Warriors forward Draymond Green believes Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert doesn't stand a chance against Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokić.
Green, simply put, believes Gobert is cooked when defending the three-time NBA MVP.
At halftime of the Nuggets' eventual 112-97 win over the Timberwolves in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinal round on Tuesday, Green, as an analyst on TNT's "Inside The NBA," discussed the key matchup between the two big men and why Gobert is struggling against Jokić.
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"BBQ chicken. It's happening," Green said. "This has been the matchup everybody wants to see: DPOY versus the MVP. And right now, Rudy Gobert don't stand a chance. The problem he's having is he's hitting him with bodies and giving him all the footwork and Rudy Gobert's struggling."
Green's latest comments come just two-plus weeks after he praised Gobert and declared he was "not trash" anymore after an impressive showing in a first-round NBA playoff series sweep of the Phoenix Suns.
Golden State Warriors
In addition to believing Gobert doesn't stand a chance against Jokić, Green also confidently declared the series to be over, for two reasons.
"I got two things for why this series ain't coming back to Minnesota," Green explained. "Number one, the big Frenchman is sitting on that podium speaking his native language: 'We, we, we need to do this.' You, you, you need to get a stop. It ain't 'we.' Karl-Anthony Towns is actually doing a pretty good job when he's on Joker. It's you my man that's getting cooked. So there's no 'we.'
"Number two: When you're in these playoff series, for me, I'm always looking for the smallest ounce of weakness that I can find. And the way Karl-Anthony Towns walked off that floor with a limp after he played the rest of that game totally fine and then he could barely walk leaving the court ... they don't believe anymore. And when you lose belief, they're defending champions you're playing against. When you lose the belief it's over."
After jumping out to a commanding 2-0 series lead, Gobert and Minnesota have lost three consecutive games to the defending champs, and now face elimination in Game 6 on Thursday at Target Center.
If the Timberwolves have any hope of staving off the Nuggets, the Gobert-Jokić matchup likely will be the deciding factor in any Minnesota comeback attempt.