Why Nobody Does This Against The Nuggets

Why Nobody Does This Against The Nuggets

13 games before last night the Warriors began starting Draymond Green as their full-time five and since making the move they had gone 10 and three the idea of these lineups is to have more speed and skill on the court sacrificing interior presence to make more aggressive defensive rotations and running and

Gunning with some added space on offense here’s the problem though the nuggets are huge so when they ran into a front Court featuring Michael Porter Jr Gordon and Nika yic that led to quite the interesting Clash of styles you could see Denver’s size Advantage right away

Yic hits Murray on a cut and with a simple extra pass Aaron Gordon has no trouble finishing at The Rim but just as easily as you could see Denver’s size Advantage you could see Golden State’s speed Advantage as kaminga beats everyone down the floor for a free two

Points I’m not just talking about offense though Draymond is able to really overplay the paint as a Helper because he’s quick enough to recover to yachana close out while staying in front of the ball in a drive that agility clearly bothers jokic’s ability to attack in space but then there’s nobody

To keep Aaron Gordon off the glass securing a second chance opportunity and drawing a foul knowing that Draymond can keep up in space next time yic gets the ball it’s on the Block the former defensive player of the year is giving up about 6 in and 50 lb so even though

The refs let him get away with some illegal contact it’s not enough to stop Joker The Warriors come right back though notice how with Draymond at the five yic is spaced to the top of the key while the other four are all threats to shoot that means when Porter Jr gets

Stuck on a screen Wiggins is left with an easy cut and finish here’s another example Steph flies off a screen and draws two to the ball then hits Wiggins who now has a two-on-one Advantage with the basic read to pmy they’ve got an open layup although the Nuggets catch a

Break they won’t catch a second one though notice how yic is switched on to Wiggins not exactly an ideal matchup meaning he easily gets to the paint and hits psky on another cut this time for two points those matchup issues go both ways though because while all of that is

Happening yic is busy punishing Draymond in the post Dre does a great job of holding his ground but doesn’t have enough size to contest a fadeaway jumper so next time he sets up with his back to the basket instead of leaving Dre oneon-one Clay is going to dig from up

Top all that does is leave Michael Porter Jr as he drills a three here it is again jic starts on that elbow except this time to set up a handoff with Porter who’s going to drive into a floater once again that size difference leads to an offensive rebound and easy

Putback after about 7 Minutes of this back and forth the Warriors found themselves with a 20 to7 lead and this is when cavon looney would enter the game Looney is a lot bigger than Draymond so when yic tries to take him one-on-one he’s not able to go over the

Top nearly as easily as a result he instead tries to win with agility starting his attack from a bit further and absolutely shredding him with a spin move on his way to a layup he also went back to operating out in space Looney’s obviously going to struggle getting

Around a down screen which leaves Joker with more than enough room to fire off a three this time he actually initiates from the perimeter Brown’s cut draws a tag from Wiggins on the weak side resulting in a perfectly placed skit pass right into the hands of Payton Watson for three more Denver’s offense

Was rolling they didn’t have any trouble scoring early on unfortunately for them Klay Thompson was in one of those modes it started with him drawing a hard closeout and Sid stepping into a wideopen three for most most of this quarter they just had him flying around screens all over the court this time

It’s a pin down moving to his left for another jumper from up top and here’s a real similar action except moving to his right and there’s not a single shot he wouldn’t call a good look as soon as kcp decided to overplay the three and take away his space he instead rejects the

Screen and cuts inside the ark before rising up for a mid-range bucket clay shot five of seven including four of six from three for 16 first quarter points as the Warriors jumped out to a six-point lead after playing the entire first of course yic needed some rest and the interesting thing about Denver’s

Bench unit is that it’s their own version of small ball they’ll throw either Aaron Gordon or Zeke Nagi at the five and switch every action so what did the Warriors do they flipped the script and ran a double big unit of Trace Jackson Davis and Dario shich clay still

Taking taking his threes but now he’s got two centers to clean up on the offensive glass if he misses and with the defense out of position they’ve got a free layup with a constant mismatch the warriors were able to put a ton of pressure on the paint this time it’s a

Deep sealing transition that draws help from outside and an extra pass leaves clay wide open he’s not missing this one and here’s what it looked like when they didn’t collapse you’ve got Trace going one-on-one with mpj and that’s just way too easy as for the other side of things

The nonic offense is already very stagnant but with two bigs you’ve got shich sliding in front of the rim to take away Jamal Murray’s attack and when he dumps it off you’ve got a second Center rotating down for a block during this time the paint was basically shut

Off anytime the ball got down there it was met by tons of size forcing a weaker shooter like Watson to live behind the ark here’s another example Jamal tries to drive but runs into a wall and the shot they end up with is a long two from Watson he misses and Brown’s actually

Able to come up with a rebound but when he tries to put it back up he gets denied the Warriors won these minutes 15 to8 turning a six-point lead into a 13.1 by the time jic checked back in with just under seven to go that of course

Triggered Steve C to go back to small ball and right back to running and gunning with Pace at one point Lester konis actually hit a spot up three to put the Warriors up 16 Denver was not rolling over though and right on Q they started cooking it started with a pullup

Three from Jamal in transition and his shot making in general was a big key to them cutting into the lead primarily though it came as a result of them attacking Golden State’s lack of size yic seals off kaminga down low and Murray just throws it off the rim so

That he can catch it inside which results in a foul it wasn’t just yic Aaron Gordon also started feasting during this time he has no trouble getting all the way to the rim against gp2 where he throws it to himself off the glass and sets up an

