What Do The Nuggets Need For The Title Defense Run?

What Do The Nuggets Need For The Title Defense Run?

The nuggets are seven and3 through 10 games of this brutal 11 game stretch of opponents we’ll talk about how that matches up with our expectations what we’ve learned from this team in that stretch plus the importance of the one seed and what the Nuggets priorities need to be for the rest of the

Season MVP discourse is going to be back woohoo and P Watson makes rising stars all this and more on locked on nuggets you are locked on nuggets your daily Denver Nuggets podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome back to locked on nuggets

Thanks for joining us and making us part of your day appreciate you guys being with us and making us part of your week part of your lives being part of the community we appreciate you guys being with us uh we are available on all platforms including Apple podcast

Spotify and YouTube this is locked on nuggets part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day my name is Matt Moore I’m the senior NBA writer for the Action Network joined by Adam mahrez of dmvr um in the intro I said that pton Watson made the rising stars because

Genuinely I thought he did I genuinely thought he did like we should talk about it or Adam’s like we should talk about it and uh yeah that this is the how much I pay attention to rising stars but we’ll get to that later on today’s show nuggets are 10 games through the 11

Game brutal stretch that we talked about two weeks ago we’ll talk about how they’ve fared how they’ve Managed IT and what their priorities uh should be the rest of the season including how important is the one seed going forward as they face the Oklahoma City Thunder in a key game in Western Conference

Playoff tiebreaker scenarios tonight um also uh with Joel ID’s injury in the last segment we’ll talk about the oblations for the MVP because guess what it’s gonna return fourth season in a row so we’ll talk about that uh as well as pton Watson not making Rising Star Stars this season

Uh Adam Mars how you doing I’m doing good oh man I forgot I just realized I forgot to change my things in the back all right let’s go all right it’s fine uh all right let’s go so I’ll start here the nuggets are 10 games into the 11 game

Stretch that we talked about uh when they embarked on the road trip they are seven and three in that time with losses to the New York Knicks obviously uh not not a great in that one uh the Philadelphia 76ers on the road and um what’s the other one Utah and Utah that

First one which by the way you know Michael Malone going into after the Utah game talked about it as a 10 game stretch and I kind of agree with them because that Utah game was very unfocused and I do feel like the Nuggets refocused heading into what would have

Been in the 10 game stretch so if you count the 11 as I do because the Utah and Jaz were good but I don’t think the nuggets did I think the Nuggets looked at the starting with the New Orleans game and like hey we got to lock in and

Measure ourselves up in these games so take that for what you will um so for me I think the biggest kind of takeaway that I I found is I do think that the Sixers at full strength are a tough matchup um the Knicks one I really don’t

Know what to make of that game the Knicks I think are live to make the finals like they’re they are genuinely been that good since the anobi trade they’re top five or top 10 both offense and defense and are really in into shape so like that could be a tough match up

Especially if mitell Robinson is back just to be able to throw another body out there along with hartenstein um they match up well with Boston I think can be said they continue to match up well with Milwaukee the biggest thing maybe is kind of this is that the Nuggets every

Time that we’re kind of like I don’t know they’re getting pretty far away from their defensive principles like they’re getting that they like are able to still show this side of themselves like the switch is very apparent we we talk about the switch a lot with sports

Teams of flipping that switch with the Nuggets it is very apparent and they have had just enough games to remind us of that and it’s something that I’m very focused on not forgetting that this nuggets team when they want to especially on the defensive end can flip

That switch and execute at a level that is daunting for any team especially if they’re in Denver no question I mean that to me if you ask me what’s the defining you know takeaway over the last 10 games that’s it is that we saw the Nuggets give their best punch and we

Haven’t really seen that in my opinion this year there’s only been two stretches where I think we saw the nuggets’ best punch more than one game you know o over the course of a couple games the very start of the year I thought the Nuggets came out very

Focused they sent some messages they got off to that hot start and they looked incredible Marie gets hurt after that and then I think this 10 game stretch I think the Nuggets yes there were some Duds in there the Knicks game of course the Philly game in Philadelphia where I

Thought Denver played hard but they had the weird defensive strategy that obviously backfired that was an anomaly but I think in most of the games you saw saw an intensity a seriousness a focus um and the two games that stand out the most are of course at Boston and then

Home vers Milwaukee those were the two that felt like the Nuggets trying to be the best version of themselves and they looked phenomenal in both games so to me I think we saw what we needed to see out of the Nuggets you have this game there has it’s a little anti-climatic that’s

