Nuggets edge out Celtics, Anthony Edwards’ BLOCK & Steph Curry’s injury scare | The Hoop Collective

Nuggets edge out Celtics, Anthony Edwards’ BLOCK & Steph Curry’s injury scare | The Hoop Collective

Hello and welcome to the hoop Collective podcast we talk about the NBA which we are doing on Friday morning about 2:45 a.m. eastern time joining us from ball arena in Denver Colorado where the Denver Nuggets had a thrilling victory over the Boston Celtics and was surely

One of the best games of the NBA season on Thursday night is Tim bontemps hello everybody and welcome to sleep update theater CU I’m sure we’ll get plenty today uh the get up planning pre-production meeting is in about three hours oh I will be an active participant

Son I’ll be headed for my flight home joining us from Dallas Texas where about nine hours ago he watched the Mavericks defeat the Miami Heat and Luca I believe had his fifth consecutive 30-point triple double which is some crazy streak that I because the Mavericks are losing

I don’t think he’s getting the proper attention and it won’t get it in this podcast either ban McMahon howdy Partners Wendy I’ll let you know that uh while you’re hard at work in that get up meeting I will be just snoozing away [Laughter] baby yeah you earned it well anyway um

The the Nuggets earned uh a real high quality win in a game that um lived up to the billing um both sides you know fully healthy at least in terms of active list both sides rested both sides caring about the game um going after it uh everything you could want and bont

Temps if this was a playoff series and this was game one um and the Nuggets were head 1 after their what was it it a four-point win is that what they ended up with six do we want to say they’re up two after the the first two games that’s what I was going

To say they’d be up two that’s how I that’s how I would call it personally yeah I guess I guess so um I like one better because um this game was you know just happen arrary end points yeah I like one better I’m sticking with one sure sure pod I would

Watch this and say this thing’s going six or seven um and I would of course favor the Nuggets because um they are two and0 against the regular season they did win this game they looked very hard to stop Under Pressure situations but I felt that um this this is a a pretty

Evenly matched situation um and I think that the Celtics the ball there was a ball in the air um inside two minutes it was Jason Tatum who shot it um I’m sure you’ll have a lot to say about Tatum here in the second Bond house but the ball there

Was a ball in the air that would have put the Celtics ahead inside two minutes and inside one minute 45 seconds to go 45 seconds yeah right inside one minute and considering the Celtics didn’t play their best game at all that fact that there was a that that shot was in the

Air you know illustrates why I think this would be a great series and um it certainly was the type of game that that exactly is what you’re looking for in a playoff series as well so Bon Temps um you were in the building where there was

Actually quite a few uh Celtics fans um what was your takeway from what you watched in this game a couple hours ago well let’s start with that part because Michael Malone got the trout out the same line he got to use about the Lakers and say to the victory go the the

Celtics fans could take that L home baby uh which got into my story um look this was I think in a lot of ways this game was a repeat in virtually every way of the first game in Boston incredibly high intensity game incredibly well played game on both sides everybody’s playing

Really hard playing a ton of minutes all the stars are playing all everybody’s healthy invested Etc and Nicole yic was Sensational in both games first game he had 3412 and N that was coming off of the the death of decky before that um obviously very emotional game for him

Tonight he has a 32-point triple double hits Aon Gordon on a lob for the game winning or game sealing I should say play with 19 seconds to go after Tatum who had a horrific game which we will talk about plenty missed an absolutely wide openen Corner three that he had

Plenty of time to test the wind on on the prior possession that we had a chance to put Boston ahead with 45 seconds to go but I agree with you I hope this is the NBA Finals I think these are the two best teams in the league I think it would be an

Unbelievable series and we’ve seen these two games have been fantastic and there’s all sorts of things we’ll get into from a tactical perspective that I think over the course of seven games would be awesome but to me the the brass hacks of this are in the two games these

Teams have played Nicole yic has been awesome and Jason Tatum has been close to awful and in this game in particular he was awful and if the Celtics are going to win this series if it happens Nicole yic is going to be the best player that’s already a hill that you’re

Going to have to climb Jason Tatum cannot be bad in these games he’s got to be really good and he has been very bad he was very bad today he was not very good in the first one and again if you’re the Celtics you want to say hey

We shot 30% on threes in the two games Tatum was bad in the two games we didn’t play well really in either game and we were right there in both of them yeah that’s true but Denver as Tatum I thought summed up very nicely after the

Game is a team that does not ever beat itself and for a Celtics team that as we’ve all seen in the playoffs likes to make life difficult for itself all the time if they do that against this team they ain’t beating this team because this team will kill them on it every

Single time yeah and look it you’re not going to blow the nuggets out you’re going to have to beat them down the stretch and you know you wrote about it again today or yesterday now um we’ve talked about it many times the Celtics statistically are one of the best teams

Of all time but you just have a really hard time trusting them to close out Elite competition and this adds to that whereas Joker like you you dump the ball down to him in crunch time and you believe he’s going to make a play whether that’s spinning for a uh you

Know tough little hook over porzingis or I think at the very next possession you know going into what looks like a jump hook and nope it’s that little lob to Gordon that he loves to to do and uh has has done it in a couple of dagger

Situations here just over the last week and look people don’t like when we say that Tatum is a second tier Superstar but this is the kind of game that just makes that a an obvious statement a firste superstar is a two-time MVP a Finals MVP who has a 32o triple double where he

Shoots 11 of 19 from the floor Tatum it was an off game man you just you can’t have a five bucket five turnover dud like that in big games and honestly dude like the you don’t see SGA or Luca or Giannis have these just non impactful 12 or 13 point games ever

There are levels to Superstars and datam is on the second level in the league that doesn’t mean that Celtics can’t win a championship but that is going to be a challenge boy there was a play in the fourth quarter with about four or five minutes to go in this game that really

