Nuggets-Warriors Reaction: Jokic & Denver “unguardable,” Steph Curry & GS disappoint | Hoops Tonight

Nuggets-Warriors Reaction: Jokic & Denver “unguardable,” Steph Curry & GS disappoint | Hoops Tonight

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All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Sunday everybody hope all of you guys are having a great weekend in case you missed it earlier today we broke down the Suns beating the Lakers as well as a game from Friday night when the Milwaukee Bucks went into

Minnesota and beat one of the best teams in the Western Conference so in case you missed that little bit earlier on the feeds this show we’re just breaking down the Denver Nuggets getting another big win against the RedHot Golden State Warriors in a place where it’s really

Tough to beat them you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever get wherever you get your

Podcast under Hoops tonight it’s also really helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front follow me on Twitter atore jlt so you guys don’t miss show announcements or the film threads that I do in the mornings and last but not least keep dropping mailbag

Questions in those YouTube comments all right let’s talk some basketball so I thought this game in a lot of ways turned in that late first half run from the Denver Nuggets because again Denver is a team that you desperately want to avoid a close slowdown half court

Execution match at the end of a game and Golden State in particular especially as of late has kind of struggled in that specific department at least in the last couple of months and so for them in particular you know kind of the game was starting to follow a path that you hope

For as a Warriors fan in that environment right like you get big uh performance from Klay Thompson in that first half Steph’s not playing particularly well although the Denver defense was very much geared towards slowing him down couple of early matchup things that I thought were interesting they put Aaron Gordon on Jonathan

Kaminga and so if they set any sort of Steph kaminga screen they were able to just switch it but then on the ball they had kcp just being super physical with them following all around the court and then any other kind of screening action they were basically like hedging or

Trapping everything so making the game really really hard on Steph and like very uh uh attentive to the details not making a lot of mistakes and so they make Steph have a somewhat rough first half and now now Steph still has the superpower to hit some tough shots in

Those environments and he got some some solid looks in that first half that he wasn’t able to make really throughout the whole game that he wasn’t able to make and we’ll talk about that later but in terms of controlling what you can control as a defense I thought Denver

Did a really nice job but the big part of it was Aaron Gordon can actually hold up really well against Jonathan kaminga on an island he’s got the athletic tools to kind of hang with him we’re going to spend a lot of time talking about Aon Gordon tonight because I thought he was

Incredible and then in addition to that in any sort of off ball situation Aaron Gordon was able to help around the basket and that really uh a junked up Golden State’s offense except for the stretch where Klay Thompson was hitting shots but again based on how the game

Was progressing early you’re kind of stoked as a Warriors fan right you’re up 15 like you’re a hilariously good third quarter team in February the Golden State Warriors had a plus 23 net rating in third quarters that’s when they blow games open just like the old Warriors used to that’s

Kind of like what you’re hoping for there is you get into the half around a double digit lead you blow the game open in the third quarter and then who cares about having to execute with Denver in the half court but unfortunately Denver decided at the late first half stretch

There to completely erase Golden State’s lead with just a bunch of like high level shot making and and for the record in this particular stretch of the game there were some execution things with Denver where especially in that second half where golden state was giving up easy shots just because Denver

Was executing extremely well but in that late first half stretch I actually thought Golden State defended pretty well like Nicole yic made a contested pick in pop three at the top of the key Jamal Murray made an in insanely like difficult uh Fade Away over his left shoulder over Andrew Wiggins Aaron

Gordon just ran the floor really well and got a postup mismatch against Klay Thompson and went up and got an and one and then there before the end of the half just a dribble hand off drifting three to his left for Jamaal Murray that

Ties the game and on on the other end of the floor the Warriors you know honestly they just missed some shots like Brandon pmy missed a wide open Corner three out of the left Klay Thompson missed a wide open three at the top of the key but other than that they defended pretty

Well and again Steph wasn’t able to make those like superhero shots that he’s accustomed to making right and so all of a sudden we go from the Warriors being up I think they led by as much as 16 in that second quarter to now it’s a tie

Game and then we come out in that third quarter stretch and again Golden State’s been out executing everybody in that setting but Denver just strangled the pace of the game played beautiful offense won the quarter 30 to 26 and then in the fourth quarter they just completely shut down the Warriors

Offense I thought Nicole yic did a beautiful job of playing draymond’s passing angles just kind of like reading plays before they happen and getting in front of them again one of Nicole jokic’s best defensive attributes is just his IQ he can just see things before they happen and then again Aaron

Gordon on the backline blowing everything up and again like Steph this is one of those environments where Denver’s just a better team but Steph has the superpower to potentially overcome that and it just was one of those nights where he wasn’t able to make those shots and then again