You know embiid didn’t play in the 76ers game ordered Maxi and Tobias Harris and that that Indiana Pacers game didn’t have Ty Tyrus halberton tonight it looks like you won’t have Jaylen Williams in Oklahoma City so some of these are a little bit I would have loved to have

Seen how they stack up against the full strength teams but nonetheless the Nuggets brought a requisite focus and seriousness and defense that I I go okay they look good they look like a team that we should think is the favorite to win the West so in December they went 10

And five they’re 10 and four through January going into tonight’s last game of the month so that’s going to be if they win tonight that’s 21 and N which is that’s phenomenal uh like this is the eating season in the NBA and the nuggets have definitely eating up the competition

Um let me I guess one thing I would ask you is um I still kind of have this question which is just if there’s one difference from this year to last year I think I have still more questions about the bench play on the road than I did

Last year and I don’t know if that’s fair given that there were games where like the Jeff Green minutes got a blit ated on the road and they won anyway um there were minutes like DeAndre didn’t play last year and he’s at least conceptually going to play in some

Series at some point this year maybe um I I I think you and I are I think very apart on this and that’s okay like it’s just like a matter of opinion thing um I I still I think that’s my takeaway from both the Phillies the Philadelphia game

The Knicks game was a blowout whatever but some of these spots especially on the road I still kind of look at this and go this is is a young second unit AG at five is not like a do it’s not a it’s not like the death lineup right um the

Death lineups the starters um but I I I still have my biggest thing is th this playoff run I think will be more difficult because I think that maybe some it’s less a matter of this year’s bench being worse than last year’s and more that maybe last year’s bench fell

Into some good situations and less likely to happen this year on the road does that make sense I I think you prob in my opinion I think you probably just trusted Bruce because he was a veteran player so there was a little bit more of a I feel sustainable whereas Payton

Watson you know has just grown throughout the course of the season I think right now I I been one of the storylines of this last 10 games is that pton Watson has moved into sixth position in the Nuggets sort of trust chart which I think he came into it as

Seventh but we saw when the going got tough and Malone had to shorten his rotation Payton was not cut from that short he was included in it so I think that’s one of the the positive things and for me right now I think they’re the

Same I I think that time has made us in the playoffs obviously where guys really stepped up has made us forgot but I just think the bench last year was as inconsistent or as it is this year and I think the guys that are playing Off the Bench namely Reggie and Payton and

Christian are equally as prone to looking great when they play alongside joic and another starter as they are the guys last year which is what you’re going to see in the playoffs so I so I would disagree you’re right that there’s room for disagreement on this one I it’s

Not that I have tons of confidence in the Nuggets bench I have none I just have confidence in the like the that they have enough guys for a playoffs and I think I have way more confidence after this 10 game stretch than I did before

It yeah this is less of a oh watch out they could lose and more of like a hey keep an eye out this could be tougher than it was last year when they went 16 and four well I think it matters well the playoffs yeah but I think even down

The because I think the depth really matters in the regular season and one thing thing that was different from last year is the season was over five games after the All-Star break that’s not going to be the case and it’s going to be interesting to see the Nuggets this

Year have to like seating you know we’ll get into it next but seating mattering and them having to play deep into the season I’m just curious to see how that affects him um maybe it affects him in a positive way who knows but um that’s one thing that was different from last year

Oh the other thing we learned is that I think that Murray his ability to ramp it up for big games but his inability to sustain it was on display and that’s a half positive half negative because in the playoffs you’re going to need him every night and he has shown with the

Milwaukee game with the Boston game that he can sort of draw on it but we also saw with the Knicks game and the Philly game that he can’t draw on it every night so that that’s one thing that I just feel like okay hopefully I would love to see Murray have three great

Games in a row this year because I don’t know if he’s had three great games in a row but I would love to see it sometime between now and the end of the season just to feel like okay he’s rounding into the form that I think he’s going to

Need to be in do it for Adam Jamal uh I want to talk more about this we’ll talk about that on the other side on lock on nuggets oh gosh I always man I got want tell you about our partners at eBay Motors eBay Motors has teamed up

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Nuggets welcome back to lock on nuggets thanks for joining us second segment here with Adam Mars let’s let’s talk a little bit more about Jamal here so I think you’re right um I think one of the things that’s notable though in terms of the consistency with the play S I always

