Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry and Andscape’s Marc J. Spears to discuss if the Denver Nuggets’ clutch numbers in the regular season will translate to the postseason, if they trust Denver in the playoffs and if Nikola Jokic shine in the postseason.
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25 Comments
3:53 in and I can see that the guy on the left is an idiot and I hope he sees this.
Yes Nuggets were up by 1, but they were also getting ready to shoot 2 FTA both of which, they made. The ejection didn’t change the “tenor” at all.
As great as the Nuggets clutch defense has been, that's not the real story defensively. The team played 13 of their first 19 games on the road while trying to integrate Murray and MPJ back and also integrate KCP and Bruce Brown. They were terrible defensively until the first week of December. Since then I believe they've been a top 5 defense which has skyrocketed them from 28th to 12th overall. That's a 3 month sample size of excellent defense. That will translate to the playoffs. Also key is the Nuggets finally have high level perimeter defenders in KCP and Brown who can get over screens and stay with the Curry's and Dame's of this world. That makes a world of difference in pick and roll coverage and will also translate to the playoffs.
Put the nugs in NY or LA and see how much love there is. Denver is small market and they might be the best team in the league but until they win the chip, they will never get the love they deserve.
Mark Spears is so incoherent.
"I need to see it, but the time I saw it doesn't count"
"There's no pressure but they have to make the finals"
I wonder if people who discuss Nuggets playoff performance in a negative way have collective amnesia. Do they not remember that last two years they played without their #2 and #3 player last year and without their full back court the year before in the playoffs. Last time they were healthy, they went to WCF.
Nobody who has paid any attention if they think LAC will beat Denver
have these a**-hats actually watched denver play, or looked at their conference record? they're 32 and 12, and they just won the season series against the current 2 seed.
home record is also scary, considering they'll probably get home-court at least through the conference finals: 30-4
their offense isn't just good, it's TERRIFYING: a couple weeks ago, i heard a stat which blew my mind: denver was like 20-1 or something crazy like that when they scored 120+. which translates to like, their offense is so good that when its good, it doesn't matter if they don't play defense (which by the way, they do and they can, especially in the 4th quarter)
only three teams in the west (to my mind) got a decent shot at beating nuggets in a seven game series with denver home-court advantage secured: phoenix, golden state… maybe dallas, cause of what luka can do against top seeds and cause of just having kyrie.
grizzlies? all bark and no bite so far- they just lost the regular season series to denver and they could lose ja for 50 games with that stupid gun incident
people sleeping on sacramento, cause they're small-market too, but I don't think they beat the teams mentioned so far
clippers? that's funny- have these guys even watched a clippers / nuggets game this season? they've been embarrassing, just like the clippers in general.
lakers, (i guess….) got an outside shot if lebron and AD are healthy (AD is like one of the only bigs that can guard jokic reasonably well), but that requires them to make the play-in, let alone the playoffs.
i'm surprised ESPN and them aren't talking this much s*** about pheonix – what if a team with KD, CP, and D-Book doesn't make it to the conference finals after all the talk? Wouldn't that be a more colossal / spectacular failure than denver losing a close series to a team with a past / future MVP on it?
yeah, people would be right to hold jokic to a higher standard until he closes the deal, criticize him for 3 MVP's without a ring, etc, but truthfully? nugget's window for a chip is gonna be open for a long time
I really don’t the nuggets have a chance at the chip ion think they will make to the 2nd depending on matchup
Nuggets dont wan play vs warriors i can say or fakers+refs!
"that win didn't count. the clippers choked." is such lazy basketball analysis for someone paid to do it
There is no doubt that denver needs to prove themselves but if we are going to be honest looking back since 2019 they were #2 seed and were one possession away from making WCF. They was pre-mvp jokic, rookie porter, and Murray was still up and coming.
2020 we saw them complete two 3-1 comebacks and make WCF in which they could have gone 7 but lost game 2 on AD Buzzar beater and games 4-5 lebron took over in the 4th quarter.
2021 Denver was looking just as Dangerous but Murray went down and so did half there roster. Porter was injured, Barton was hurt monte Morris was hurt. They literally had campazzo and Austin rivers start as there back court against lillard and CJ and still won in 6 eventually losing to the suns who made the finals. Jokic dominated throughout.
2022 was more of the same except this was w/o Murray and porter for the full season and they once again lost to the eventual champion. I’m that series jokic averaged 31-14-8 so they definitely experienced some level of success and were thrown into a pit of adversity but this year with everything looking good they should definitely be considered favorite to represent the west or at treat make WCF more interesting than the bubble
The comment that the Clippers just choked in the bubble is stupid and disrespectful to the Nuggets. The best proof of this is the Clippers vs The Nuggets since the bubble. The nuggets have owned them! The clippers don't have a great team culture and just fell apart and keep falling apart. They are a terribly put together team while the Nuggets have carefully built their team based on great culture. The difference is there!
Did he really say no one talks about the Nuggets winning, but if they lose they need to be called out? So only talk about them when they lose basically. Got it.
Windy basically goes out of his way to write some long winded story about how they’re clutch right now but it doesn’t matter in the postseason. These guys are just tripping over themselves to find any reason why Denver has no chance.
I've been following the Nuggets from the beginning. I really hope this is the season. From the disappointment of losing to Dr J and the Nets in the final season of the ABA, losing 3 times to the Lakers in the WCF, horrible injuries, superstars bolting the team, ( Spencer Haywood and Mello) this team really needs to get it done.
Saying he don't count that 3-1 come. Back just made me forget everything he said I really hope Jokic really proves or everyone wrong
So the nuggs should be scared of the clippers?? Have a look at their utter dominance of the clips of late. Bad take.
They are correct on one thing. The nuggets really have to prove it this year, but they on crack if they really believe the clippers would win in a 7 game series, nuggets are just Better… face it
They'll be the one team in recent history to win the championship with one MVP.
with their shitty defense, they reached their peak
Spears is a jackass. Us Nugget fans haven't been saying we have a great team the past few years. Our 2nd and 3rd best players have been hurt. This is literally the first year we believe we have a great team.
The clippers wanted to go home? So they lost on purpose? Lol the media is hilarious.. so the first 4 games they wanted to win and after that they just thought to themselves let’s go home? Lol ok Marc .. good luck.
Dont talk about the Nuggets at all, but we're gonna call them out if they dont do what we expect them not to do. Lol
Obviously these guys don’t watch the Denver nuggets lol the only reason why they came up short before was because of injuries to MURRY & MPJ. This is the first time they look fully healthy & got the number 1 team.
Jokic could win the title and Perk would still be breathing heavy every morning, figuring out some way to explain away how good he is.