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Isn’t it someone Calvin Booth hired but Malone wouldn’t let in the building?
OKC will adjust but this first win of the Nuggets is great... it may go 7 games which would be awesome
Isn’t it someone Calvin Booth hired but Malone wouldn’t let in the building?
Last year OKC faced a first round opponent decimated by injuries and beat the out of them.
This year OKC faced a first round opponent decimated by injuries and beat the out of them.
Last year OKC faced a second round opponent with size and toughness ready to bang with them lead by a tremendous international player.
This year OKC...
Think I'll still take OKC in 6. Jokic had to go 42/22/7 just to eek out a win off a late OKC choke after the Thunder controlled most of the game.
Maybe.
But OKC had tons of rest, Denver only had one day to prepare after going seven games against a tough opponent, they were playing away. This game shouldn't have been close.
Thunder have serious problems with expert size and Jokic should get huge numbers. Denver is the team with championship experience here.
that game has got me thinking Jokic might be knocking on the door of top 5 all time. A healthy Bill Walton on offense that can shoot the three is ing nuts. And his defense is excellent too. Not Prime Walton level but still top 5% in the league.
Last year OKC had a lot of holes in the roster that they plugged this year though. Feels like apples and oranges comparing the two teams now that they have Hartenstein to bang with bigs and Caruso as a defensive ace.
Definitely big additions and Denver just stole only one game. But Jokic is miles better than the Lively/Gafford pieces that were roughing up OKC last year.
Maybe Hartenstein is able to prevent Jokic from dropping another 42 pts, but some of the same problems surfaced for the Thunder this game. Jay Williams has not shown up in the playoffs. Holmgren and the other players don't have enough beef. They depend too much on SGA when it counts.
Gordon playing just 7 minutes against OKC in their regular season matchups is an interesting fact.
OKC were just not ready for his physicality.
As for Jokic dropping 40, he can easily go for 35+ every single game in this matchup.
Can't remember exactly, but wasn't there a story about Mike Malone not wanting some shooting coach that Calvin Booth hired due to thinking he's a spy.
Yes, I am pretty sure Mike Malone thought he was a spy and wouldn't let him in, sent him elsewhere to work out with whatever player/s he was supposed to work with.Isn’t it someone Calvin Booth hired but Malone wouldn’t let in the building?
Both these first two games were great. Great win from the Nuggets. Jokic is definitely still the MVP. If it's based on regular season, then Jokic should still win it there too, but if regular season record comes into play, maybe Shai does deserve it. Not sure. My pick is Jokic and has been all season.
Also, anyone sick of the Celtics jacking up so many threes? Did Ime have them shooting that many (I don't think he did, but I can't quite remember), or did the philosophy change to this once Mazzulla took over?
Nuggets peaking at the right time
Would be good to see Jokic win a 2nd le, but also Russ finally ring
Yeah his decision making isn’t the best but he givez 200% in every single game
Nah. I like the Nuggets for the most part, but can't cheer for Brody.
This! People have REALLY overrated the players around Shai the last couple of years. Jay W. has a nice game but jury is still out as he may very well be a number 3 for a true contender. Chet is still way too raw to be a consistent 3rd and not good enough at all to be a #2. Dort and company all have their role but the entirety of it all working is based on Shai's production/threat. Somehow people think he's rolling out with a team full of allstars. They were nearly winning at the historical 70-win mark with his number two being a big question mark.
Jordan had Pippen and Rodman who are both historically great at key parts of the game. GS had Curry, Klay, and Draymond and crazy depth. Shai has a talented but proven inconsistent #2 who played incredibly scared yesterday and a 2nd year player who missed a ton of the season. He has depth but none who's main effective is independent of Shai offensively. Jokic is definitely the best player in the world but I do believe Shai has similar VALUE to his team (advanced metrics were eerily close to Jokic and he's a guard which is unheard of). Shai was the Most Outstanding Player to me (I believe the award should be re-named).
Yesterday you saw precisely how flawed Shai's team is when faced with a tougher team. They may go on to win the series but Jay Williams is unlikely to reach a higher ceiling than his regular season form which is All-star level at best.
This should be a really good series!
Chet was not good late in that game but holy , that loss is on the coach. Inexcusable management fouling them 80 feet away from the basket when you're up 3 with 10 secs left. And with Jokic on the bench and them being out of timeouts. God damn that was stupid.
Joker with a ring and Finals MVP this year and he's firmly Top 10 all time. Top 5 is a stretch but Top 10 is not debatable if that happens.
Ok I thought I was the only one that felt like the COACHING was the main reason they lost. I don't even consider it a choke by Chet...it was horrific management by the coach. When Caruso I believe fouled TWICE immediately sending them to the foul line I was like what an idiot - until the announcers stated that it was the PLAN. Then when he did it the second time on the opposite end of the court I literally thought I was in the twilight zone. They said it was to not give them a chance to hit a 3 pointer...WHO CARES when you're giving them a free chance at points with the time stopped! The DUMBEST counter-intuitive decision I have seen by a coach in a LONG time. All they did was laid the literally pathway to allow them to close the gap without wasting as much time as they would have it they forced to the play half-court into a shot opportunity (for the first foul) and the worse one where it wouldve made sense to force them to travel the length of the court (2nd foul) as they had no timeouts and that would have wasted a minimum of 3 seconds with good defense.
It was 2013 Pop level but 1000x worse!
I don't know how can you go to war with two corny ass dudes like Jalen William and Chet who wilt at the first sign of adversity..
Last edited by spursistan; 23 Hours Ago at 01:01 PM.
Yeah, tough series for Chet as he's not big enough to bother/box out Gordon/Joker. But J-Dub has been a crappy 2nd option for 2 postseasons in a row now tbh. They're in trouble if he doesn't pick up.
I still have OKC in 6 or 7 because of their depth and the Nuggets basically only having 5 serviceable players currently with MPJ playing hurt.
I'm warming up to taking Queen at #8 given the league shift to having two bigs on the court again tbh.
We have seen this movie countless times before: anything less than an OKC blowout in Game 2 to restore order and Denver winning this series becomes a real possibility.. A team with Championship DNA having the best player on the planet at the apex of his powers finding its groove at the right time to knockout a largely untested regular season juggernaut team ..
Gonna be some great series! Let's see if GSW/MIN can live up to the rest of these series. One of the best second rounds I can remember after just one game.
I still have the Thunder winning. I'm not sure they're flexible enough to change tactics if they keep having trouble. Maybe.
But if they do get past Denver, then Minnesota has even more size to knock against them.
Garland, Hunter and Mobley all missed the morning shootaround and are listed as questionable for tonight's game.
Even if they play, they won't be at their best. Especially Garland who surely wouldn't play for a couple more weeks if it was regular season.
They won 64 games and their season might end tonight.
Wow, not good. That would suck for them after the season they've had. Then again, they weren't exactly playing great heading into the playoffs as the injury depleted Spurs almost beat them once and pushed them hard on the road the week before.
I thiink they also had two 4 game losing streaks (correct me if I am wrong), and I do remember saying at the time that, that is not usually a characteristic/trait of a Championship team. Doesn't mean they can't win, but I thought that wasn't a good sign.
Last edited by Ice009; 20 Hours Ago at 04:12 PM.
All three 60 win teams lost their first game in the semis at home. Wonder if that's ever happened before
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