Spoke to a lot of things in my opinion it wasn’t the game to finding play by any means but Tatum was obviously having difficulty um getting any sort of Rhythm he had driven to the basket a little bit early in the fourth quarter um you know

Had not gotten to the line you know was actively avoiding contact in the paint was trying these circus layups like these Up and Under crazy things that had no chance of going in instead of going through people like frankly Jaylen Brown was who by the way in this game had 41

Points and was awesome that one of the best games Jaylen Brown’s ever played I agree we’ll talk about Jaylen in a second but there was this moment the Celtics were making a run they had cut the lead at that point I believe to seven and um Tatum made a good defensive

Play he stepped in front of a pass and got an interception and it created a two-on-one break and Drew holiday was on the break with him I can’t remember the Denver player who was back Jamal was in the middle of him Jamal muray okay so a

Guard and um Tatum was on the move after the steal and gave the ball up through a a bounce pass like from the top of the key to Drew holiday and like just didn’t want it like from half court was it half court I mean it was a little

Bit over half court but he was far out he just gave the ball up on a two-on-one break to Drew holiday not Jaylen Brown not porzingis like gave the ball up to the smaller player and said here you take it and holiday was in my view stunned and like they fumbled the ball

And like didn’t get up a clean shot um and the fact that Tatum would not just want that and go try to say go ahead and try to stop me I’m 69 I’m going to not only am I going to score here I’m going to dunk and you if you might you might

Foul me I don’t know I don’t want to overthink it but just that the fact that he did that just was a complete illustration of his mindset he didn’t want it and it set was really starkly against Jaylen Brown who very very clearly thought this game was hugely

Important and right out of the gates and throughout the game especially in the second and third quarters when the Celtics were really floundering really couldn’t get much going offensively just was fierce in his aggression and forcing it now and one really quick just to just to back up on

That Tuesday night I’m in Cleveland they have this collapse and lose disastrous loss and me disastrous loss no no no no no I don’t I don’t mean I don’t mean it like a I don’t mean I just it was just a it was you it was an

Awful loss to blow a 22-point lead 9 minutes that’s all Point there’s no way they should have lost the game yeah that’s all I meant by disastrous there was a disastrous 9 minutes they lose the game that’s all it was ugly they lose everybody was kind of like ah you know

It’s a game whatever Jaylen Brown goes in the press conference and in the press conference room it’s like look this is not a game to be forgotten about we are trying to win a championship these are the games we can’t be making these kind of mistakes this guy had a lower back

Strain of some I mean a long word that I said a couple times on TV today and I honestly can’t remember now because my brain is fried but he had a lower back strain wasn’t sure he was going to play um and he just is able to play and backs

Up everything he said with a big time game I just wanted to make sure that part was said because he said a lot of stuff after that game about how they needed to respond and he responded in a really big way on a big stage well and going back to Cleveland obviously they

Blow the lead terrible down the stretch and it comes down to the balls in Jason Tatum’s hands okay MVP candidate deliver and he jacks up a crap shot uh just a ugly contested soft Fade Away kicked his leg out yeah he kicked his leg out to

Get a foul which he got for about two minutes and they over yeah got it until they looked at the review they’re like oh yeah that was awful um and he got hammered pretty pretty hard not not by the defender by you know media fans etc

Etc there was a whole lot of Spotlight on Jason Tatum’s clutch woes and I mean those numbers are not pretty like he’s literally among stars one of if not the worst clutch player in the league this season I wonder if all that had any kind of carryover uh going in into this game

Because this is like it’s it’s it’s very shocking to see a superstar come up this small in a game like this yeah he was probably you know just about everybody else on the Celtics of of their rotation maybe not Al Horford but Horford yeah you know had a big task

But the rest of the Celtics players of their Core Group could look at you and say they really laid it on the line they didn’t have a great shooting night uh porzingis missed uh 14 shots but he played a very active game um uh but Tatum really his last five

Quarters are rough so rough a fourth quarter in Cleveland and then this game here considering everything it’s it’s a rough one and and he then he got the shot and you know what I mean it’s a he’s probably 45 50% on a wide open look in the

Corner he missed it whatever but on the on the heels of the way he played in the game it was just it was hard to see because he was open by 12 feet maybe if not more it’s just an exclamation point on a really rough couple of games really for him or

At least closed to one game and then uh come back in in this next game and look it’s I’m not saying Jason Tatum can’t lead the Celtics would be the best player on a Celtics championship team you know Wendy you talked about his you called it a checkered playoff history

Which I think that’s fair like you look at the overall body of work and not nearly as offical I mean Jaylen Brown has a checkered playoff history he’s had some moments where it’s really hard to defend him but yeah you never you never get the impression that Jaylen is being

Meek right but at the same time in fairness Tatum I want to point out that that checkered playoff history includes a 46 Point yeah uh performance in Milwaukee in a winner go home game six it includes a 51o performance to to beat the 76ers in the game seven last year so

We have seen this guy rise to some you know pretty massive occasion but man tough couple of uh nights for him this week look you said it best before there’s levels of these things right Jason T is a fantastic player he’s one of the 10 best players on the planet

He’s not one of the five best players on the planet in my opinion and whether you want to debate whether he’s fifth you know where he’s not at number one which is where the guy they played against today is because that guy is is at the

Top of the mountain as you said is the reigning Finals MVP two time MVP maybe a three-time MVP in a month and as you said you get in the final five minutes of a close game and you have the Jamal Marine ni yic pick and roll and you have

The Celtics offense you’re taking the yic Murray pick and roll you’re taking it every time and that’s the thing that the Celtics are going to have to overcome if they are going to win a championship because they have as you said earlier their statistical statistical resume is unbelievable

They’re one of the best teams of all time in all these various categories they have an incredibly versatile roster all these switchable players can do all this different kinds of stuff they’ve got eight Elite Shooters in their rotation all guys you have to worry about like they’ve got a fantastic team