Feel like there are Series where one guy’s where for most players championship level players where it’s like he was great in this series he wasn’t great in that series he was great in this series and even um the Lakers I think are like this really good example

Of this in terms of not a championship team but a team that made the Western Conference Finals Jared Vanderbilt was great in the Memphis series he was awesome and then like he was really good in the Warrior series and he was unplayable in the Nugget series and a

Lot of it is like like can you be not unplayable like can you be playable in every series that’s a big starting point which is not to say that that’s the bar for Jamal but I do think it’s like look if they face certain teams Phoenix I think is one I

Expect uh Jamal be awesome if they face a team like the Clippers I think they might be tough if they face a team like the Wolves I think he’s gonna struggle a little bit um and so that to me is kind of the question is like do you need

Jamal to be great every single round this year with how this team is built yes I think there’s just no question like the nuggets have to have two just the NBA in general I mean if you had you know if the Nuggets were playing the Houston Rockets you know if

There was like a team that didn’t belong in the playoffs but they snuck into the playoffs maybe you could get away with a mediocre performance but this year I just don’t think that’s going to be the case you’re going to draw a Dallas or a New Orleans like a good team and you

Need two guys so I I do think this was one of my big takes is I think that if you look at Murray’s playoffs last year he had Pockets that he was way more inconsistent in the first two rounds than he was in the last two rounds and

That’s my fear is this idea of Murray always brings it in the playoffs and I think it’s looked gen broadly true but there were a few stinkers in that Phoenix series there was a few stinkers in that Minnesota one and I just I think there’s something to Murray gets to a

Certain point by the start of the playoffs and then ramps up even more but you can’t do that nuggets should not be trying to fall behind 3-1 this year they need to be like pass that point by game one or else they’re going to put themselves in a tough spot do you

Remember my media day prediction of course I do I think about it all the time so uh here’s a question is that predicted by the way that the nuggets are gonna come back from 3-1 in the playoffs this year so yeah which is such

A good take it’s so good so I have a I have one for you um would you rather he be more consistent than have the peak of 30 points per game game 150 4090 in the Conference Finals um I I think you can ask I think you can ask for both from a

Max player I’m just asking if you had to choose between the two which do you think is better probably the peak okay probably the peak because a peak like you get a peak game from Murray win yeah and if you get two or three of those in a

Series that’s three wins like then you only need to win one other game so you need the peak uh let’s talk a little bit about the importance of seating here so it’s time to start looking at the playoffs um the this conversation usually doesn’t happen until after

All-Star but for the Nuggets like most top seeds are doing basically maintenance work in March um and especially late March into April the nuggets as it currently stands in the Western Conference this year they are currently sitting second ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder after the Thunders lost last night and they

Are tied with them um that tiebreaker we’ll talk about in a second they are a half game behind the Minnesota Timberwolves so the one seed is definitely within position I don’t think that the nuggets have like really stress themselves going for seating this year but I will say that instead I feel like

They have burned through different difficult parts of the season when they had a condensed schedule early like Malone said it like they really pushed through that stretch and then they went really hard on this road trip like the Knicks game I think was a was kind of a

Consequence of that that they pushed really hard and didn’t let down game and then like the last game of the road trip they had a huge let down spot yeah so the tiebreaker situation as it stands right now the wolves are up one- nothing the nuggets and Wolves play

Three more times the Thunder lead 2-1 going into tonight’s matchup should Denver win they then split what gets interesting here is like I can’t predict how this is going to go but I will say Denver is two and four in division matchups this season yeah with three of

Those coming versus um I’m sorry yeah four of those coming versus those two teams the wolves are six- two the Thunder are nine and three now Denver gets to play Utah who they lost to uh and Portland they play Portland twice this weekend so like Denver will fatten

Up on Portland and Utah the way that those other teams have right this is gonna get really tight the other thing I would mention here is the Los Angeles Clippers are tied in the loss column so this is why this game tonight actually matters a ton it makes you live to be

Able to cat one of those two other teams or both and come out on top by the way multi-te tiebreaker always goes to division winner if applicable another reason this matters you need to win they need to win this game and the games versus The Wolves those are honestly the

Four most important games remaining on their schedule that’s it like yeah those games and then taking care of business versus Portland and Utah at home like that’s really important um the reason I bring this up no team passed a third seed since 20 has won the NBA title the NBA regular

