The official Denver Nuggets thread.

[beastlyskronk]

We went +2 in that quarter but it didn’t feel like a good quarter. We closed strong though so hopefully we can keep that momentum going into the 4th

[DenverBlood]

Hard to beat a team shooting over 50% from behind the arc.

[DenverBlood]

Welp. Going to have to get one in Miami or the excitement will be over early.

[Houshmazode]

Still played like crap tonight and the refs didn't help. Only lost by 3. A lot of mistakes to clean up.

[beastlyskronk]

Ultimately I can’t blame the refs, although they definitely gave Miami their fair share of ticky tack fouls that got them going. The defensive lapses were the reason we lost, there was no reason for us to leave their spot up shooters as often as we did. Butler won’t beat us by himself, butler and Bam won’t beat us by themselves. We can’t afford to leave their role players wide open to go help against Butler. We have to guard Butler with the same mindset they guarded Jokic with tonight, make him a scorer, we can’t let him rack up assists. Gordon won’t shut him out but he will do a good enough job to put us in position to win more often than not.

[Spice 1]

Zone beaters and Adebayo pick and roll defense definitely need some work. And the zone beaters looks like it comes down to execution to me. They're running good sets, even though Miami screwed up more than anything defending the Murray/Jokic pick and roll. Miami is going to front Jokic to keep him from catching in the high post. I liked when they screened the zone for Jokic and sent Gordon to the block. The corner is wide ass open when the ball goes to the wing. Porter just didn't make the pass. Whoever's out by the wing is handcuffed to Porter, and there's nobody there.

[DenverBlood]

It’s a shame that the talk today is lack of effort from anyone but Jokic. That shouldn’t be a thing in the NBA finals especially in a home game.

[broncolee]

Unfortunately, I think the Heat will win the series. Denver’s poor defense will do them in.

[DenverBlood]

Unfortunately, I think the Heat will win the series. Denver’s poor defense will do them in.

I was thinking this last night. Defense wins championships and Miamis is better. It’s just one game though. No reason to panic unless we lose both games in Miami.

[sra84]

Unfortunately, I think the Heat will win the series. Denver’s poor defense will do them in.

Yep. Denver choked last night. They crumble under pressure. They'll be lucky to win this series. This is why no one believes in them except some of the Nuggets fanbase. Jokic is the only consistent player they have. And his defensive play is average at best.

Too bad, this is probably the best chance they'll ever get to win a title. All they had to do was not screw up. Couldn't even do that. Pathetic.

And don't give me it's only 1-1. Nuggets got lucky in game 1 with the Heat getting only 2 FT and shooting poorly from 3. That luck was not there last night and the Nuggets lost. Unless they miraculously learn how to play defense, they are losing this series. Deal with it.

[sra84]

Nuggets must win the next 2 games or it's over. They're going to need 3 chances to get the fourth win. They don't have Miami's tougness, heart or resiliency. They are soft frontrunners. As long as they have a cushy lead and get lucky breaks, then they're ok. Otherwise, they fold, they choke, and no title for Denver again.

[Bronco51]

MPJ needs to hit shots or I agree it will be hard for Denver to win. 5 points and 1 of 6 from 3 is not going to cut it. He got outscored by Christian Braun?!?! Denver is still the better team, they just let Miami out score them by 18 in the three category. Every other stat was pretty close. Go Nuggets!!

[Houshmazode]

We had won 7 games straight prior to that loss. The 8 day break and then the 2 days off after game 1 didn't help our consistency that much. Looked a little rusty. I think we can clean up those mistakes and get on a roll again and be fine. Just have to have more discipline and not take all those dumb fouls we did last night. That loss will help us re-focus imo. Nuggets in 6.

[beastlyskronk]

I don’t think it was an intensity thing so much as we just got too preoccupied with watching Butler. Too much sagging off of guys like Vincent, Strus, Robinson, and even Love to help prevent Butler getting in the paint. Whoever isn’t on Butler needs to stay glued to their assignments aside from Bam’s guy. All those guys are good if not elite spot up shooters and Butler is looking to create for them, not try to outscore us himself. If Butler can get 40 or 50 going through Gordon then tip your cap to him, but trying to hold him under 30 by allowing him to create easy offense is going to kill us.

