Celtics-Nuggets Reaction: Jokic powers Denver past Boston, NBA Finals preview? | Hoops Tonight

Celtics-Nuggets Reaction: Jokic powers Denver past Boston, NBA Finals preview? | Hoops Tonight

Get in on the action with draftking Sportsbook an official sports betting partner of the NBA new customers who deposit $5 or more can get a no sweat bet up to $1,000 back in a bonus bet I was looking at NBA Futures this morning the Golden State Warriors are plus 5500 right now

On DraftKings to win the title so if you believe in them that’s a big number and Denver I have Denver as my Championship favorite and they’re still the second best odds on DraftKings right now at plus 450 so lots of good NBA bets to look at over the course of the end of

The season download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code Hoops new customers can get a no sweat bet up to $1,000 if your first bet loses only on draftking Sportsbook with code Hoops that’s ho o o PS the crown is Yours All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Thursday everybody hope all of you guys are having a great week well just like Boston and Denver gave us last time we got another incredible basketball game off the top I just want to shout out all the play

Players or whatever they were dealing with physically for giving it a go in this game I always appreciate it when uh when the players know that we want to see a great game and obviously when they want to compete when they see an opportunity to measure themselves

Against the best in the league and they play through whatever little aches and pains they’re dealing with and we just got another classic between Denver and Boston clearly the two best teams in the league in my opinion we’re going to break down the game from the perspective

Of both teams and then we’ll get out of here for the night you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel it mean a lot to me you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button don’t forget about our podcast

Feed wherever you guys get your podcasts under Hoops tonight it’s also super helpful if you leave a rating in a review on that front follow me on Twitter _ jlt so you guys don’t miss show announcements or the film threads that I do from time to time and then

Last but not least keep dropping mail bag questions in those YouTube comments we’re gonna have a mailbag in tomorrow’s show on Friday all right let’s talk some basketball so Nicole y I got a a bunch of crap about a week and a half ago when I said something that I truly believe it

Was a mailbag question that I got someone just asked like hey how would you rank the level Nicole yic is at relative to Kevin Durant and Steph Curry and what they were at at their peaks and I said something I truly believe which is that I think Nicole joic is playing

At a higher ceiling than either of those guys I think his ceiling is at the at a similar level on a trajectory that what what what you’ve seen from the guys that are at the very top of NBA history guys like LeBron James and Michael Jordan and

And and Kobe Bryan in the like right and one of the big reasons behind that is like there is an inevitability with Nicole yic you know down the stretch of this game we’re going to talk about the late game execution here in a minute but down the stretch of this game it was

Like there were a couple of massive swings that went Boston’s way like there was that play where Nicole yic got fouled underneath the basket or may or may not have gotten fouled he certainly thought he did complain and got a technical Jaylen Brown makes a defensive

Play runs out the other end gets an and one and they get a technical it’s like a sixo swing and turns should have been like a 13-point lead down into a seven-point lead or whatever it was at that point if I remember correctly and then there was that sequence late where

Jamal Murray makes a couple of big mistakes takes a bad pullup jump shot early in the shot clock and then he dribbles too much against Jaylen Brown and gets ripped and on the other end Drew holiday who had been ice cold all night on his jump shot takes and makes

Two pullup jump shots and these swings are going in Boston’s favor but like did anybody ever actually feel like Denver wasn’t going to win that game did any anybody ever feel like like when Nicole yic caught the ball on the block or on the roll regardless of whether or not it

Was a single coverage situation or a help situation did you ever think that he wasn’t going to score I I I felt like it was inevitable that’s what it was like for me watching the game and I would imagine that most of you guys would agree when he was on an island

Against porzingis it wasn’t like maybe he’ll make it maybe he won’t it’s like he’s going to make it and then every single time he drew the Baseline helper Aaron Gordon is so big there on the Baseline he just can hit that little pass to him underneath the basket and he

Can finish the one time Nicole yic missed a shot at The Rim he engaged the help defender in this case Jaylen Brown and Aaron Gordon because he drew that second Defender Aaron Gordon is free and clear underneath the basket to rise up for the second of his two obscene dunks

