Latest / Kenny For Real / The Denver Nuggets Always Find A Way To Win

Transcript

The Denver Nuggets Always Find A Way To Win · Kenny For Real

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: They always find a way. The Denver Nuggets always find
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a way to win a basketball game. What a game
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: from them. This should not be a win for the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: demn Nuggets. I'm saying that as a credit to them.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: This should not be a win for the Denver Nuggets.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: The best player in the world had one of his
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: worst offensive showings you would ever see from him during
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the whole Nikola Yokis best player in the world MVP
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: candidacy era. This is one of his worst offensive performances.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: He ended with twenty point He had a big shot
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: down to stretch when they were up about like five
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: or so on overtime, which is pretty pretty good. Sixteen rebounds,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: you know he gonna bore very well, and not a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: lot of those being offensive. They kept him off the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: offensive glass for the majority of his game. It's only
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: six assists, eight turnovers. He shot ten three's today, ten
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of them he missed every single one. When you think
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: about how small of a margin this team usually has
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to win basketball games, you would think that if Yokis
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: is putting together a personal stinker, they have no chance. Right.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: We get some stuff that you can't quantify. We can
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: talk about a team being the best defensive team in
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the recent recent history. Because of the statistics, we can
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: talk about a team being an amazing three point shoot team,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: we can talk about a team being a fast break team.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: But certain things you can't quantify with statistics. Championship, DNA continuity,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: having the will Is stuff we won't see in the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: box score, we won't see through statistics. And the Denver
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Nuggets do with time and time again. Last year they're
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs, they are down in every single first
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: half against the Lakers, and they hit two game winners
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: and eventually take care of the Lakers. We've seen time
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: and time again, and game number one, forty seconds to go,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: they have no business winning that game. They won that game.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Jokicch air bowled the son boards shuffle and guess who
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: was sitting in a dunk respot Aaron Gordon for a
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: game winning tip, layup or tip dunk. This team finds
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: away time and time again. Jokic was bad today by
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: his own standard, but guess what. Michael Poor Junior has
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: been phenomenal since since he was called out in the
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: beginning of this series or in the beginning of the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: playoff run, He's been stepping up. He could barely lift
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: his hand over his head. They tell you that every
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: time he shoot the ball, he's been amazing. Twenty one
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and eight today, Aaron Gordon turned himself to a Capitol
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: S shooter over the last year or so. I remember
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: they went on to win the championship in twenty twenty three.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: He was like a thirty four percent three point shooting
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: in the regular season and some of the playoff series
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: they ended up having. In the finals, I remember he
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: shot like fifty seven percent from three. Now, I they
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: ain't really need him to do that because who they
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: were going against and everything. But since then he's continued
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to get better and better from shooting the ball. I
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: know in the first round he didn't shoot it amazingly well,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: but tonight he's four of six and he hits the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: big shot to basically send it a to overtime, if
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you will. This was an amazing game, Peyton Watson, and
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I gotta give him credit because you know, Okay, on
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a knight to night basis, if you are an NBA fan,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: you know that you're gonna trust YO, because you're gonna
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: trust your mall, You're gonna trust Aaron. You're gonna trust
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior more times than not. It's about the others, right,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Can we get Christian Browns hit some open three today?
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: He had two? Can we give Russell Westworth to come
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: in and give some energy, But that's kind of it.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Peyton Watson gave a ton of energy. He had a
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: couple big blots. He had a couple of threes. He
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: was talking to the crowd. I thought those were huge.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And obviously he didn't play down the stretch because it
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: turned into our stars, your stars R five versus your five.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: But just having him to be able to come off
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the bench to give you seventeen minutes of good basketball,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: that's like a luxury to them at this point, a
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: luxury to them. This is a game that they should
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: not have won, and they did, and it just changes
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: everything about the series. Right, you go after game number one,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: you can say, hey, yeah, the Denver Nuggets won this game.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: But I think more a better way to explain it
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: is that Mark Dayton All had some bad coaching decisions. Okay,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: see missed some free throws in Boom. It was more
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: like an OKC loss than a Denver win. Game number two, Okay,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: se comes out and smack that ass forty three point win.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: This was a game that, like, based on what we've
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: seen between these two teams, whether it be in this
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: series or in the regular season, when it comes down
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: to the close games, the Denver Nuggets have the advantage,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: even though the OKAC Thunder are the better team. Right.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: They showed the graphic when we got to overtime that
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: when the OKC Thunder have beat the differ Nuggets in
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the season, of margin of victor is twenty seven points,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: blowing the doors off of them. But when it is close,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the different Nuggets have won. I think that says a
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: lot about the lack of experience from the OKAC side
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and the fact that the different Nuggets kind of have
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: this this plan once the going gets tough, once the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: game is close. I hate it the last ten minutes
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: of basketball from the OKC Thunder Offensively, I thought that
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: everything that has worked well for them this entire season
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: was going down the drain. And one thing I hate
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: is that they absolutely just just lost the energy. They
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: absolutely lost the confidence in the shooting and the jump
