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Nuggets Show Celtics What Title Contenders Look Like



Nuggets Show Celtics What Title Contenders Look Like

It’s time to figure out if the Celtics are for real they’re one of the only teams we’ve ever seen rank in the top two of both offensive and defensive rating their net rating is also an all-timer and they’re on Pace to win 63 games with the comfortable lead at top

The Eastern Conference what better way to figure out where they stand than to play the defending champs on the road both teams fully healthy and rested and it became a justed position a playing style so Stark it’s almost like they’re playing different sports on offense the Nuggets attack is based on lots of

Player movement passing and cutting to a coach their offense gets you clapping for all the shots they generate using teamwork on the other side the Celtics prefer to spread the floor and let their individual Talent run the show this doesn’t make their offense less effective and certainly in the regular

Season the Celtics Talent can overwhelm most teams by the third quarter but when you go up against the best of the best if your shot quality is considerably lower than your opponent you’ll certainly struggle the most common action the Celtics run and certainly the most effective is simply spreading the

Floor and having Chris app’s porzingis set a ball screen both Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown are among the top 10 in pick and roll when paired with KP and yic has to step up to prevent an easy three for Tatum which allows porzingis space to short roll for a wideopen

13-footer unclear why they’re setting this curl screen for KP to start since Tatum simply waits for the inside ball screen jic calls for a switch but gives Tatum so much room that it’s an easy free throw line jumper again three guys standing around while the Celtics put

Michael Porter Jr in the Octagon where he’s a step late getting over to contest this deep three as Tatum rolls it around before dropping through now let’s compare that to what Denver was doing in their half court yic feeds Gordon at the elbow and joins Murray to set a double

Pin down for Porter out of the corner Porter has a choice to curl around the first screen and Drew holiday jumps out as if he’s switching on to Porter but somehow expects Derrik white to then jump back to him as Gordon throws a beuty the pass for the assist same play

As Porter Cuts underneath the first screen and that triggers Jamal Murray coming off the joic pin down if the pass is denied like Drew does here then we get Blind Pig action from the triangle offense as joic gets the pass and Murray Cuts in behind the play for the handoff

He blows the inside hand finish but this is as high quality of a shot as you’re going to get they run it to the other side and the Celtics do a complicated switch Horford picks up Porter Brown switch to Murray and white realizes he’s on yic same Blind Pig action but when

White goes for the steal it’s over and he has to fou to stop the hoop this ruthless execution of a well-designed play is why the Nuggets generate so many great looks later in the second they have yic as the first screener with calwell po playing out of the high post

I love how they invert positions all the time Horford wants to take away the cut but that leaves joic wide open forcing holiday to pick him up but that leaves Reggie Jackson wide open in the lane they miss it so yic gets to show why his

IQ is so high he knows a Celtic switch off ball screen out top and with Tatum turned away from him he can slip the screen and get an opening he could have passed to one of the better Shooters in the league for a wide open Corner three

Or just finger roll it in the basket more contrasting style as the Celtics go one4 flat then bring Xavier Tillman up to set a high ball screen with no movement they loop horer around to the left block with hopes that his man will help on the action and open him up for a

Layup in instead it’s his man who’s just standing there watching the play unfold and easily steps in for a steal that leads to a rare fast break score for the nuggets in the third they again run something very stagnant Tatum does ball screen before popping out to run the

Vontage JT KP pick and roll yic steps up to the three-point line to dissuade the shot as Murray gets around Tatum throws a dying Quail made all the more easy to steal because Aaron Gordon’s man was parked for several seconds in the weak side corner and and out of that same

Horn set Tatum throws a stinker of a bounce pass where it bounces way too far from KP and way too hard because of such little movement kcp can easily break off from White and just steal the ball from them going on an adventure to lay this

One up and in I can’t get over how yic continually senses when a Defender is coming up behind him to steal it and at the exact right moment snaps the ball to his teammate for a wide open shot in the corner this good ball set is exactly

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Actually ran some coordinated sets but the execution tended to be lacking here’s a high post split where KP gets it at the elbow extended with his back to the basket while the pasture goes to screen the weak side Wing KP gets impatient waiting for someone to cut mpj

Falls asleep for a second on holiday before not listening to yic who told him to switch on to porzingis and this did open up a a slightly contested shot that doesn’t go in here’s some pinch post out of the pure triangle offense as white hits Tatum and follows his pass to the

Corner meanwhile porzingis hits the pin down for brown out of the corner he has a step on Gordon and doesn’t give up the advantage until he draws the shooting foul here’s a horn set with both High post and Corner positions filled because of the foolish steel attempt the defense