That he had in this game you know like when I look at the other best players in the world it’s like uh with a guy like like uh uh Steph Curry or Kevin Durant guys just those two guys for example Kevin Durant had a beautiful game the

Other night against Denver got a win but how did he win the game he won the game by hitting a crazy difficult pullup three off the dribble over a great Aaron Gordon contest a shot that he hits probably against that type of defender in that situation in the mid-30s right

And then in overtime hit a bunch of tough contested pullup jump shots and KD is one of the best players in the world and he is capable of making those shots but there’s a variance element to it m go might not and we’ve all seen environments where the other stars in

The league that can go cold and like meanwhile yic has a bad game against Phoenix and it’s like bizarre because you just never see him have those types of moments because his go-to moves around the basket are shots that he makes 70% of the time there is very little variance there and whatever

Coverage you throw to him in those situations he will pick you apart there is a complete helplessness in that department that makes him in my opinion by far the best player in the world I like literally Boston’s getting major swings down the stretch on huge sequences and it just doesn’t matter

Because they could not get a stop and they could not get a stop because nobody on the planet can do anything with Nicole yic you just have to pray he has a weird game like he did against Phoenix where he doesn’t want to shoot the

Basketball like it really is it it to me it’s the most dominant stretch that I’ve seen from an individual player since LeBron James in the 2012 2013 stretch when he won those two titles and won the Olympic gold medal that that like that’s that’s where that’s the level Nicole yic

Is playing at right now now he’s got to close the deal he’s got to go into this postseason and he’s got to get that second title in a row to demonstrate that dominance but in terms of just in a vacuum right now as a player what he’s

Doing he right now is playing at that level and there’s nobody there’s there’s nobody in the league that can do anything with him it was it was absurd down the stretch of that game you just knew it was going in oh he’s single coverage on porzingis he’s going to

Score here it’s it’s just going to happen oh like Jaylen Brown stepped over on the Baseline like Aaron Gordon’s gonna get a dunk here like it’s it’s just going to happen it’s it is it is complete helpless basketball and that’s the that is the by far the best regular

Season team in the league in Boston a team that has probably the best accumulation of defensive Personnel in the league outside of maybe Minnesota and they had shop now getting into some of the actual stuff that was happening during the game early on in the game Denver was having a

Lot of success attacking Boston switching by slipping out of thre Man action so I’ve we’ve had a lot of opportunities to talk about switching but we haven’t really had a chance to kind of dive into some of the schematics of it because like there’s multiple ways to attack switching right like one

Picking on matchups right like I want to get this smaller defender on this bigger offensive player and I want to try to bully him to the basket I want to get this bigger Defender is slower onto my small quick guard and I want to take him

Out to the perimeter and I want to dust him off the dribble right or the like like that’s the matchup attacking part of it right second part of it is rebounding right like okay I get a switch I got a big guy underneath the basket I’ve now pulled their Center out

To the perimeter all I got to do is get a shot up as long as it misses in the general vicinity of the rim my guy’s going to get the offensive rebound that’s a way that you can attack switching right but one of the best ways

To do it to get easy shots to get like shots within the flow of an offense is to slip out of screening actions specifically three-man actions because they’re more confusing so imagine a Twan action I’m running up the wing and I’m just doing a dribble handoff uh to the

Guy coming out of the corner the guy guarding on the corner he’s going to take me as I after i d uh throw the dribble hand off and I kind of run through he’s going to guard me and the guy that’s guarding the ball handler is

Going to switch on to the guy who’s getting the dribble hand off there’s some easier stuff there you can still get slips out of there but only when the Defenders are in poor position as long as they’re in decent position you can kind of contain that but as soon

As aeman action takes place it gets way more convoluted for the switching defense at that point there has to be so much more communication and like you’ll see like you’ll see like uh uh Michael Porter Jr kind of walk his man down to the block and like Jamal or like Casey p