But they don’t have that true blue MVP top three top five player on their team that you typically see championship teams have and when the Celtics played in the NBA finals against step Steph was better than Tatum that a big part of why gold State won and in these two games

Again it’s just a reminder that if this is the matchup in June that’s a hill the Celtics are going to have to climb and maybe Jason Tatum does climb it maybe they win maybe he outplays joic maybe he ascends he’s certainly got all the ability to do anything on the court but

As we sit here right now if these teams play in the finals I’m picking Denver to win because again these teams are very similar and if it comes down to it if they’re similar you’re taking the better player at the end of the day and yic is

Going to win that every time because the other thing the Celtics don’t have is anybody who can handle Joker and that’s due respect to porzingis who obviously has been has had a great defensive year porzingis can’t stop Joker Anthony Davis can’t stop Joker we like there’s nobody

On Earth who can stop this guy we hav found we haven’t found the person yet right right so there was some wrinkles in this game I’m sure that not everything in the Playbook or the Ingenuity Concepts were rolled out because it is a regular season game but

There was some things that were shown strategy-wise in the game um specifically against jic the Celtics of course you know used a blend of Maneuvers against him but late in the game um Joe moua went with Drew holiday guarding him straight up um which he’s done against Giannis which he’s done

Against Jolan beid yeah some other guys like that um and uh they did some they did several different things they they left uh you know the guy who was on him in one-on-one it was um holiday for a good section of the fourth quarter they also went with porzingis they also went

With a double big lineup a little bit during the game with Warford and porzingis in the game they played them straight up and they also brought double teams um and they actually had some mild success bringing double teams able to get some stops jic did miss a couple of shots

Um uh so that’s interesting you know Food For Thought also for a while the Nuggets left yic Andrew Holiday at the other end of the court and there was a bit of a there was a stretch there as the Celtics were chopping the lead down where this I do think missoula’s

Alignments in terms of of matchups actually swayed some things in the favor of the Celtics holiday hit a couple of shots with jic sort of out on an island um there was a little bit of offense defense played by Michael Malone because was a little bit uncomfortable with the

Matchups he was moving yic around so there was some showing of some hands not that again not that there was anything radical that the stics hadn’t done um but a huge Factor when you know it’s easy just to say oh joic is hard to guard but a huge Factor on this and this

Has been if you’ve watched any Nuggets game this year over the last few years but particularly this year people talk about the the Jamal Murray pick and roll and of course uh it’s devastating and the way they use Spain pick and rolls where they have multiple screen set for

Joic and you know gives them all kinds of different options at the top of the key but the the guy you got a game plan for I really do believe is Aaron Gordon and Aaron Gordon’s ability to come on the weak side and be um basically a safety valve for yic

Is just an incredible weapon and several different times in this fourth quarter in a including in a vital moment where the Celtics needed a stop and porzingis was all over joic yic did two different spin moves on the same play which porzingis who is challenged guarding yic because

Um he can get bullied you know yic can basically just dribble through him he was kind of all over him and Y did a great job he did a great job on that play yeah joic throws a hook pass and um Aaron Gordon had two dunks in the final

Five minutes one of which was on this play where he just comes from the weak side and dunks it the other was on a putback where again porzingis I believe did a great job forcing a yic Miss in both situations the Celtics brought double teams to try to get to get to

Interfere with the guy who shoots 65 70% from putting the ball in the basket and in both situations Gordon murdered him and in both situations Tatum is standing there and he’s in the wrong position now just like he was by the way standing there with 19 seconds to go on

Tuesday and watch Dean Wade run right to the rim and be a to put back dunk and what turned out to be the game-winning play on Tuesday yeah um now look it’s easy for me to say Tatum’s got to be there on Aaron Gordon you’d be leaving another guy open

On the backside the Nuggets shot terribly from three-point range in this game they were 421 uh um and if he goes and sells out on on Gordon jic could just as easily have hit like kavus calwell Pope or Michael Porter Jr in the corner right you’re not gonna fool Joker he’s going

To make the right read I know but I really do think that just in general Gordon is such a killer you might have to sell out to stop that to stop those lobs because um well what you need to do is not have your gu your low man falling

Asleep watching him go buy you like that’s the thing you you have to get a body on him and not let him cut to the brim for a dunk that’s that’s what you have to do which requires you to be locked in in a way that Tatum wasn’t and

Just in general to T point about making the right decisions points off turnovers in this game Denver 16 Celtics had a lot of lightball turnovers Boston six was a six-point game like there were some Miss free throws and other stuff but that the Celtics missed nine free throws

Jame Jaylen Brown got to the line 14 times but missed seven of them his most misses in a game in his career that’s obviously not great you know if you’re the Celtics you’re looking at that going what happened there but again if you’re the Nuggets you’re looking at it going

We’re not going to shoot 421 from three but I don’t know they’re gonna well before it even is the potential match up with the Celtics teams are gonna have to probably just say we can’t let Aaron Gordon beat us and if that means Jamal Murray does it

That means cwell Pope or Porter Do It Gordon is just too good in fact jokic said on that play that um that double pouette that he did he didn’t really he didn’t even really see where Gordon was he just he just knows what side of the

Rim Gordon’s on and he knows where to put it and he just throws it up there and just assumes he’s GNA be there well it helps that Gordon’s a former did he actually want to dunk contest he got know got Rob no he didn’t he he twice

Kind he’s he’s a freaking acrobat who like Joker usually puts it on the money but you just kind of got to put it in the neighborhood for the guy he’s amazing I AG Joker has 102 assists this year to Aaron Gordon just to Aaron Gordon he has 100

God I don’t I don’t know the numbers but 75 of them gotta be for dunks well and again well again this this all comes back to the Nuggets uh you know Tatum I thought summed it up perfectly the Nuggets just do not beat themselves and

If you don’t if you don’t block out that cut from Aaron Gordon he’s going to get a dunk if you double at the wrong time like Jaylen Brown tried to come over and get the ball from jic he just picked it up over his head and picked it right out

