thursday-5-16-2024?utm_source=chatgpt.com
His PRA was phenomenal and that was something we lived with both against him and against many stars (especially earlier in Finch’s tenure). The proof is in the pudding with whether or not that’s been a productive strategy for the Wolves
It seems hard to laud his defense while making the case you did for his efficiency. I suppose you’re right that he wasn’t inefficient, but he wasn’t the efficiency God that Denver has known - and relied on - him to be
I see people mention it a lot and how his defense is trash, but then I’ll come in threads like this and also see “it doesn’t get mentioned enough that…” so maybe I’m just getting hit with the Goomba fallacy or something.
I’m a white guy and I love a lot of white people like my family members, Steve Nash, Ryan Reynolds but I do think white sports stars get protected a bit and don’t get the same amount of scrutiny
I’m a superstitious guy and felt like the game over at the beginning of the third so I was sitting on the couch sulking. The run started happening and I hadn’t moved in a few minutes. So I decided as long as the run has momentum I can’t move. Had my feet on the coffee table, arms crossed. Sat like that until the end of the game but the Rudy shot was as close as I got to jumping up (the Ant corner 3 was close too)
Sports fans, lol
Yeah bro I’m indoctrinated for sure
Stop it’s too much, this fucker ruined my trip to Disney genuinely because of this
lmao i never saw Jokic’s reaction I was too stunned, dude was like “in what universe he made that”
It’s so insane. Ask everyone in that Nuggets organization what shot they’d be most willing to concede to the T-wolves at that moment, and “Rudy Gobert fadeaway jumper with a defender in his face” would make the top of every single one of their lists.
Yeah that was the exact moment I knew we were fucked. And we’ve been the Wolves bitches ever since
I bet Nikola Jokic wakes up at night sometimes, dreaming about this shot.
Whenever he has trouble sleeping man just watches basketball. Has him dozing within minutes
Yeah the 3x MVP, champion, and finals MVP with 90 gazillion dollars has trouble sleeping at night.
I think there’s more chance he sleeps well due to tiredness from hoisting MVP trophies
There were over 7 minutes left, but we all knew the outcome right when that shot fell.
Soul dagger.
At that moment, the Wolves won the game. That was the most aura farmed in human history
When a 4-DPOY meets a 3xMVP
I still have PTSD from that game.
I love the bench reaction
That was fucking nuts. Of all players
as crazy as it is on rewatch, you had to have been there in that moment, knowing even if it’s only a two bucket difference, this game was over
I fuckin came when this happened this shot felt like nirvana
Jokic be allowing Gobert to have way tooooooo much confidence on offense
Rudy has averaged 11 points vs Jokic over the last 3 years
rudy goberwitzki
And he’s owned Jokic ever since
This genuinely might be the funniest shot of all time
Epic moment in Timberwolves history
Jokic: So that’s how it feels
Yeah that was the nail.
Aa soon as he hit that shot, yeah Nuggets will lose that game.
When Rudy did this that’s when I knew Denver was done.
Is this the earliest dagger of all time??
Wow I really remembered this shot differently. I had no idea there was still that much time on the clock.
Wolves got stronger now they have a pure PG
You say demoralizing, I say galvanizing!
That shot was absolutely unreal. Game 7 moments dont get much better than this
Man I wish the NBA had an app where you could watch all these old games. So many games I’d like to relive again.
i can’t even begin to describe the sound that i made when this shot went in, Rudy is one of the funniest players ever
literally the best shot of his life lmao
I’m dying at the reactions of the nugget players on the court. Jokic can’t believe it, Murray and MPJ both throw their hands up right before it drops.
Rudy Gobert hitting a turnaround fadeaway the end is near
Thanks for bringing this back from the memory bank 🫠
I don’t remember the last time I saw a 3 second call
I immediately went to Nuggets reddit and the live game thread was melting down like a meteor was 10min until impact with earth lolol.