And Nicole yic will both like go down to set a pin down screen and then you think Michael Porter Jr’s going to come off but then suddenly he slips back door and then Casey P comes off and then y like they’ll just do these crazy interchanges in these three-man screening actions and

They’re designed to take advantage of the confusion that arises when teams are trying to switch and so Denver had some success against Boston’s defense early in this game capitalizing on the easy shots they could get with complicated three-man screening actions and slipping out of it when we got to the end of the

Game it was pretty straightforward they were switching the Murray yic pick and roll and then every single to every single possession again we talk about this a lot on this show especially the the Celtics fans like we’ve been covering basically every Celtics game for the last uh for the last month or so

And as as we’ve been trying to kind of build out our understanding of them head heading into the postseason and you know one of the things I talk about with Boston all the time is they kind of freelance a lot and they just kind of play you know uh the same style of

Basketball at the end of the game that they play during the middle portions of the game right like you’re you’re not like for instance Drew holiday got three jump shots down the stretch of this game missed one badly and then made the last two right but and they ended up being

Huge shots in the game but like do you think Denver is running offense to get cavius cwell Pope shots at the end of the game no like if if the ball ends up in kyp’s hands because that’s just the way the play developed as they ran a

Two-man action or something to try to get to their sweet spots and it ends up in Casey P P’s hands fine but like Boston just kind of plays freelance basketball regardless of the situation to win in crunch time it is an extremely diligent process on both sides of the

Floor on the the offensive end it is about being relentless about hunting down the best possible shot not just a shot you’d be cool with in the flow of the offense like pton Watson made some really nice jump shots in this game he made a a a kind of a pull-up jump shot

One dribble pull up off of a close out on the left wing hit like a turnaround jump shot over his left shoulder if he was closing the game there’s no way in hell he’s getting that shot for for Denver they are going to make sure they

Get him into a position where he’s a threat usually if he’s closing in that situation he’s going to be cutting in some sort of situation where his athleticism is a factor right now obviously he wasn’t playing at the end of this game but my point is is there’s

A difference in the offense that Denver runs in the flow of the game versus what they do in crunch time in crunch time it is yic Murray Twan game and if joic is getting a favorable matchup he is going to get the ball every single time in

That situation he is going to rumble stumble his way to the basket for a shot that he’s going to make 70% of the time or if you help off of him he is going to hit Aaron Gordon underneath the basket or a highlevel shooter for an easy catch

And shoot three on the weak side they are extremely diligent about getting the right shot again I talked about it earlier in the show but like every single time Boston got this close Denver just got two points again in a way that Boston was completely helpless to stop

Now I have some ideas for what Boston could potentially adjust to do to try to make it a little bit more difficult and we’ll talk about that here in a minute but that Gap in late game execution just just jumps off the screen again Boston just still doesn’t quite know what they

Want to do at the end of these games and like they like if the if the pick and pop three is falling which is like one of the most common shots that you’ll see Boston get either through a porzingis ball screen and pop or you know a ghost

Screen from one of their guards if the pick and pop threes are falling great you know San Gundy after the game went on this rant about how like oh if I’m Boston I feel good about this game we shot poorly here’s the thing you shot poorly against Denver this time you shot

Poorly when you blew the lead against Cleveland for nine straight minutes to end the game you missed every single jump shot you took you shot poorly when you lost to Denver the last time you shot poorly when you lost to the Lakers at home you shot poorly when you lost to

The Clippers at home you shot poorly when you lost to the Bucks all of their losses look like this and specifically it tends to happen against higher level competition when the physicality R ratchets up a level and so that’s the thing like you know and there’s some

Some real positives from Boston in this game and some stuff that makes me even feel even more confident about their chances in a series against Denver but the reason why Denver is the safer bet the reason why in my opinion BOS Denver’s been sitting there as the best

NBA Finals bet this year get they’re getting like plus 450 odds or whatever to win the title as a team in my opinion that’s like got roughly a coin flip chance of winning it and if they’re healthy I’d be surprised if they did and the reason why is because they do in