To the corner to kcp who he ran off of and he had a wide open three like if you if you make any mistake against them you’re going to get killed every stress so much stress on you so much on You by way you can play it perfectly you don’t

Give up the cut you stay stay on the shooter and you have a 7 foot three guy perfectly positioned and Joker can still drop in that hook score anyway like Joker he’s a could made pass it I know I know he shoots straight up in the air

Too uh you’re right he has the best touch in the league he he has the best paint touch in the league and it’s not like it’s not close and his his um you know there’s several amazing things about him one of which is you know he’s a bull who

Like never seems to get tired he never seems to get hurt knock on wood like he you know um and he never seems to ever come close to choking I’m sure with people who have the deeper catalog of yic moments than my than I do could

Probably say well there was this one or two times but it doesn’t even look like his pulse quickens um he he just is just cold coldhearted about it all so um and his attitude and mood is always exactly the same I mean the most energy he shows is getting mad at at officials

And um a lot of times when he gets mad at officials which he’s guilty of of kind sometimes being out of plays because he’s you know looking like Luca most of the time he’s right you know like this guy he is but he also complains a lot and and the

Technical he got in this game actually was a huge play in the game because he was screaming at Tony Brothers the entire way down the court Tony Brothers waited to call a technical to see what happened on The Fast Break Jaylen Brown got fouled on an n one he then calls the

Technical on joic which joic he probably got fouled at the other end I never saw play but he certainly earned he certainly earned the technical uh on top of it and that became a four-point play and the Celtics went from looking kind of dead in the water to being back in

The game help spur a rally to get them back into it which if the Celtics G on to win this game that would have been one of the defining moments of the game frankly yic yic is forever always hacked up on his arms you always see like every

Game you see red scratches all over his arms it’s it’s it’s good for pleading your case um uh also a factor in this game that I think would be interesting to watch play out in a long playoff series is the bench play um neither of these teams

Have what you would determine as a deep bench um and there’s a lot of unproven especially at the highest levels on on their benches um and Denver got way better overall bench play in this game particularly from Payton Watson who was just an energy machine um he hit five

Shots uh was just very active also on the boards but they out scored the Celtics bench I think let me see the actual number it was something like 30 to 12 or something like that 28 to yeah okay um I don’t think that would necessarily repeat itself in um in every single game

In a series uh but that would be something that we would definitely be watching over four or five six games and that was something that was heavily in the Nuggets favor I mean are like are either of these teams going to play eight guys if they get to the finals no

Well Malone played 10 okay that’s what I mean thiss Reggie Jackson Who Malone called out before the game and needed to play better was bad Zeke Naji played a few minutes and was fine but he will not be playing in the playoffs so it’s really Payton Watson who played very well

Christian Brown who played very well uh and that’s about it I think as far as bench players are going to be playing in the fin well Justin holiday will probably play I do not I will bet money that he’s not I think that would be very bad if he’s playing in the final

Inre Watson pton Watson and Christian Brown are gonna play uh you know who’s playing instead canavi is cwell poic I think I think they’ll be playing I think they’ll be playing those seven guys and maybe Reggie Jackson plays a little bit if he’s playing well you know

My you know my Pat Riley ISM in playoff series which is you play eight and Trust seven and by the later games of playoff series you sometimes play seven and Trust four and for Boston they’re GNA be playing their Five Guys Al Horford and

Sam Hower who is a a big a big guy who can guard big big Wing who can guard a little bit and is a lights out shooter and shot the he got a couple threes today and then we’ll see if pton prri could play a little or if they mixing up

Another big here or there they tried Xavier Tilman today for a different look that did not not go well at all kilman had had a couple of good games his first few games with the Celtics I understand why he was in that r i mean Joe moua is

Trying different stuff all the time even today they were they were changing up their rotations all the time on Tuesday against Cleveland you had holiday guarding Isaac aoro like they’re just they’ve spent all season uh tweaking things and trying things and testing things out for the playoffs because that’s that’s how they

Operate and they did the same thing today just I don’t think Xavier Tillman’s going to be playing in the uh in the finals if it comes to it either I also think in a series between these two teams um that the the variance on porzingis will be huge because

Porzingis he has games where his three-point shot is more of a factor than not the way the nuggets are playing he’s going to be able to get threes um he’s played well in both games too didn’t hit a ton of shots I mean he went three for 10 from three today but he

Played well in this game and he was really good in the first game and and if he takes 10 threes in five games there’s going to be games where he makes six and he really got a lot of looks but that’s one thing that I think Boston can take

Away from that they really can put the the nuggets in some rough situations because they you can’t y joic does is limited how much ground he can cover defensively and porzingis did um did definitely cause them some headaches there were a couple of times where well

First off he hit two three porns right out of the gate in the third quarter Michael Malone called a papovich timeout less than a minute into the second half there were a couple of other times after he called that timeout where porzingis got open on threes and they were at the

Nuggets end of the court and so I mean Malone was fully into this game he was turned up to 10 he was up and down the sidelines going crazy screaming running running back to his bench to have them check replays like he was and and the and porzingis got open for threes and

Malone slapped his head as the ball went up and they they missed he he he didn’t hit a bunch of them but well and and it is worth pointing out again the Celtics are easily the best shooting team in the league highest volume shooting team from three highest makes highest attempts

Fourth in percentage I think they’re 41 and four when they shoot over 33% from three this season and one of those losses was the game Tuesday that they were up 22 with nine to go and in the two games against Denver they’ve shot 30% and they’ve like both games they’ve

Missed a good amount of open shots and obviously you know there if you’re going to shoot that many threes you’re going to have some variance but if they’d shot 37% in the two games even with Tatum playing bad they’re probably two and 0 in the games and we’re looking at it