Sad thing is, we see this on the other end of the floor a lot. The MO to beat us is to force Jokic into being a scorer because he can’t out score a team by himself and we’re much more dangerous when he’s putting up gaudy assist numbers than when he’s pouring in points. We have to take that same approach with Butler. You can’t take away everything at this point, you have to pick and choose what to limit and I think limiting Butler creating for his teammates gives us a better chance than limiting his scoring output. If it’s Martin, Strus, Robinson driving then sure sag down and help because they aren’t necessarily known to be passers, but we can’t help on Butler. MPJ has to stay glued to Love and Murray has to stay glued to Vincent or Strus. I’d give KCP some leeway because he does give strong close outs whereas Murray and MPJ can be halfhearted at best with theirs. We also have to stop letting Lowry walk into 3s off the pick, start hedging that and trust the rotation to get over to Bam and force him to make a pass or finish through traffic. Nothing Miami has done on offense is something we can’t stop, it’s a matter of focus and discipline, not athletic ability, lack of size, or lack of strength.

Bam and Butler are midrange shooters, we dealt with that against Phoenix, it’s incredibly hard to win a series in today’s game relying on the midrange, it’s just too inconsistent. Also their zone isn’t really giving us that much trouble, we’re still generating open looks, they just haven’t been falling. I think over the course of the series that’ll correct itself. But where it does hurt us, it’s made it a lot more difficult to initiate the 2 man game between Murray and Jokic because Murray and others aren’t great entry passers especially if Jokic is being fronted. We might have to counter that by letting Jokic bring the ball up and force his way to the middle, or have Gordon bring it up and get his 2 man game going with Jokic.

Gordon is going to be a pivotal piece in this series going forward. He’s going to have to continue to get his easy baskets off cuts and deep post position in transition. But he’s also going to have to create for others through his screens, especially against the zone. And most importantly, he can’t just allow Love to be on the floor. Gordon is too athletic and too strong to not have his way with Love. A Gordon/Murray 2 man game is going to have to come to the forefront real soon because Love can’t switch on Murray and Vincent/Strus can’t switch on Gordon. Even a simple iso with Gordon and Love should net us positive results. And once Miami starts sending help for Love then we have kickouts to open shooters

[Spice 1]

I don’t think it was an intensity thing so much as we just got too preoccupied with watching Butler. Too much sagging off of guys like Vincent, Strus, Robinson, and even Love to help prevent Butler getting in the paint. Whoever isn’t on Butler needs to stay glued to their assignments aside from Bam’s guy. All those guys are good if not elite spot up shooters and Butler is looking to create for them, not try to outscore us himself. If Butler can get 40 or 50 going through Gordon then tip your cap to him, but trying to hold him under 30 by allowing him to create easy offense is going to kill us.

Sad thing is, we see this on the other end of the floor a lot. The MO to beat us is to force Jokic into being a scorer because he can’t out score a team by himself and we’re much more dangerous when he’s putting up gaudy assist numbers than when he’s pouring in points. We have to take that same approach with Butler. You can’t take away everything at this point, you have to pick and choose what to limit and I think limiting Butler creating for his teammates gives us a better chance than limiting his scoring output. If it’s Martin, Strus, Robinson driving then sure sag down and help because they aren’t necessarily known to be passers, but we can’t help on Butler. MPJ has to stay glued to Love and Murray has to stay glued to Vincent or Strus. I’d give KCP some leeway because he does give strong close outs whereas Murray and MPJ can be halfhearted at best with theirs. We also have to stop letting Lowry walk into 3s off the pick, start hedging that and trust the rotation to get over to Bam and force him to make a pass or finish through traffic. Nothing Miami has done on offense is something we can’t stop, it’s a matter of focus and discipline, not athletic ability, lack of size, or lack of strength.