Those situations always get the best available shot they do know exactly what they want to do and then on the other end of the floor they can defend they did a great job on Jason Tatum in this game Aaron Gordon got cooked by Jaylen Brown that’s something we’re going to

Talk about in a minute even those last two jumpers that christops porzingis took the one off the dribble joic got a great contest on the one above the break on the left wing joic got a great contestant they’re all guarding too that used to be the rub on this team was you

Can score on them and now it’s like just they’re every bit as good as the other great defenses at the top of the league like like like they may not have the crazy stifling level that you can see a Minnesota get to but they can get relatively close to that and when you

Combine that with that slowdown half court execution it just feels inevitable they did a really good job forcing turnovers in this game and getting out and scoring on them they scored 16 points on 12 Boston turnovers some really critical pick sixes kcp in particular was super active in those

Passing Lanes they outscored Boston 19-1 in Fast Break points Aaron Gordon got like I said kind of cooked by Jaylen Brown which again we’re gonna talk about here in a minute but I thought that he was magnificent along the Baseline that element of him being able to just he

It’s it’s really simple because the pass is always coming on time and on target he just sits there in the dunker spot and it’s not even about the pass he waits until whoever’s guarding him commits and then as soon as he commits he just basically gets into his onew and

Jumps and then from there it’s like if it’s a Miss he’s dunking it if it’s a lob he’s dunking it you know uh uh by producer Paul we were talking about this before the show that last little hook shot that it looked like yit shot and

Then Aaron Gordon dunked it there was a similar one against the Lakers uh what was that last week on Saturday and we were we were talking before the show like do do you think that’s on purpose and you know I honestly don’t know and I hope I’m gonna I’m doing a show with

Adam Mars tomorrow so I’m gonna ask him about it but like I I hope that maybe at some point a Denver reporter will ask him about it too but like I wouldn’t be surprised if joic literally talks to Gordon and goes like hey man when I

Shoot a hook shot if your Defender comes over to help on the hook shot just intercept the hook shot and dunk it like just go for it just treat it like a pass I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a conversation that they’ve had because again like do you think joic gives a

Damn no he just wants the points he just wants the points on the scoreboard and that that is such a vitally important part of this like again you know people you know uh one of my buddies Anthony Irwin com commented underneath my tweet I had tweet after the game where I

Talked about um how I think Nicole yish is at the highest level that I’ve seen a player be at since LeBron James in 2013 in terms of his uh how much he is ahead of the rest of the league and Anthony goes yeah well like that’s true but also

He’s surrounded by like this perfectly fitting starting five and I want to be clear like like I obviously that’s the case and Denver has done an Immaculate job constructing a roster around Nicole yic but you need to have a good basketball team to win there’s nobody out there that’s just winning with

Garbage that’s that’s just not a thing so to me like that’s a prerequisite like that like we’re not even talking about a serious basketball team if they don’t have talent around their star and the difference between what Denver has and uh what a lot of other teams have is

Instead of like multiple stars and star power they have guys that are stars in their roles and then Jamal Murray like I think he’s a star at a specific skill which is like he just is an outstanding shot maker and he’s actually become a much better passer over the years as

Well and he finds a way to make defensive plays like he had a strip on christops porzingis and a post up tonight and he can find a way to kind of make some plays there but like like everyone is just perfect in their role and that’s the thing like Nicole yic is

A guy that operates further away from the basket off the dribble whether he’s catching on the roll in the short roll or he’s posting up and he’s uh rumbling and stumbling to the basket like we talk about all the dribble handoff actions he runs on the perimeter so that opens up

The Baseline because n Nicole jic is not actually operating along the Baseline that often and so Aaron Gordon’s role on the team is to clean stuff up along the Baseline is he awesome at that sure he is but like again that to me is not something that takes away from Nicole

Yic like every basketball team that’s accomplished anything in NBA history is awesome right like even if we go back and look at like uh like the 2016 Cavs that beat the Golden State Warriors it’s like Kyrie Irving was the Jamal Murray for that particular team just this all-time great shot maker J.R Smith