Differently I also think that yeah go ahead I was GNA say one thing on porzingis threes uh how do you think your legs feel when you’re wrestling with Joker you’re right like seriously like you’re right you’re absolutely right it’s no question if when you have to work that

Hard on defense it makes shooting the ball a lot more difficult I also do wonder if they’re going to have to play more of Horford and porzingis and they will in the playoffs by default because they’ll be playing more I do wonder if you need to have the two of them

Together out there maybe against this closing lineup I mean you’ve talked a lot Brian from the beginning with this Denver run about how big they are across the board and they might need Horford out there for his size just to lean on joic and allow porzingis to maybe be

Maybe back as a RoR to help on those lobs and other things or try some stuff like that to see if that can work cuz I mean as you said Big B yo I think porzingis played pretty well defensively and every time jic got him on his hip he

Was able to basically just work it down to the block and you know either lob it up to somebody or have a pretty close shot at the rim and I understand we’re really going into this one like we normally wouldn’t go into in a regular season game just because we can all

Sense what this means and and how important it is I do think the Celtics hunted mismatches a little bit too much I know that this is a because of their ability to shoot threes and you know create situations that this is something that they do regularly I do think especially in the

Second half they went through some periods where they really weren’t scoring and they were really hunting the mismatches on the on the screens where they got switches and not moving the ball and the ball movement generates threes so in this game they take 38 threes which is not bad but they’re

Better off when they’re up mid 4S into the 50s and threes um I’m not saying they needed to take 10 more but I do think there was some possessions and part of it was because Jaylen Brown had it going so much that they were kind of leaning into that and

Part of it was because some of the decisions that Denver made on you know who they were switching but um I think also if if we were going into a game two that would be one of the things we’d be talking about in between would be do

They need to look for more ball movement as opposed to just hunting um that size um but it’s an easy trap to fall into when you’ve got a guy like porzingis who you know a lot of times is in the post and has eight inches on the guy who

Switched on and the crazy thing is I haven’t looked at porzingis as postup numbers in the last few days but it’s like 1.4 points efficiency and which is why they’re going to it I know yeah this is the same chrisps porzingis who remember the the famous Rick car out rant the

Post up’s not a good play anymore it’s not a good play for a seven fo three gu at the time he was averaging 0.54 points per postup and it’s confidence I think it’s probably getting you know Rhythm and and his legs under him and all that kind

Kind of stuff but it’s amazing how a guy who wanted to post up in the mavers were like hell no and then the numbers to back it up is now uh just unbelievably efficient in those situations and by the way it’s why the Celtics traded for him

It’s for matchups like this because they saw time and again that Tatum and brown would get into these isolations and struggle and they sort of became a one a one one route team uh to use a soccer term they would sort of just play one way and this gives them a totally

Different dimension and it’s been a big part of why they’ve had so much success and why porzingis is fit in toly and why they feel like they’ve got a chance to go farther and do more this year than they have in the past yeah so I don’t know if we’ve

Probably pretty much exhausted it at this point but uh um I sure hope we get some more of those in the spring that would be pretty great I don’t know how you’re I don’t know how you’re beating yic four times I the nuggets are have demonstrated this season that they are

Not the same execution level team on the road than they are at home and it would it’s fair to point out that right now the Celtics have um a six-game lead over the Nuggets um it’s effectively a five game lead because a tie would go towards

The nuggets at this point or at this point it is fair to point out that home court would potentially be some equalizing Factor um what’s the Celtics home record a lot in two but I I know 29 and three what was the first one of those three yeah I

Know listen joer don’t give a damn about going on the road in the playoffs no I mean but I mean if you’re Boston I mean if you potentially have a game seven at home it’s going to feel a lot different if you’re in Denver if I’m trying to

Create a case on how you can beat him four times yeah you got to have home court advantage yeah for sureen that’s I’m saying can we also just mention the 5280 jerseys are hideous they are really bad I mean by the way it wob to your point worldwide wob our

Buddy Rob Perez tweeted this earlier this is probably the biggest game of the season and we have both teams wearing these ridiculous City jerseys and we have the Celtics wearing a road a white jersey on the road and not their traditional jerseys which are like one

Of the two or three best jerseys in the whole league enough with these City jerseys the Celtics don’t get to choose they have to react to What Denver is playing whatever it’s ridiculous it’s a ridiculous situation well they need to burn the 5280 jerseys they’re so bad the nuggets

Have a lot of cool jerseys too those ones are not though yeah I in this particular game you don’t need the mile high at at Center Court you don’t need a gimmick in a game like this you know um no uh but anyway any way it’s a fair

Point um there was actually some pretty remarkable basketball played um all over the place Thursday night um there was a game-winning steel dunk by dadus sabonis in Sacramento with the reigning coonis Factor player of the year uh fouled out well and with Victor wanyama not playing

They were down what five with it no but I mean they were down five at home with what a minute to go it looked like the game was over let’s not talk about how the kings were in a situation where they need I’m just saying I I I was because I

Was trying to follow what was going on in those games and the one here and I was I looked over I was like oh man these guys are down five fox has fouled out this thing is over the kings are absolutely all over the board right now

They really are like but that was third place that’s the bronze medal that’s the that’s the uh the brass medal because I don’t is coone Factor player of the of the of March over with McMahon I mean it’s look a made one hell of a case uh and like he completely dominated the

Fourth quarter offensively the one thing he did wrong was Miss a free throw and all that did was set up maybe the most spectacular play of his career and one of the I can think of two other blocks that I’ve ever seen that were that level of spectacular

Bam out of box on Tatum in the in the bubble playoffs right and LeBron’s chase down block the you know the most famous block inba good call back LeBron LeBron I would immediately thought of that I was there for the BAM one too that was unbelievable I mean that was ridiculous

But this I mean dude remember the Kawai middle finger block oh yes that was that’s up there that was good too that was ter yeah but as athletically unbelievable the athleticism on this where uh it was n Smith I believe right yes poor bastard he’s got he’s got a