Especially there in that fourth quarter stretch I thought the warriors were really really competing on the defensive end and they have Personnel draymond’s battling like Andrew Wiggins is battling on the ball they’re flying around in rotation they’re doing everything they can but like there’s a certain hopelessness that you run into playing

Against Denver they have reached a level of unguard ability and so I’ve talked about this specific Dynamic a million times on this show as it pertains to what makes Denver so difficult to guard but I wanted to kind of dive a little bit deeper into two specific uh dynamics

That take place for Denver on the offensive end of the floor and what makes them so hard to guard and that is disguising their actions and then preloaded counters so those are the two concepts I want to get into tonight first disguising their actions and all

You have to do to look for uh a great example of this to start with was the first bucket that Denver had in this game which was an Aaron Gordon kind of like contested in traffic layup right uh right in front of the rim uh out of a

Off Ball action that they ran so on this play they uh the Nugget get a stop and Nicole yic is bringing the ball up the floor and he’s bringing it up point guard style and he’s coming up with a good amount of pace and as he brings the

Ball up the floor obviously draymond’s getting ready to pick him up Andrew Wiggins is on uh um Jamal Murray and Brandon pmy is on Michael Porter Jr and as Nicole joic kind of gets up the floor he turns his back and he gets ready and you’re just expecting to see a Jamal

Murray dribble handoff right now again what are you doing defensively in that situation what most teams will do that have that kind of personnel a really good post Defender like Draymond or ball screen Defender like Draymond and a really good on ball Defender like Wiggins what they want to do is Andrew

Wiggins wants to beat Jamal Murray over the top of the screen as best as he can because if he can compete over the top of that screen it will make it so that Draymond doesn’t have to step over and if Draymond doesn’t have to step over he

Can stay home on yic and they can kind of shut the action down right so again that’s a really difficult job this is a job that so many players in the league struggle with that on ball screen navigation piece right and so Andrew Andrew Wiggins has his head turned to

The left to where Nicole yic is and Jamal Murray’s in front of him and he’s getting ready to fight over the top of that screen but all of a sudden Here Comes Michael Porter Jr he comes up from the corner and he sets a back screen on

Wiggins doesn’t hit him that much but hits him just enough to kind of knock him off balance and Wiggins has to turn and Chase Jamal Murray now Jamal Murray has beat wiggin’s back door because Andrew Wiggins got back screen right now uh Jamal Murr is rolling to the rim

Obviously Nicole yic is never going to miss something like that when he breaks open hits Jamal Murray on the back cut Draymond Green has to drop down to help on Jamal Murray it’s an easy drop off pass to Aaron Gordon in front of the rim and he lays it in point there being

You’re gearing up to stop one of the most unguardable actions in the league which is the Jamal Marine Nicole yic 2oman game and that’s just a decoy that’s not actually what they’re doing they’re actually running an off Ball action using Michael Porter Jr to get Jamal Murray going back door away from

Where the dribble handoff was going to be that’s a great example of disguising actions and that’s something that Denver will do they never will you know we talked about this in the earlier video today about Minnesota and some of the issues they were having against Milwaukee’s drop coverage one of the

Issues was they were just kind of running it up the floor and setting a ball screen and going or this guy likes his matchup he’s just going to go and drive into the help and it really makes it easier for the defense to load up on you because

There’s not really a whole lot happening in terms of like ball and player movement before you run your you know core action whatever ball screen or ISO post up it is right with Denver they are essentially like have putting you in a predicament where you can’t actually

Load up on any one action because if you do they are prepared to do something else and often they will use their core actions as decoys to get other guys open the second piece that I wanted to hit on was the idea of pre-loaded counters what

This is any single time that you run an action there is a defensive scheme that the uh that the defense is going to implement in that specific situation so for instance whether it’s a deep drop whether it’s kind of like a more mid-level drop whether it’s a high drop

With like kind of a show whether it’s a hedge in recover whether it’s a trap whe like there’s a a number of different things you can do and then even off ball situations maybe you’re switching off ball screens maybe you’re pre-s switching when a guy’s going up to set a

Ball screen you’re sending a different player up to defend the ball screen there’s all these different things you can do right and specifically with Denver that’s one of the ways that like teams teams will come up with gimmicks to try to I shouldn’t say gimmicks but different defensive strategies to take

Away Denver’s action so for instance like uh a Jamal Murray Nicole yic two-man game maybe you’re tagging from the weak side to try to uh get to to Nicole yic when he catches on the roll maybe you’re blitzing Jamal Murray on the ball screen maybe you’re doubling