Is broken down immediately as yic has to help on Brown Reggie Jackson has to sink to Tilman and it’s an easy pass for Hower who’s been lighting it up ball season speaking of Hower when he’s in and brown is out they’ve got some organized sets they’ll run to get him

Open like this double staggered pin down across the court it forces yit to step up to contest and watch how masterful Horford is under the hoop to clear his man out of the way while also bumping Murray and then commanding low position for the offensive rebound this directly

Leads to the defensive scramble and mismatch down low that gets a nice Lefty half Hook by Tilman but they revert to their base off offense most of the time five out spread pick and roll with Shooters along the perimeter if the defense allows middle penetration which is where holiday eventually gets to it

Gives his pick of open Shooters however if you watch Justin holiday there is simply no reason for him to get past the midline of the floor for help joic is right there and a 26t closeout is simply too far off a shooter like Hower and in the playoffs you won’t see defensive

Mistakes like this what worries me the most is probably the Celtics biggest strength their isolations they isolate the fourth most of any team ranked seventh in efficiency and I’m sure these types of shots go in a lot against the bottom half of the NBA but when you’re playing high-intensity playoff-like

Basketball against the very best teams the more you rely on shots like this the harder the road gets from one Playoff round to the next the nuggets are ninth and defensive rating overall this year and have really ranted up over the last 10 games with guys like Gordon KY P

Brown and Watson all very good Defenders the best defensive teams are physical yet don’t excessively foul and it’s got to be a concern that the Celtics rely on this type of thing so much I know it’s just one game on the road but keep your eye on this as we move towards the

Playoffs in a few weeks the key for the Celtics is and always has been poor zingis he’s such a threat from all over the floor and when Tatum looks like he’s going to put his head down and drive sucking yic towards the ball you don’t

Have to be very accurate on your lobs to a 7’3 guy with the inside ball screen on the wing the defense must be on point they really should just switch this but instead two go to Tatum Murray is slow rotating off the corner and KP lights

Them up for one of his three triples last night and even if you do switch like Gordon does here Tatum can blow by off the dribble Brown simply should not be helping one pass away here and it makes for an easy pass to Brown for a wide open shot when when Denver got

Separation is when the Celtics went away from the KP ball screening as the shot clock would wind down with hardly any movement and the defense able to load up on the ball until they could force a Miss but then they get back on the same

Page and use it here to get them right back in the game when all seemed lost at this point and Denver has shown over the two games versus the Celtics this year that they’re simply a better team they execute their offense better particularly down the stretch and almost

Always know how to generate the best shot in high pressure situations to start the fourth they run Princeton offense with a handoff into reversal in the ball screen which catches Tatum several steps behind the play this allows Murray a Runway opens the pocket pass and Zeke Naji displays his athletic

Ability they cleverly show an inside ball screen from Watson who then quickly flips it into a stepup screen and catches Tatum out of position allowing Murray to go behind his back into the middle and then calmly hit the open floater from the dotted line the nuggets are also experts in picking apart Miss

Matches forcing Tatum on yic with the pick and roll and when he spins back into the middle either joic scores or he’s waiting for the double off of Gordon’s man so he can feed him for the dunk while the Celtics actually put Drew holiday on yic on purpose from time to

Time he’s really no match as yic swivels his feet on the catch to win the foot race once his left foot is planted even with holidays it’s over and if they want to go ISO then they’re not going to do it with a 10 dribble perimeter attack

They just go to the big fella down low and if they can coax a miss out of him with some late help then Aaron Gordon has been consistently there to clean up any messes on Isle six give credit to the Celtics they are very good and do

Not give up Murray gets too caught up trying to initiate contact and doesn’t finish the contested floater and it allows Boston to push the ball down court and get the nuggets on their heels so their xfactor can get yic in space to hit the nice little midi from the elbow

Off the bounce but they were also fortunate that Murray had some sphincter itis down the stretch he never should have taken this shot up six with 145 to go and 16 on the shot clock because they get caught in a terrible Cross Match with yic having a guard Drew making yic

Look damn awkward as he watches the ball sail up over his head and into the faset and I think Mike Malone got a little too clever trying to get away with mpj on KP to combat the pick and roll but it left yic guarding holiday who prly went to

Work in the right corner and busted out a good move to hop back into a three pointer to cut it to two and one more uncharacteristic play by Jamal Murray but give credit to Brown for harassing him to no end until he got the steal but