Bam and Butler are midrange shooters, we dealt with that against Phoenix, it’s incredibly hard to win a series in today’s game relying on the midrange, it’s just too inconsistent. Also their zone isn’t really giving us that much trouble, we’re still generating open looks, they just haven’t been falling. I think over the course of the series that’ll correct itself. But where it does hurt us, it’s made it a lot more difficult to initiate the 2 man game between Murray and Jokic because Murray and others aren’t great entry passers especially if Jokic is being fronted. We might have to counter that by letting Jokic bring the ball up and force his way to the middle, or have Gordon bring it up and get his 2 man game going with Jokic.

Gordon is going to be a pivotal piece in this series going forward. He’s going to have to continue to get his easy baskets off cuts and deep post position in transition. But he’s also going to have to create for others through his screens, especially against the zone. And most importantly, he can’t just allow Love to be on the floor. Gordon is too athletic and too strong to not have his way with Love. A Gordon/Murray 2 man game is going to have to come to the forefront real soon because Love can’t switch on Murray and Vincent/Strus can’t switch on Gordon. Even a simple iso with Gordon and Love should net us positive results. And once Miami starts sending help for Love then we have kickouts to open shooters

I agree with not cheating on or doubling Butler too much, but that's just how I feel in general. I've never been a fan of coaches who rely on doubling a playmaker outside the post in the NBA. There's only been one team who defended Miami well from the three point line in the playoffs, and that was NY. Denver didn't defend them very well in the first game either. They just missed. A Thibodeaux team is going to be very good at showing help, recovering, and rebounding. Thibodeaux's been a thorn in my team's side for years, but I think he's the best defensive coach in the league. Miami runs a lot of off-ball screens along the perimeter, and NY did a decent job of negotiating that in general. Denver struggled to do that throughout game two, and a lot of it was not knowing when to switch. Malone appears to have rules in place, and the players didn't execute consistently. This was especially apparent in the 4th quarter. The mitigating factor in this case is that Denver can do so much more offensively than NY can. The one thing Miami did there, aside from less doubling on Jokic (as far as I can tell), was negating the Gordon bully ball and getting Butler on Murray by playing Kevin Love. This basically dictates more to Jokic, and I think that's a major reason why he became such a scorer in game two. I agree with what you said about trying to get switches with Gordon. See how Miami plays it. Maybe what you said about isolating Gordon with Love on him, even though I have seen Love ramp up his defensive game in the post-season before. He can be a capable defender when he's motivated.

The 4th quarter is really where it's at in this series, to me though. I don't know about the rust or intensity narratives (Denver shot about .600 in the first half of game one), but the 4th quarter is definitely a narrative I do see. Miami is a completely different team in the 4th quarter. Offensively and defensively. On offense, they're running everything through Bam Adebayo whether that be dribble handoff, pick and roll, or Adebayo entry passes on off-ball screens. There's no rim protection, so unless Denver plays it right, it's an open three or a layup. Malone either has to adjust how they play that, or they have to execute. He might have to change how they defend dribble handoffs as well. The pick and roll defense is hard to fix, because any hedge Jokic makes should be a hard hedge. If Adebayo gets the ball on time, he has the triple threat of shooting, finishing, or passing, and if the helper cheats you're left with one defender playing whichever shooter he passes it to.

Defensively, in the 4th, they're running zone with wrinkles like switches up top against ball screens. I still like the approach by Denver though. I would keep doing that and leave it to Murray to decide whether to pass it off to Jokic, shoot, drive, or pass to the corner depending on how they defend it. Murray can do all of those things at a pretty high level, so it's like Denver pulling what Spoelstra does by running pick and roll with Lowry and Adebayo. Playing to your strengths. Denver isn't great against pick and roll, and Lowry and Adebayo are both good at it. Murray is a great scorer who can pass, the Heat have to respect Jokic, and the Heat are susceptible to the corner three. Whatever they do, it's going to be important to get into the offense as fast as possible. That's why Miami applies pressure in the backcourt a lot when they play zone.