Nicole yic in the postup well Denver has seen all of these coverages so many times that they just have a baked encounter to beat you when you do that and so I wanted to provide two examples to uh kind of demonstrate this concept to you guys so the first one was a

Contus call contus callwell Pope back door cut on Steph Curry for a layup so on this play step Steph Curry guarding kavus Callo pop Nicole yic has the ball on the left elbow this was in the first half on this play Steph Curry knows kyp’s coming off of a dribble handoff

From Nicole yic so one of the things that Steph does is he top locks cavius K Pope to try to deny him the use of the screen what that means is if pretend yic is behind me and the camera is kcp I’m positioning myself almost between and he

Was being physical on the ball and he was basically trying to stop kcp from using the dribble handoff so there is a baked in preloaded counter for Denver in that situation those of you guys listening can probably take a guess kcp just gets a little physical with Steph

And just cuts back door now here’s the thing typically in a situation like that you’d have a rim protector back there but that’s not the case because Nicole yic is the center and Draymond Green is up on him up at the elbow and so as a

Result casy P just kind of walks up like he’s going to go to the dho and he just knows knows like Steph’s denying me my natural counter here is to cut back door and of course Nicole yic he’s sitting there staring at kcp waiting for him to

Come off the dribble handoff sees him cut back door throws the pass over the top casy p is right there and then obviously in the event that you know let’s say Jonathan kaminga steps up to help out of the backline they already know Aaron Gordon knows I’m sitting

There in the dunker spot and I I don’t even think Aaron Gordon was in the dunker spot on this play but I’m just providing an example so let’s 10 kcp cuts back door on step and you have Jon the kaminga step over and help Aaron

Gordon knows as soon as he steps over I just jump just jump up near the rim and kyp knows if I turn around and there’s help I’m just floating it up around the basket and it’s a big Target with Aaron Gordon because he’s such an excellent you know vertical spacer that they can

Beat you with the lob dunk like that and that was actually the second example that I was going to provide it was the Aaron Gordon dunk off the Baseline there in the end of the game towards the end of the game in the fourth quarter all it

Was Jamal Murray coming off a ball screen there’s a pass to Nicole yic in the role they step up to help I think it was kaminga steps up to help on Nicole yic in the role joic literally one times the pass meaning like didn’t didn’t like

Turn to make a read like he just knew he just knew Here Comes kaminga This is the read I just throw it up there and obviously I I think he actually threw a pass that was a little bit too far out in front of the rim but Aaron Gordon’s

Such a disgustingly good a that he’s able to like rise up and just dunk it anyway because that’s what Aaron Gordon does right but the point is is like between not not just the basketball continuity of this group meaning they’ve played together for so long but the IQ

Of this group and just how smart they are and how well they know how to play off of each other they just have all of these they disguise everything they uh have all of these built-in counters to go against whatever you throw at them defensively and then to make matters

Worse let’s say you do everything right and you make every rotation just like a perfect windshield wiper sequence and nobody’s open well then Jamal Murray will just make some really tough turnaround jump shot or Nicole yic will just be like all right fine I guess I gotta take Draymond Green to the basket

Out of the post and try to shoot a little hook shot and guess what Jamal Murray if you’re ranking tough shot makers in the NBA I haven’t really thought about it but Jamal Murray’s way up there on that list and then in terms of like on an island scoring Nicole yic

Is about as efficient as you’ll find in the league so they have this beautifully well-oiled offense that is inevitable that is incredibly difficult to guard you literally feel helpless watching it and then if you do everything right they might just make a tough shot anyway and and it literally is hopeless and like

Warriors fans you can relate to this this is what it was like for the most part during the the Warriors Dynasty now it wasn’t quite to the same extent as Denver because I think golden state was more of a two-way team golden state was like one of the best defenses in the

League every single year now Denver’s been been a very good defense this year but like you guys remember the feeling it was like run drop coverage on Steph he’s gonna just hit pull up threes all night long leave him on an island he can beat his man off the dribble and uh uh

And E like either create his own shot for himself or Draw multiple Defenders and and and uh pass out of it throw a blitz at him throw a hedge at him he’s going to hit the roll man every single time and it’s Draymond Green coming down

The middle of the floor he’s one of the best short roll passers in league and at that point in time during the peak of the Warriors Dynasty it was Klay Thompson the second best shooter in the world who was unbelievably deadly off the ball Andre guala who’s one of the

Smartest players in the league right like that was the predicament they put you in and then oh by the way Kevin Durant was out there too like like so and there was a similar type of thing where if you happen to get in front of the action and stop everything they had