They screw up getting a layup on a two for one when Tatum decides to spin on this tough catch however it led directly to one of their best shots of the night it would have been shocking to see the Celtics actually take the lead and potentially steal this one on the road

But Tatum was off all night and the Nuggets just don’t get fragile they simply wind the clock down knowing they’ve got the ultimate scoring imp passing weapon in the world and as two Health Defenders run at him and KP meekly tries to take a charge he’ll

Never get yit somehow throws this up to Gordon on the lob and that was the exclamation point on a pretty good game but it’s also a point of emphasis on where the Celtics are in terms of title contention which has the Nuggets sitting alone by themselves looking down on everyone Else

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Coach Nick broke down this playoff like game between the Nuggets and Celtics to explain where both these time are in terms of NBA title contention.
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41 Comments

  1. At this point we have enough proof that tatum don’t have clutch gene in him. Dude froze in crunch time.

  2. The biggest threats to a Denver repeat are the Wolves and the Celtics. But with KAT out and Boston relying on so much iso ball i think the Nuggets have a really good chance this year

  3. Coach had some great ad segues in the past, something I usually find a bit cringe. They haven't been that great recently. But this one was excellent. A+ for the segue

  4. Every time this two play I have some memories of the Harden's rockets versus GSW, one is heavy ball dominant and the other one is more ball movement

  5. My first reason that I have subscribed to your channel is the way you advertise the ball shaving instrument!

  6. They came out flat af and Tatum went back to trying to channel his inner Kobe instead of running some actual legit sets at the end of the game 😭 that and KP getting babied by joker lol I hope to see this in the finals

  7. 12:14 DUDE. Anthony Edward's block of Benedict Mathurin is getting all the glory rn, but I think this one is just as good. Watson literally came from the weak side and JUMPED OVER JOKIC to block one of the NBA's best scorers. That's incredible athleticism and it's a shame it's not getting more attention.

  8. It's kinda like 3 football plays in less than 24 seconds? Jokic should take Marshall 's number 15 in Orange and Blue!!!

  9. Tatum shrinks in clutch time. He lacks fundamental under pressure, suddenly playing with no basketball IQ.

  10. It's a testament of the game's good health that the best team in the league can beat the second team in the league with such a different offesnes and making only 4 threes

  11. 1:26 how on earth is that not a moving screen?? And then we complain about too much scoring. They are are just blatantly violating the rule book on a nightly basis, against the defense

  12. Celtics matchup hunt and they capitalise that way.

    Vs Denver Jokic ripped them apart. They tried almost everyone on him, Guards, Wings, Bigs and they all failed. To win a series vs Denver you need “Insert role player here game” at least twice.

    With all that said I don’t think Denver has a matchup for Brown and Tatum as a duo. They slowed down Tatum and Brown crushed them.

    With all that said Denver has a slight advantage right now.

  13. Two things that is holding back the Celtics from winning the championship:
    1. Jayson Tatum poor decision making in clutch time – Dude would rather live with a contested fadeaway jumper than finding an open man
    2. Mazulla inability to make plays in clutch – If you’ve seen games of Celtics when they lost, it’s because of Mazulla’s persistent principle of not wanting to call a timeout when the game is on the line. He said that he doesn’t like the opposing team to set their defense, okay fair. But at some point you need to do it but it’s little to non-existent. For example the Cavs game, JT bricked a fadeaway jumpshot since Mazulla didn’t call a timeout. After that when they did jumpball he’s suddenly calling a timeout with literally 0.9 seconds left on the clock. What an absolute clown

  14. Porzingus has improved the Celtics skill levels and scoring possibilities, but they have had the same basic lack of closing IQ and execution since at least the 2022 finals. They’re really good, but their record is padded by playing in the East and they’re clearly not in the Nuggets class

  15. I like how everyone thinks the Celtics have no chance from watch two games…
    Denver can be beat just like every other team in the NBA.

  16. Honestly, the nuggets are the best office right now. between trusting their guy on Jokic, to sticking it out with Murray during his injuries, they built a lot of trust in that team. The guys trust each other too

  17. This game was in Tatum lack of aggression mazulla flawed but this wasn’t the game to blame him. Your best player take 13 shots he want to lose

  18. The "Good ball sense" transition absolutely murdered me! XD
    Thanks for that laugh 😀

    Ah, yes, also great analysis of the game, always enlightening to hear you talk about basketballs.

  19. Jokic is such an insane player. When all said and done, i think he will be just behind MJ as the GOAT

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