Season matters less than ever you don’t need to look far to see that Western Conference finalist playing tournament team the Los Angeles Lakers Eastern Conference Champion the Miami Heat however we don’t know yet whether that’s going to become standard a normal thing pretty common or if that was a one-year

Kind of outlier situation what we do have is we have a healthy history that being one of the best teams in the regular season and for me most especially with this team homecourt Advantage is Mass massive I think Denver can go on the road and beat anybody is

It easier on their health and bodies and rest and advantages if they’re playing short series yes and what’s the quickest way to do that play at home so for me I don’t think they need the one seed I do think it would be it’s an important

Thing for them to get top two that I do think is a goal for them to kind of go for to me it’s more about who gets the one seed rather than whether Denver gets it so to me if I were placing bets on the Clippers having home court advantage and making

It to the Conference Finals I would say yeah if they get homec court advantage I would predict them to win the first and second round series of course they could lose but I would pick them to win if you told me Oklahoma City had the one seed I

Would not pick them I would pick them to not make it to the Conference Finals just because as again I think they’re a great team but I think the odd I would take the field over them if I was just saying they have to win two rounds with

Minnesota it’s more 5050 I think I would probably still bet them because I just see some holes in what they do yeah so that’s why I look at it and I go I think Denver has to beat the Clippers because the Clippers are the team like last year

They’re behind you know Memphis or whatever you know at or you know you’re worried about that but you look at it you go Memphis isn’t making it to the Conference Finals what are you worried about and I kind of feel the same thing about Oklahoma City and Minnesota so for

Me I look at that and I go I’m more just thinking about the Clippers and how close I think that series would be between Denver and the Clippers so that one to me is the one you look at and I in the same place and that

Um I honestly kind of look at the Western Conference as a two- team Race right now it’s possible team gets hot in March and makees some sort of run but if you’re asking me like who are the title contenders in the Western Conference I say Denver won they have the most

Championship equity in the league and the second is the Clippers and then I don’t have another team the Pelicans aren’t consistent enough everybody else is spoilers like everybody else could beat a you like if Denver lost in the first round to you know one you like oh

Man that’s a crazy upset but I just yeah when you talk about winning if Denver goes down in the first round the Clippers odds of making the finals go way up and if the Clippers go out in the first round the nuggets’ odd go way up

That’s just how I view it uh up next the MVP discourse returns plus why didn’t Payton Watson make the rising stars team we’ll talk about that up next here on lock on nuggets let talk about LinkedIn jobs at the start of the new year every small business owner is asking themselves the

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Mean cultural values it might mean career goals like there are so many things that go into choosing the right person for the job and your ability to sort and find those people and then really key in on those for the hiring process makes your hiring process better

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Nuggets fou segment here on locked on nuggets thanks for joining us and making us part of your day locked on has launched the first ever National Sports 24/7 streaming Channel on YouTube lock on sports today is here for you 24/7 covering the top sports stories of the

Day with local Experts of lockon plus National shows covering every league go to lockon sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel okay uh let’s talk about the embiid stuff so embiid last night plays looks horrible can’t get up and down the court um looks

Absolutely just look looks really hurt um Jonathan kaminga falls on him and he suffers another injury Nick nurse said after the game that it was a SE that’s a separate injury from what he had been dealing with previously but I will note that like he looked bad before um for

Our Sixers friends watching Nick nurse says yeah was unrelated to the injury that held him out recently unrelated for our Sixers friends watching um Adam and I are going to be on different places on this and that’s okay like my opinion is like I do take something from this we like

Look I’ve covered the league a long time and I’ve heard guys talk about guys being hurt versus injured and like and be looked injured last night so for me I am kind of like all right like I feel differently about what happened on Saturday and I do shift the blame to the

Injury to the to the training staff where I was like it can’t be the training staff like clearly they wouldn’t like why wouldn’t he be on the injury report but clearly there was an oversight so I wind up looking at what happened on Saturday different and like

I have regret over how I took that entire situation do I think it was weird hell yeah do I feel like that was where I was going to get to after all the entire situation of course but like look I am pretty delicate with guys actually

Like when guys are injured and I talked about this on Twitter when you’re in the locker room you see how hurt these guys are after every game like you see that impact I as much as I can be glib and trollish and whatever I’m not GED to the

Toll that the game takes on the guy’s bodies that’s what the money’s for but but I’m not glied to that and so for me like yeah okay he was hurt totally understand why he stay why he was out I don’t know why he played last night and