Guarded extremely well on that series and was an outstanding shooter he was kind of like the kcp for that particular team right like Tristan Thompson was a dude that did a ton of damage on the offensive glass and could guard in multiple different coverages right Kevin

Love was the guy that could dominate on the rebounds and spot spot up and space the floor like every team has to have these roles filled and I just think Aaron Gordon look is he perfectly crafted for that role yeah but your value to a basketball team only matters

Within the scope of your basketball team and Aaron Gordon is immensely valuable to Denver because of his vertical spacing there were two plays tonight the lob pass from Jamaal Murray it was way too high as I’m watching I’m like oh that’s too high just somehow grabbed it

And dunked it behind his head it was absurd and then that one uh Nicole yic spin along the Baseline where he drew Jaylen Brown in help and he missed it over the front of the rim and he just caught it from down here just jackhammered it over the top of his head

Just an unbelievable ER in Gordon game did get cooked by Jaylen Brown that’s something he’s going to have to figure out but we’ll talk about that in a minute Payton Watson just an absolute athletic wrecking ball in this game I had a a mailbag question earlier this

Week from someone asking like what is it going to take for Payton Watson to become a guy that could be like you know a a future you know a staple in this Denver franchise just in the long run right and like there are little things

That he has to get better at right like he was hitting his jump shot tonight uh hit a huge three in the second half and H three mid-range jump shots if I remember correctly uh but he struggled to make jump shots against Phoenix pH that was an issue right and so like

There’s consistency on that front that he’s going to have to work out there was a possession in the first half where the Nuggets had a pick and roll completely under control Two on Two And he was guarding Sam Hower as one of Boston’s best Shooters in the right corner and he

Was just sinking way too far in the lane for no reason and he got beat on a skip pass and he uh and Sam Hower knocked down the shot but like those are little things that he has to get better at in the long run but he’s already so good in

Some specific areas and again we talk about this all the time on the show but like high motor athletes High motor athletes alongside stars are so incredibly valuable because they don’t need to be great at all of these really intricate skill things they’re just human wrecking balls and that’s what

Pton Watson was in this game he was a human wrecking ball he did a really good job on the ball on Jason Tatum in individual defense flying around in help blocking shots hit timely jumpers just just a monster performance from pton Watson and he just flat out does look

Like a guy that is going to be a foundational piece of this roster in the long run and then Jamal Murray you know this was actually in my opinion an interesting example of the the type of eban flow that you can experience from a Jamal Murray against a really good

Defensive team like Boston but I still thought he played a good game like he had some struggles right took some bad shots late had some bad turnovers think he had five turnovers in the game only shot Seven for 18 but most of those seven shots were timely some big ones

During the stretches when Nicole yic was off the floor some big ones to stop runs and to bolster leads had eight assists in this game to me if that’s Jamal Murray’s floor in this type of series like here’s the thing Jamal Murray flat out outplayed Jason Tatum tonight and

This was a bad Jamal Murray game that’s a super encouraging thing for Denver in the big picture awesome awesome performance from Denver again even in that Phoenix game they they ran into a red hot Uh Kevin Durant in the uh down the stretch after he made that shot to

Tie it at 112 but they looked magnificent in that game from the middle of the third quarter on as they just methodically worked their way back in had this beautiful 120 run late that should have won the game just Kevin Durant’s Kevin Durant and Kevin Durant Kevin dured them and they ended up

Losing as as they went into OT right on the Boston side of things couple things you know like a lot of times in matchups like this you find out things that work and find out things that don’t right like defensively they’re they’re just completely you know screwed on the yic

Thing which we’re going to talk about here in a minute but like there’s some stuff that did pop in a really positive way like Jaylen Brown just barbecued Aaron Gordon at the start of this this is one of my favorite Jaylen Brown games that I’ve ever seen he came out with a

