Wolves set TV ratings record; Nuggets fans rant that Gibson fouled Jokic

Here are two leftovers before we fully turn our attention to the Wolves’ first-round playoff series against Houston (starting Sunday) and the temporary chaos, for however long it lasts, of having both the Wolves and Wild in the playoffs.

1) Fox Sports North announced Thursday morning that Wednesday’s Wolves/Nuggets game was the highest-rated Wolves game on FSN in the history of the network. The game Wednesday had a 7.5 rating in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market — topping the previous high of 6.5, which came on April 14, 2004 in a 107-90 victory over Memphis, which was the final game of the last season in which the Wolves made the playoffs.

Wednesday’s game was on FSN-Plus because the Wild received priority in their playoff game, making the record even more impressive. The ratings peaked at 13.1, presumably late in the tense game and after the Wild had lost, meaning more than 226,000 households were tuned to the game in the metro area.

For the season, the Wolves had a 2.6 rating on FSN — their best mark since Ricky Rubio’s rookie season of 2011-12 and a 78 percent increase over last year.

2) The view from Denver of Wednesday’s game was remarkably yet predictably different than it was in Minnesota. While Wolves players and fans were left to savor their playoff berth and praise the defensive stop by Taj Gibson that helped get them there, Nuggets fans were pretty much convinced Gibson fouled Nikola Jokic repeatedly down the stretch.

The Denver Post has a rundown of Twitter responses from angry Nuggets fans, though it should also be noted that Jokic took the high road and said Gibson made “a really good defensive play” by stripping the ball as he attempted a game-winning shot near the end of regulation.