Whatever reason that was whether it was like if that’s pressure from everybody else on him like the the training staff does have to intercede and be like Jo you can’t go like you after five minutes the coach has gotta be like you can’t go man like this is not working um I’ll get

I’ll let you get your thoughts on it and then we can talk about the MVP stuff I hope he’s okay um for me the implication of this obviously is like embiid’s going to miss the 65 games now like it’s he’s not going to qualify it’s a near lock at the

At this yeah it’s a it’s a it’s a near lock at this point um yish is the new favorite he’s a minus number at most of the sports books um I will tell you that right now I still kind of think I don’t think Joker’s Gonna Miss enough games I

Do kind of wonder if shil just Alexander if the Thunder get the one like this is the big thing if the Nuggets get the one seed it’s going to be Joker it’s numbers Plus winning plus the one seed that’s enough for Joker to win if the Thunder

Are able to recover from this injury spout that they have like if they were to win tonight especially and then if they can have 3-1 advantage over Denver in season series and they finish number one I do think that Chay gillos Alexander is live and I will be quite

Honest like I think Chay gillos Alexander is a completely worthy candidate he’s been the most impactful player end to end that I’ve seen this season yic is insane he’s amazing he’s incredible he’s an all he’s the best play in the league but I do think that sh gillos Alexander would be a worthy

MVP um but I do think there will be kind of a default to yic if he secures the one seed somebody had a good line to me the other day they said this is the first year where it doesn’t feel like yok’s the MVP like last year you know

That got toxic or what have you but I think you know especially if you’re a yage person you just leaned more towards yoke this is the first year where it’s like yeah I mean other guys have been at his level other guys have played at his level including embiid who I think was

Playing above his level so think that you’re right that shild just Alexander carrying this team the way that he has is I mean it’s obviously noteworthy they’re 32 and 15 Denver’s 33 and 15 both guys have made that kind of similar impact on their teams so for me I see it

Um what I think is more interesting about this question for me is that I think it’s pretty clear yoke doesn’t care about the MVP and probably doesn’t want the distraction anymore I I mean obviously that was the case last year but this year I’m very curious to see we

Ask coming into the year could this conversation it won’t be toxic this year like yoke won the finals you know like all this stuff won’t be toxic and it came and we found a whole new way for this to become toxic with now the 65 game controversy and the ducking and all

This stuff so I look at it and I go I think that my only real story because I’ve told you I was the guy that didn’t care about the MVP back before yoke was wear winning them or or what have you I’m I’m well on record about all of

These things I don’t like the way that players get talked about in that context but to me I don’t I’m not one of these guys that cares about the accolades um I think it’s going to be a distraction though and that’s the one thing that I think is the Fallout from

This is I do think and I don’t think it’ll happen now but the same thing with the standings late in the year it’s going to become this talking point and I imagine I would not be surprised and I don’t love this from yo I’m not trying

To give him an excuse but I would not be surprised if we got some emotional Funk games from yoke down the stretch where it was like is he trying to lose MVP or even subconsciously it’s affecting him so I don’t think that there will be a conversation like it was last year

Because they have a new Target which is the 65 game thing because like everybody kind of agreed like look he’s having one of the like he’s having arguably the best scoring season since Jordan it’s like Jordan embiid and then Harden for per 100 possessions right like I would

Have I have no issue if and embiid like has been a lot better this year than I think he’s ever been like he showed me so much offensively I did a bet stream of him versus the wolves and he was incredible in that game um yeah that was

That was that was an he was an incredible game so like now there’s like a new Target that’s G be the talking points like the 65 game minimum and it won’t necessarily be about should we give because like last year it really was can a guy who hasn’t won a title

Who’s white be awarded three MVPs without winning a title there won’t be any of that this year it’ll be like well no we all know that he’s like an all-time great now and everyone in Denver is like we told you and that’s fair I don’t think it will be as bad I

Think it will genuinely probably shift and I also here’s the other thing that he will get the Stray questions about it but in our media room we have nothing more that we know we can get from him like I always say this you ask a

Question if it has to be asked if it’s about something extremely important that needs to be on public record or if you feel like you can get a quality answer that’s insightful for fans there is nothing about that here so I don’t there he will every National TV game not every

Some national TV games yes there might be a national TV reporter in town that wants to get his latest thoughts on the MVP for their column but in general I don’t believe that he’ll get asked about it that much which will keep it out of