Layup a transition layup that would have tied it up at the buzzer ant Sprints from the freea wine past a whole bunch of people to the rim leaps swats a thing with his Le hand I don’t that that that word doesn’t cut it smashes his head on

The rim his armpit like I think his armpit touched like the freaking Square he was so high he it it might have touched the the foam on the bottom of the back his shoulder hit the bottom of head hit and his hand hit the top of the

Box it was unbelievable and heed it up from the three-point line you could see him eyeing it up the whole time there’s a low angle that is in in slow motion but if you watch it even in slow motion he’s going up so fast first off it looks like it’s manipulated video

Yeah because he jumps and even in slow motion it doesn’t seem your eye doesn’t believe how fast and he also jumps straight up yes like had a jetpack on yes it’s exactly right it looked like there was an unseen trampoline because there’s no way slam ball yeah the your your eye is not

Believing that a man that size can move that fast straight up a six foot4 guy hit his head on the rim while blocking a shot and and not just like grazed it he like might have dented it that means he’s off the floor at least 44 inches

Well he must have he said it was the highest he’s ever jumped I believe uh he must have had some level of adrenaline in his system because this leap was almost inhuman like I don’t know what the record is for the high jump but and I you know the US

Track and field team may want to consider trying to recruit him he’s going to be on Team USA but you know because that and then the thing about the play is not only as he hit his head on the rim he then crashes headlong into the floor he basically

Breaks his fall with his arm with his hand it could have easily busted his wrist he looked like you outside the White House he did coule years ago listen he did that was my first thought see somebody land on their hand like that it’s not good and he crashed to the

Ground in a fall that like if you weren’t already gasping I mean you know I gasped several times tonight one of them was on Aaron Gordon’s put back back dunk where he just sort of roundhoused it but that was like Child’s Play compared to and so he crashes to the ground with Incredible

Force to the point where you’re like oh my God he might have fractured his hip might have broken his wrist might have a concussion from hitting the rim and he bounced back up to celebrate like he was made of rubber he bounced up was ja obviously he’s literally feeling no pain

At that moment and there’s some fan videos I encourage you just for fun over the weekend there’s some videos of the fans that fans took on their phones in the arena where you can hear the native sound gotta find them because the reaction in the arena of what they just saw is just

Amazing and and oh by the way he had 44 points in the game yeah I was going to say the thing we haven’t talked about is he had three straight ridiculous shots a pullup three off a Rudy screen and they got in the lane twice on ridiculously

Hard shots three possessions in a row to put Minnesota in a position to take over that game so you say ridiculously hard shots I would say they were they were I like the shots because I thought they were Rhythm shots for him which you know we’ve talked should yeah I I mean that

They were just heavily contested in difficult shots but he was clearly in the flow yeah they they were I thought they were difficult shots to create but they were well created if if that makes sense no totally totally because we have talked about you know kind of the Tatum

Thing like the Wolves struggles to close and Aunt being 22 years old learning on the job I thought the way he was oper and look we haven’t even mentioned Carl Anthony towns was a big news day the Tor meniscus they know he’s going to be out

I’m sure Aunt knew going in that game that C’s going to be out sounds like at least the rest of the regular season they hope to get him back uh in the playoffs so you’ve got all that going on but I thought that he was as poised and under control while

Absolutely carrying the offense in crunch time as I’ve seen him well the offense is GNA need help because so towns uh on Monday in Portland I was in Portland no it was home was home to Portland suffered a miniscus tear in his left knee um spent two and a half days

Getting Imaging and Consulting a whole bunch of people on what to do and though they didn’t announce this the the implication of the timeline indicates he’s going to have a partial removal of the U miniscus he’s going to have um it snipped off which is really the best case scenario I mean

There are situations when you have miniscus injuries where you can play through it but you’re really risking a lot of things that way um I think the key is it’s not necess neily a season ending injury and um yeah you know if you’re Minnesota what you need is you

Need cat to hopefully be able to play in a series against the nuggets and this leaves that door open um the thing about this is is first off there’s that game against the Pacers on Thursday was the first of a six-game road trip so it’s never good to lose an All-Star but now

You’re losing him for the last month of the season and you’re losing at the start of a six game trip the second thing is Denver is right on their heels they’re a game behind them and they’ve got three games with n with nuggets left so the nuggets are sitting there holding

A golden opportunity to not only walk the Wolves down but also grab the tiebreaker and what they can really put them in a bad spot in a potential Series so that’s just a bummer and where this is going to hit the Wolves I believe is just with the scoring because towns is

You know he’s averaging 22 points a game stretch their offense was already a question right yes yes and so what they did in the first game and I think their their plan going forward is to start Kyle Anderson and they have him and um Jaden McDaniels is sort of their two

Forwards that they can move around and you know when you have Carl when you have Carl um you’re going to not you’re going to have to play a little slower Kyle and is a guy who can bring the ball up the court can um you know there are there is some window

There to there’s some things you can do that towns can’t do but right um you know all you need to know about it is they signed TJ Warren well I thought his career might be over they signed TJ Warren to a 10-day contract and played him 17 minutes I think it was 16

Minutes within a day of signing him and that just tells you all you need to know they now now they are equipped with a terrific backup big men in Nas Reed um who is one of the best backup big men in the league and so they still have that

Ability to go big they still can align in those three upcoming games against the um against the Nuggets they still can go big but their replacement challenge bont temp’s somehow finding the offense that that they’re losing with towns yeah I mean look we’ve talked all year about

How big a year this is for Minnesota and all the questions they have ahead of them and it it sucks that they have to deal with this now that being said it does seem like you know as Adrian’s reported as we’ve all talked about seems like there’s a decent chance that he’ll

Be back by the start of the play which by the way this is a quirky thing but because of how late the regular season started this year the playoffs aren’t even starting if you’re one of the top six teams until April 20th which normally they’d be the whole week