Two guys that just could beat you over the top with crazy tough shot making so like Warriors fans again you can you can relate to this but there is an inevitability there’s inevitability there’s a hopelessness that Denver puts you in and I thought tonight was was

Just just a a resounding example of that on Denver’s front again like you know I’ve seen I’ve seen a lot of Denver pessimism this year like I even saw I can’t remember exactly who it was that I saw on Twitter the other day talking about how like even their effective

Field goal percentage is down to like middle of the pack this year after it was like number one in the League last year and I just don’t care I just don’t care like time and time again when it comes down to it in any sort of high leverage moment they’re able to tighten

The screws defensively and they’re able to execute to a near per near Perfection on the offensive end of the floor and that’s why I keep saying like in the event that they’re healthy I just I would just be surprised if they lost I have not seen any team in the league

That can reach a two-way height in the slow down intense physical playoff environment the way that Denver came can every other team in the league has significant question marks in a way that Denver does not the only thing that you can really point to is their lack of

Depth which wasn’t an issue last year when they stayed healthy and that’s why I keep adding the healthy qualifier but again the same can be said for any of these teams there’s not a team out there that’s in the top five or six Championship contenders in the league

That can afford an injury to a starter you know like Aaron Gordon he had an incredible night tonight Aaron Gordon is legitimately I was thinking about this while I was putting my notes together obviously Aaron Gordon is not a superstar like he’s not a uh a guy that

We put in the same Echelon with the great forwards in the league but when you really put it down to like what his role is on this team meaning like they don’t need him to be some highlevel offensive engine but just operating in the role of what the big forward

Typically does which means on the offensive end of the floor matchup attacking in vertical spacing and then on the defensive end of the floor it’s the ability to defend bigger forwards on the perimeter the abil ability to defend bigger forwards and bigs in the post the ability to be a impactful backline

Defender meaning like helping at The Rim in uh um like situations where he’s got to tag rollers or help on drives but also cleaning up the defensive glass and potentially having to rotate with athleticism back out to the weak side to a shooter if you just kind of take the

Big forward responsibilities not the higher level stuff that Superstars have to take care of but if you just look at the bigger forward responsibilities there aren’t many players in the league that are better in his position group than him at that I was thinking about it earlier today it’s

Like like maybe maybe maybe like Giannis is probably for sure in that group right um like the five nights of a year that LeBron tries really hard but even that feels like a stress to a stretch to me like there aren’t it’s hard to think of a forward that plays that four position

Who’s better at low man defensive responsibilities and off ball offensive responsibilities out of the four spot like the one big nitpick with him is like he’s an iffy shooter but like time and time again that just hasn’t mattered like the the Warriors ignored him at the three-point line all night to

Tonight and it just didn’t matter so so like again like and there’s not a team out there that can afford an injury but like to me that that’s that’s an unfair criticism to throw at Denver for that reason they feel inevitable to me I I

Like I said I just I’m such a big fan of this of this uh Denver Nuggets team on the Warriors front again Steph and Dre had bad nights you need them to overcome your limitations in a matchup like this and Steph couldn’t make his tougher three-point looks today I think he was

One for 10 from three and Draymond had six turnovers so like it’s going to be tough to win a game like that in that circumstance but here’s the thing and there’s a reason why I have the Warriors in the long shot tier I I don’t think they’re even capable of beating Denver

In a series um that doesn’t mean they can’t win the title like you go for it because what if Denver does suffer some sort of injury what if there is some sort of Confluence of events where you happen to catch some favorable matchups and then you get to the Finish Line like

You go for it and they have certainly have that capability but like at the end of the day they just can’t execute in the half court nearly as well as Denver on either end of the floor and that that to me is where that pessimism comes from

All right guys that is all I have for tonight as always I appreciate you guys for supporting the show we’ll be back tomorrow breaking down a couple more games from tonight’s slate as well as our power rankings then just a heads up we’re taking Tuesday off I’m doing a day

Trip there’s a um this really cool ancient volcano that’s in northern Arizona uh that’s uh um place called Flagstaff it’s where Northern Arizona University is and there’s some skiing up there and so my wife and I and some friends are taking a day trip and tucon we do these things called day trips

Where you literally drive four hours wake up at 400 am and then we’ll go uh ski for eight hours and then drive four hours home so I I literally will be gone all day on Tuesday but we’ll be back on Wednesday uh with our usual game breakdowns and stuff as always I

Appreciate you guys I’ll see you tomorrow

Jason Timpf reacts to Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and the Golden State Warriors’ 119-103 loss against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. Jason shares his biggest takeaways from the game and discusses what he expects moving forward for both of these Western Conference contenders.

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