Physical aggression in this game that set a tone and was the only reason this game was close after they got such a like a another you know kind of ineffective Jason Tatum performance Jason Tatum five for 13 in this game he was N9 for 24 the first time they played

He had five turnovers in this game including some really bad ones that led to pick sixes going the other way like Tatum’s got some issues and watching the phys physical aggression ju to position like Jaylen Brown was going through Aaron Gordon to the rim like through him

And Aaron Gordon is a big dude but he was just beating him with lower angles like getting lower to the ground getting his shoulder down getting around him even in even in Opportunities where Aaron Gordon did actually chest him up he was bringing the force and going

Through him to the basket he was super active on the glass specifically on the offensive glass like you know there’s this thing that happens with young basketball players now Jaylen Brown’s much further along in his process but obviously I I coach in high school and I

Spend a lot of time working with young basketball players here in town and there’s always this moment with a young player in his development where he finds out what his superpower is like the thing that he does better than most people whether it’s shooting whether it’s passing whether it’s ball handling

Whether it’s athleticism whether it’s strength whether it’s what like defense there’s a there’s a a kid that was on my uh varsity team last year a kid that worked really hard in skill development but couldn’t really get to that level but he was just an outstanding on ball

Defender and he just leaned into that and it was his way of kind of staying involved within the team right and like that is that is to me such an important part of a basketball player’s development and like Jaylen Brown has demonstrated a ton of skill over his

Time in the league he’s been like the best fadeaway jump shooter in the League this year he’s a guy that can get red hot from the three-point line as well he’s got great footwork he’s got all of these really cool things that he can do from a skill perspective but his

Superpower is he’s one of the best best athletes in the league he’s one of the best athletes in the league and dudes can’t hang with him when he really engages him himself in that area and J this is by the way for people who haven’t been watching Boston very

Closely Jaylen Brown’s been playing at this level for maybe not 40 whatever points that he had but he’s been playing at one of the highest levels of his career now for about a month even longer like he’s been incredible at the point of attack defensively that last

Possession that he did to Jamaal Murray where he ripped him and went the other way he’s been doing that to people for weeks now that like the the downhill aggression toward he’s kind of developed this little left-handed hook in the lane that he goes to he hit two of them again

Tonight that’s something he’s been going to uh for a few weeks now he’s not fading as much in the post he’s going aggressively towards the basket like I’ve talked a lot about how Boston needs to generate more points in the paint Jaylen Brown is the pathway there in so

Many different ways and I just thought he was unbelievably good in this game and then the other major positive for Boston something that translates to a series when chrisop porzingis he was killing him with above the break I I didn’t even think he shot as well as he

Could have but he made I think it was three for 10 from three but he made some big threes from above the break and then beating switches whenever Denver did end up with kcp or Jamaal Murray on him he was able to turn in face and hit some

Shots there in the mid-range to do some damage like that is something that um that is something that I think can translate as an advantage to a Boston Denver series the question is how do you combine that with getting Jason Tatum going and again like this is the thing

Jaylen Brown had possessions where Aaron Gordon was in front of him and there were guys digging down and he just was like screw it I’m going through all these guys and he’s so damn good athletically he was able to get there Tatum is that kind of athlete he is and

Like Tatum has this tendency when he sees the defender squared up with him and he sees guys kind of digging down into driving Lanes he’s like ah man it’s not there going to take a pull-up jump shot right or going to pass the basketball not look to be aggressive

That the kind of thing I’d like to see from Tatum I want to see Tatum be like I am going through everybody here it’s going to get ugly you don’t think Jaylen Brown has some bad turnovers Jaylen Brown gets roasted for turnovers all the time he gets roasted for not being able

To dribble with his left hand he gets all this and but guess what like he he’ll have games like this where he just goes through everybody that’s the thing for Jason Tatum like it has to be for him a willingness to to Barrel into traffic and make some mistakes sometimes

And the thing is is more often than not there’s more good than bad that comes from that you Barrel into the lane and you throw up some BS layup that misses but you draw three defenders in there’s people there to clean up the mess especially if Jaylen Brown is doing that