Earlier which in this this case might be a huge difference because that could be the difference between coming back say game five or six of a first round series or maybe the start of a first round series could maybe he doesn’t even the first round I mean look everything in

The west is goingon to be hard but if the Timberwolves have a top couple seed they may just have to try to gut it through a first round without him I mean they only have to play like the Lakers or the Mavericks or the Suns or The Warriors Warriors right or

They may slide to three or four and may not even get one of those teams they may get the Pelicans yeah may get the Pelicans but yeah so like it is going to be I thought it was interesting they started Kyle Anderson you know I wondered if they would start NZ Reed but

I think having him as a scoring option Off the Bench makes sense because he is a really good offensive big and that does allow them to balance things out a little bit and if you have Kyle Anderson out there a really smart heady guy who can handle the ball like you’re also

Really long to then you got him and McDaniels on the wings ants a really good Defender that’s a hell of a defensive lineup like you’re you might have some trouble scoring but you know they also were in a game with the Pacers who we’ve talked about their offense all

Year and it was a 113 111 game right which for Indiana is like scoring 90 so you know that’s I think if you’re Chris Finch that’s probably the best way to play it to try to grind out wins of three to go bear in your defense and let ant be your close

Yeah go played 40 minutes in this game and I would assume that’s going to be more more regular thing yeah I was going to mention goar playing 40 minutes he he averages a little bit under 34 he’s going to have to play Heavy minutes uh

You know you call NAS Reed uh one of the best bench bigs in the league the the reality is his role has been he’s a power forward when he’s playing with cat cat bumps to the five obviously when he’s playing with goar goar bumps to the

Five he’s going to have to play whatever backup center minutes there are but you know they’re going to have to rely heavily even more heavily on gobear and it wasn’t 44 points with maybe the most spectacular uh game sealing block I’ve ever seen in my life but coar was huge

Today too 18 points 14 rebounds a few blocks couple of steals they’re going to need the best of go bear uh if they’re going to have any hope of of hanging on SE here the other thing is for entertainment entertainment purposes only you may want to lean into ant

Totals because he took 3 five shots and by the way he’s gonna need to do that I agree because advance to advance Point like he can create shots on anybody and they just aren’t going to have a lot of shot creators and by the way you alluded

To it a little bit they have to play a backto back tomorrow in Cleveland then they go to LA from Cleveland which is a heck of a road trip to play the Lakers and Clippers on Sunday and Tuesday they then have a couple games with the Jazz

And then they play at home against Denver Cleveland and Golden State so that is a pretty pivotal couple of weeks well maybe but that like if they could survive those couple of weeks that could put them in decent shape to maybe survive this thing because their schedule the last few games of the

Season gets a little lighter for them well I like their odds in those Utah games that the Jazz right now are number 10 in the lottery odds and oh a top 10 protected pick this year to OKC boy wonder how that one’s going to play

Out yeah I got a good feel about how the Jazz are gonna finish just like they did last year to keep that pick um all right before we go uh before the sun comes up um I do think we should uh quick talk quickly about the Bulls who are in a

Very unlikely and unexpected little late season Renaissance here they’ve pulled off a number of Victories they’ve gone three and 0 on the first three games of this four game Road Trip that they’re on coming back from 20 down in Sacramento you know like I said buy a ticket and

And Buckle in whenever Sacramento’s playing right now ser um and the Bulls by the way the Bulls I think are in the mo I think the Bulls have played the most clutch games of any team in the league every game they’re in is a five-point game it seems like well

That the other team is who’s like that is Golden State who big surprise like that’s the other thing um I guess the Kings have blown the most 20-point leads and have the most 20-point comebacks second only to the Bulls or the Bulls are second so I guess it’s not a

Surprise that in that game there was a 20-point comeback and I guess it’s not a surprise that when the the Bulls play the Warriors two teams all they do is play Clutch games it comes down to the clutch the bulls pull the win off in Golden State Golden State had been you

Know other than the the the bomb that they dropped in Boston over the weekend um had been really really good and Demar de rozan has been you know he’s trying to get that go on his factor I was gonna say when you asked me about ant I I

Thought about D rozan he has I just looked he had nine points in the fourth quarter tonight and that includes two go-ahead buckets in the last minute including the the an one that put him up for good in in the last three fourth quarters I believe he has a total of 45

Points oh my God Five Points in three quarters of three wins uh of the comeback variety is pretty impressive pretty good the big news unfortunately for this game for the Warriors is Steph Curry sprained his ankle in the fourth quarter um Curry wears Moon boots under under those

Shoes um to protect his ankles I’ll never forget the first time I saw you know you see the ankle protectors above but you I don’t even know how he gets that thing into those shoes it he should be wearing like LeBron style shoes you know LeBron wears these he doesn’t so

Much anymore but in the middle of his career he used to wear these clad Hoppers I don’t know how Steph gets those things into the shoe because the shoe doesn’t look that big he’s got a lot of protection on his he’s like he’s like those offensive linemen who all

Every offensive lineman wears knee braces on both knees to try to knock down the number of knee injuries that they have because they’re constantly getting fallen into Steph every single day of his life for a decade now has taken steps to protect his ankles that

Said he did turn it he can’t do anything about an ankle turn in the NBA it happens um The Warriors are in a fight to try to climb out of the 910 and I really liked their chances of doing that um because their schedule was most favorable amongst all those teams but

You can’t account for injuries and now I don’t know if Steph’s going to miss some time but to lose Steph and to lose a game to a to a sub 500 team at home that you’re expecting to win not the best night for the for the Warriors yeah plus

The Mavs won to get to give him just a little bit of breathing room and the Kings won um yeah the the kings are now uh in seven seven half games back of of first Mavs eighth nine games back and then the Warriors and Lakers are both 10

And a half games back so tied for ninth uh the Mavs and warriors do have three games left against each other right um one of those was the game that was postponed because of uh dey’s death um but they have three games left to against each other and needless to say