The light and so I don’t think this will be as big of a discussion um in part this is kindon of like it’s gonna be de viewed as like oh yish won by default because MB got hurt and honestly like there’s a lot of people that felt that

Way in 2021 I thought he was deserving but I don’t think it will be as bad this year maybe I’m I’m underestimating things but I don’t think it will be he might be exhausted by it but I will also say this I think Joker has kind of evolved to a place where like

He’s I don’t I don’t feel he is as volatile to such things maybe I think last year may have been a cathartic experience for moving past some of that for him and look I think there is something real about winning two MVPs and not having accolades like I think

That there was probably would have been way more pressure on joic in the playoffs last year had he won the MVP then had he just not so I think that there’s something too like you know yoke not wanting it last year I I don’t know like I don’t know how it’ll play out

This year I know yoke doesn’t care I I I know it’s not going to be whatever it is it’ll feel a little weird my other interesting angle on all of this is I find it laughable the people that have come to the defense or that have come to

Talk about how much they hate the 65 game rule I think it’s hilarious because it’s the same criticism I have for people that just won’t hold their players accountable in any capacity which is a the media at large right now they hate when you talk about ratings

Because ratings are bad and if well why are we being so hard on the league right now why are we doing this they hate when you criticize players for different things like why are you being I don’t understand this desire to jump in front of um the league or the players to

Shelter them from mild criticisms and I think the 65 game rule or 65 games played rule for me first of all it’s already a historical precedent that guys nobody plays fewer than that and wins Awards but now we put a number on it just to kind of say hey we have this

Issue of People load managing it’s not going to work it appears guys are still going to miss below that and then people coming to the defense of the players and saying well this is so unfair I find it ridiculous I find it insane that people

Are going going uh to try to to think that this is somehow unfair to players and make that a storyline um so that’s my other only other angle of this and by the way it would be the most defining moment of the Adam Silver era if he were

To create this Draconian rule 65 games that address the symptom of a problem players not caring about their fan bases or regular season and participating so we have to treat a symptom of it it not working and then Adam Silver deleting it because he got backlashed that would

Actually be the most Adam Silver thing possible to be both ineffective and also to fold in the face of pressure uh my only kind of comment on this is that this rule was not actually created for MB it was created to try and get kawh Leonard to play 65 games so he qualifies

For all NBA that’s that’s why it was that that’s why it was created well I mean I think it was created for a lot of players but obviously Kawhi Leonard is one of the faces and by the way it kind of worked for Kawai like he played this

Exactly and there is a sneaky suspicion including with the data that the NBA released that maybe playing consistently actually prevents injury as opposed to causes injury which is kind of a funny thing but you have you have 90 seconds what are your thoughts on pton Watson

Not making uh Rising Stars part of me understands it because other guys like Dyson Daniels is the guy I think you point to first of all there’s a lot of good young talent and Dyson Daniels is the guy you could point to and say okay where does his where does he stack up

It’s not about who do you think is better who has been better recently and who is going to be better in the future a lot of when you go to a good team these early accolades are the biggest thing you sacrifice because you’re playing winning basketball Your Role is

Less whereas a lot of the guys that are on this list are on bad teams and their role is higher so I understand like I’m not outraged about this one but if you ask me of that list like where does pton slot in way ahead of most of the guys so

It kind of is what it is that his career he red shirted and then slow played this year it’s just a consequence of that in my opinion that’ll do it for lockon nuggets thanks for joining you agree you have to go on record I agree I agree

With everything that you said all right I think that you’re dead on uh thanks for joining us in lock on nuggets appreciate you guys being with us we’ll be back tomorrow Swip will have you covered recapping the Thunder game and then Friday Swip and I will uh hit you

Up and we’ll look forward to the weekend set versus the Portland Trailblazers thanks for joining us have yourselves a great day we’ll see you guys again next time on unlocked on

Matt Moore and Adam Mares talk about the Nuggets’ results after 10 of the 11-games in the brutal schedule stretch. Did they play above or to par? What have they learned about Jamal Murray, the bench, and the defense in the biggest moments? Plus, do the Nuggets need the 1-seed and how does that impact their approach the rest of the season? Finally, Joel Embiid suffers another knee injury, they discuss their thoughts on the last week, the impact of the 65-game rule and how Jokic will respond to being included in the MVP discussion again. Oh, and Peyton Watson was snubbed from Rising Stars.

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