If they can get both of those two Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum to play with the level of physical aggression that Jaylen Brown played with tonight no one’s beating these guys because they’re so damn talented like but like Denver Denver’s Gap over this team is in execution in

Joic Boston is more talented they are cap of winning this matchup but I unlike Stan Van Gundy I don’t think it’s going to be because they just shoot threes really well for an entire series I think it’s going to be because they meet force with force

With Denver and they have all sorts of advantages on the floor in this series and so I want to see them capitalize that more and I think I think tat I I I don’t think it was a decision-making problem for Tatum tonight I thought it was a passivity problem it was a

Physical passivity problem now one last thing I wanted to hit on Boston before we get out of here the the problem with n Nicole yic in the post so uh porzingis can’t guard him Horford can’t guard him none of their guards can guard him single coverage is it’s it’s just over

Like yok just scoring every single time you cannot bring Baseline help while not occupying Aaron Gordon if you do that you’re going to run into issues with uh Aaron Gordon dunking every single thing around the rim this is where I would like to see Boston play into variance

For Denver the same way that Denver plays into variance for Boston so for instance like uh you know Jason Tatum got a wide openen right corner three at the end of this game and just missed it which by the way even if you’re one of the best corner three-point Shooters in the world

You’re gonna miss about half of them right like there’s real variance on that shot and that’s the thing is like play into that variance with Denver when you I would double yic and make sure it’s kcp or mpj that’s being left open yes those guys are gonna make shots

Sometimes it’s a suicide mission that’s why Denver is the best team in the world but wouldn’t you rather have a shot that they might miss half the time then a shot that they’re going to make every single time like that that to me is the trade-off like you got to take

Away the bully ball stuff and force them to make jump shots and and hope that they’ll be tired like guess what kcp missed a wideopen corner three at the end of this game it was great offense if I remember correctly it was a ball screen joic caught in the middle of the

Floor drew the extra Defender and kicked the ball out it was beautiful Denver offense but there is variance on that shot he might miss it and he did just like Boston can go go cold Denver can go cold and so again like from a strategy standpoint I think that was the

Biggest mistake they made down the stretch of the game they let Aaron Gordon and Nicole yic take all the shots that that’s where that’s where they’ve got to get them out of that Rhythm they’ve got a double team yic either doing windshield wiper rotation where they get inside position on Gordon from

The corner to to seal him out so that whoever that Baseline guy is can help joic but force a skip pass or they need to bring the double team from from the front side and like like from uh whoever it is that’s on the wing or whatever it

Is on the weak side bring that double team from the front side so that just something to make it into a jump shot they’ve got to force Denver to make jump shots at the end of the game because they will make everything around the rim that that would be the one big tactical

Adjustment I looked at from uh the defensive um possessions down the stretch against uh that uh post up in pick and roll attack from Denver um all right so we’re gonna we’re going to call it a night for right now we’re going to be back tomorrow we’re going to break

Down Denver M excuse Dallas Miami and a couple of other games and we’re going to do a mail bag so make sure you guys drop some mailbag questions but that’s it for tonight as always I sincerely appreciate you guys I will see you Tomorrow

Jason Timpf reacts to the biggest highlights from Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the Denver Nuggets’ 115-109 win over Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics. Jason discusses why Nikola Jokic is “by far” the best player in the world, how Denver constructed the perfect lineup, Jaylen Brown’s huge night, and his major problem with Jayson Tatum. Was this a preview of the NBA Finals?

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
03:20 – Nikola Jokic “by far” best player in world
08:30 – How Nuggets found success vs. Celtics defense
13:27 – Nuggets way better than Celtics in crunch time
15:04 – Denver’s immaculate lineup
18:58 – Aaron Gordon is “immensely valuable” to Nuggets
20:28 – Peyton Watson master performance
21:57 – Jamal Murray’s down night
23:06 – Jaylen Brown’s unbelievable game
26:51 – Jayson Tatum MUST get more aggressive
28:54 – No one on Boston can guard Jokic

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