Those are going to be huge uh whatever injury news that comes out on Steph is going to be huge uh boy the Mavericks they got a win they desperately needed tonight because things had not been going well um you know it’s it’s crazy LC’s got four straight 35o triple

Doubles never been done in NBA history and they just snapped a three-game losing streak in the fourth one it’s insane but they a really nice comeback win right weren’t they behind in that game yeah and they’d been they still are the worst defense team in the league since the All-Star break

Statistically um they made some lineup changes uh they they put Daniel Gafford in the starting lineup bringing Derek Lively Off the Bench uh and then also Derrick Jones Jr for Josh green and they proceeded to give up 29 Points in the first seven minutes and fall down by 15

Now from that point on not today with faint praise but they did play by far their best defense since the All-Star break break they held the heat 225 or under in each of the last three quarters and then you know Luca just did Luca’s stuff and Lively came in and played

Really well in the fourth quarter and helped him close Dante exom was huge closing he’s been a guy who missed most of two months and is is coming back anyways it it’s going to be I think from seven to 10 but I think really Mavs Lakers Warriors how that’s

Going to how that’s going to end up playing out it’s going to be awfully interesting the Mavericks do have the tiebreaker over the uh the Lakers well look I just I looked I looked up the projections just now just to see where they’re at we talk about

How the thin all the margins are on these things the Thunder and wolves are both projected to win 56 games the nuggets are projected to win 55 games the kings are projected to win 47 and be sixth the MAV Suns and the Mavs and suns are projected to win 46

46 and be tied for seventh and eighth the Warriors are at 45 in ninth and the Lakers are at 44 in 10th and I can tell you every day as there’s a weird game like the Bulls beating the Warriors that shifts by a game one way or the other

Every day up and down the standings and that’s that’s the kind of thing we’re looking at for the next six weeks the Spurs had the ball with the chance to take the last shot ended up losing in regulation in Sacramento so Sacramento win if Sacramento loses that game

They’re right now protected I think to finish ninth instead they’re protected to finish sixth that’s that’s what we’re talking about and that could be how close the margins are six weeks from now with how this thing plays out well and the other thing is we we’ve talked about

Step ankle and you know they haven’t said anything official but it sounded like the guys in that team are anticipating that he’ll be out for a little bit hopefully not long but we’ll see there’s a pretty rough limp going off um and then I don’t know man LeBron

Limped off I I I I LeBron’s obviously dealing with an ankle thing I think that thing might flare up when they’re down double figures around three minutes left I think there might be some of that going on um but he’s a guy in his 21st year who’s who’s managing things uh the

Mavericks after having all kinds of injury issues throughout the course of the season are the healthiest of that of that Bunch who’s going to be most sore on Friday morning which is now is it ant or is it Steph because St St a a ant’s 22 years old you said he

Bounc he during this game he twice went to the locker room to get treatment for injuries yes and just bounced back out yeah to be clear twice went to the locker room and came back out and played almost within three minutes he turned his ankle on the first play of the

Game yeah in our group chat um bontemps kept saying or maybe it was you mcmah it was both of us we both had like hey a just left I don’t remember what the second one was I just saw him getting finally finally was declared we’re not going to update each other on Aunt

Leaving the floor unless the the Wolves put out a report our buddy Chris hi from the Star Tribune I was texting with him he goes man this is happening at least once a week and there’s been games this year where they have said he’s done for

The night and he’s come back and played so you know what a what a magnetic game what a Magnetic Personality um listen time anytime he shows up he might be a little bit tardy but he is fun to watch sure is he’s got a newborn I’m sure the

Six game Road Trip is difficult but he’ll sleep he’ll sleep he will he will sleep and I with the Steph thing like in towns it it is just crazy seemed like for most of the year we didn’t really have that much injury stuff to deal with

And over the last three weeks or so man it has just been a brutal run of injuries where you know you staff in town and you know LeBron’s been dealing with this ankle thing for a while and you got all these different guys in the

West and then the East I was going to say in the East Cavs are down three starters the Knicks are down four the Sixers are down four like all Chris Middleton hasn’t played in a month like all these teams are just all dealing with massive injury crisis all over the

Place which is why it was so great to see the nuggets and Celtics play with full full lineups on uh on Thursday all right get up uh Zoom is in two hours in 12 minutes oh thanks to our producer to our producer Audi who’s filling in for

Jackson Jackson saw what time this P was going to be and Jackson could be bothered yeah better things to do Jackson’s off um thank you Audie thank you McMahon thank you bonts thank you for listening to The Hoop Collective we will be talking to you in about uh 15 minutes I think is

Our next podcast we’ll be uh we’ll be talking to you very soon adios amigos m

Nuggets edge out Celtics, Anthony Edwards’ BLOCK & Steph Curry’s injury scare | The Hoop Collective

On this episode of The Hoop Collective, Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon dive into key NBA highlights. They discuss the Nuggets’ win over the Celtics, Jayson Tatum’s impact on Boston’s playoff chances, the defense strategy against Nikola Jokic and how Denver’s bench performed. The episode also covers Anthony Edwards’ critical block against the Pacers, Karl-Anthony Towns’ meniscus surgery, the Bulls’ surprising season turnaround and Steph Curry’s ankle injury against the Bulls.

0:00 Welcome to The Hoop Collective!
01:22 The Nuggets Beat the Celtics in a Thriller
11:50 Celtics’ Playoff Hopes: The Critical Role of Jayson Tatum
17:58 Breaking Down Celtics’ Defense Against Nikola Jokic
27:13 How the Nuggets’ Reserves Performed
38:52 Anthony Edwards’ Game-Saving Block Against the Pacers
46:08 Karl-Anthony Towns to Undergo Surgery for Torn Meniscus
53:06 The Bulls’ Unexpected Turnaround
55:02 Steph Curry Suffers Right Ankle Injury Against Bulls

#ESPN #NBA

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