Easy tip in this time it’s going to be a post up in transition as he just completely abuses Klay Thompson for two points plus a foul here’s what’s interesting though Denver was actually down 61 to 47 with 3 minutes to go in the half it doesn’t just take offense to

Make up that sort of ground and they locked all the way in notice how kcp helps very aggressively to take away any movement going towards the basket before recovering to the perimeter to contest a spot of three the idea here is that once you limit the movement within this

Offense and force them to isolate You’ve Won because that’s not what they want to do the motion stagnates no screens no cuts and all of a sudden the shot quality plummets usually when that happens you start to see a heavy dose of high pick and roll through Steph but

With yic at the level and Curry not having his best shooting night they were able to slow it down here it is again Steph comes off a screen and yic jumps out then when he tries to split down the middle kcp takes it away and just like

That we’ve got a tie game heading into halftime the third quarter was very much a repeat of everything we’ve already seen you’ve got yic taking smaller forwards in the post and making easy use of them Jamal wanted to get in on the big Body Action as well taking Stephen

The post and turning into a smooth fadeaway jumper Aaron Gordon continued to Feast around the rim when mpj attacks a closeout and dumps it off you better have a shot Blocker in position then when jic stepped out to the perimeter to try his hand at a three Gordon was the

First to the ball on the offensive glass before hitting the big fella on a cut for an easy lay the Nuggets took complete control jumping out to a 10-point lead after this transition three oh yeah it’s probably worth noting that was jokic’s 10th assist giving him

A triple double with 7 minutes and 40 seconds left in the third that early second half run was again in large part thanks to how good of a job they did stagnating the Warriors motion offense only there was one key difference this time around Steph Curry started chefing

It started with this drive and really tough finish over kcp next time it’s against Gordon he starts on a drive before stepping back only to hesitate and start another drive as he gets to the paint for a soft touch finger roll of course driving is the least of your

Worries when it comes to defending Steph because if you fall asleep for even a fraction of a second he’s moving into a three he had 14 points in the third and when he gets going everyone gets going this one starts with one of those aggressive pick and roll coverages which

He successfully splits help comes and he kicks it to an open shooter and just like that a 10-point lead has been decimated into a tie from there it was very back and forth both teams had some good possessions on offense and defense leading up to this play where Jamal

Draws a foul to effectively end the quarter nuggets lead by four heading into the final 12 minutes this time around to counter Golden State’s double bigs they threw out both Zeke Nagi and Aaron Gordon for a little bit more size of course Gordon isn’t a mismatch at all

And with all three of Gordon Porter and Zeke out there you’ve got three capable Rim protectors so even without a true big on the floor there’s going to be some decent resistance in the paint with that said there’s still a switch heavy unit which leads to the occasional

Mismatch like here charage finds himself posting up Jamal and when Gordon slides down to Hell that leaves Wiggins open at the top of the key for three points here it is again shich gets the Jamal switch and seals off inside position drawing help off the catch before dumping it off

To Jackson Davis for a big time dunk Trace can also be the one starting these plays out of the post the Warriors are going to set up some split action and Clay finds space but unfortunately this wasn’t the same clay we saw earlier he actually didn’t score a single time in

The second half after that scorching hot start which played a major role in the offense really slowing down luckily they could fall back on that double big paint protection like I said the nuggets are pretty stagnant without yic which meant stops for the dubs in general these bench minutes were mostly defense from

Both sides they were each able to scrape together a couple buckets but for the most part there wasn’t much scoring and after 4 minutes it was still a five-point game that’s when joic reent enter as well as Draymond instead of small ball though they left Jackson Davis on the court with a traditional

Lineup with Draymond still controlling the offense that meant jic was in more of a position to make reads this time it’s a flare screen that he jumps for a steal that creates transition offense going the other way as he takes it all the way before lobbing it to Nagi the

Warriors continue to use Trace as a screener to keep yic in the action and once again he’s playing at the level that leads to a four on three but Nai plays it about as well as you can taking away the role before recovering to contest Draymond at The Rim that missed

Layup again leads to offense going the other way this time a pull-up three from kcp extends the lead back to 10 about halfway through the fourth Golden State went back to small ball so the Nuggets decided it was time to close with their unguardable Twan game Jamal puts

Pressure on the rim before kicking it to Nai and a simple extra pass leaves Christian Brown on an island for three this time you’re GNA see Draymond play the handoff in a high drop coverage with the agility to recover and get back in front of jokic’s role just one problem

The size even though he plays it perfectly Joker Goes Over the Top for a bucket in a last ditch effort to get a stop Draymond blitzes off the screen leaving yic in a 4 on three not exactly a great recipe for success and that one right there was the dagger starters get

Pulled and the Nuggets end up winning by 16 in a game where they went down by 16 in the second quarter leading the charge was niika yic who put up 326 and 16 no that’s not a typo Jamal had himself a game as well with 27 points on 72% true

Shooting but what I’m more focused on are the signals that really highlight the size Advantage like the fact that Denver starting front Court outrebounded golden states 29- 15 or how Aaron Gordon shot Seven of seven from inside the ark and was a game high plus 21 it’s worth mentioning that things

Probably look a little different had Steph not shot one of 10 from three but still there’s no denying the obvious the small ball thing has been working for the Warriors but in specific matchups like against the defending Champions it might not not always be an option if you

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Feel free to let me know down in the comments what you thought of this matchup as always I hope you all have a great day and I’ll catch you guys in the next one

The Warriors have been one of the hottest teams in the NBA since switching to “small ball”, but Jokic and the Nuggets aren’t an ordinary matchup.

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