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: shooting completely. Now you know this game is close going
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: into I think going into the fourth quarter, OKC was
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: shooting like twenty three percent from three. It was something real,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: real bad. But sometimes when it is bad, you still
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: gotta trust it because you got it. Keep a minus.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: You know who's winning this off of this postseason the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: people that love watching zone defense. Every single team is
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: going out there run in some form of zone that
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about the calves versus paces game in
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: a minute. Every team is doing some type of zone
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: for periods at a time, and I wish I had
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the resources to figure out what exactly is going on.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: I remember two years ago when the Miami Heat and
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Sposter won in zone. They were running the most zone
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: in the NBA. It was four percent of their defensive possessions.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: That's how much zone we got just two years ago.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: And the regular season we didn't see a ton of zone.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: But in this postseason, I bet that four percent is
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: way up. I don't have the numbers. I'm sure somebody does.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: I don't have the numbers. The different nuggets run out
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the zone and it's like shoot it. We dare you
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: think about how the OKC thunder got eliminated last year?
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: What were the two major things that we thought about?
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: We okay, see with them A. I mean, I guess
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: there's three them in their youth. Obviously that youth is
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: still showing his face today in twenty twenty five. The
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: next thing was the rebound and they went to sign
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Isaiah Hardstaff. Sam Presty got the year for that in
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the alas Carusso trade. And the last thing was the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: jump shooting, the three point shooter, specifically, who can we
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: trust to hit jump shots to hit three pointers today
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: was really nobody. And then we got down to the
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: down to the end of the game and stuff. People
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that normally are really confident shooting the ball, like a
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: lou Door is passing up open threes because he has
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: lost his own confidence. Because today he was one of
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: six know and four from three. They said three times
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: on the broadcast today, Isaiah Hardenstein's push shot is an
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: eighty two percent shot for him. We got to overtime,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: he got three looks at those two of them with
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: damn near airballs. They lost all of the confidence. And
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: if we get to the last five minutes, in a
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: lot of cases, this is pretty normal basketball. Hey, it's
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: a close game, our MVP, our star, please take us home.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Shae could not do that today. The shots that Shaye
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: were attempting were the exact shots that the Denver Nuggets
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: wanted him to attempt, because Shaye gets Alexander is a
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: mid range shooting king. It's one of the best in
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the world at that. But they're packing it in because
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: nobody else in this team wants to shoot right now,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: or maybe Shane's not trusting this. Shoo was because some
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: of the shots that he took down the stretch. I'm
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: just like, you're Shay, and I know you can hit that,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: but I feel like there's a better look in there.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: One of the things we talk about on the podcast
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: numbers of the boards drunking the mom is how much
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: we hate when teams are down by three and players
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: on your posing team feel like they need to take
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: a three in this moment of time to get all
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: of those back. There's plenty of time on the shot clock.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I thought Shay had a couple of shots down the
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: stretch where you didn't need to take the three some possessions.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: One thing I also hate is when we get a
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: one pass possession or zero pass possession. We got a
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: few of those down the stretch for the OKC Thunder.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: This is one of the few times of this season
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: where I watched him and said, yeah, there's that youth. See,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: this team has not played like the average age is
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: twenty five, twenty four points something something. They've been dominant defensively.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: They got an MVP candidate or the MVP of the league.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: They got a couple great defensive bigs. They got some
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: of the best defensive wings in basketball. Even though they
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: are a young team. It was very rare that I
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: watched them and say, yes, this team looks young. Today,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: this team looked young, and this is the worst kind
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: of opponent you want to see when you are looking young,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: because this team has been here, they've done that, and
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: they can exploit you. Game number two, Yokis had one
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: of his worst performances too. He found out and like,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I don't even know how many minutes that was. I
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: think that's so far the season. If you get rid
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of the forty twenty game and game number one, they've
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: done a pretty phenomenal job of guarding Jokic, And in
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: game number one, when Jokics did have his forty twenty game,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: they basically started off the game with chet Holmber and
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: guarded him solo. You know, sending some help. I know
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Alex Russo got like six steers something like sennism late
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: helps when he turned his back, YadA, YadA, YadA. And
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: then since then it's been Isaiah Hardenstein is a primary defenditive,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: his bruisier type of dude. And they've they've tempered or
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: prevented Yokis from being the best player in the world.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: But they're still down to one. And that's kind of
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: scary because I don't expect Yokic to shoot over for
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: ten from three next game. I don't expect him to
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: have eight turnovers next game. I don't expect him to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: be a thirty two percent from the field performance. I
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: don't just have to have a two shooting percent of
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: thirty seven point Oh my god, that's nasty Yokics. So
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: they gotta figure it out, and they gotta figure it
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: out fast because the different I Cans have home court
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: advantage right now. And when we got to the over time,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: you saw Jamal Murray was so gass. He still hit
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: a couple of shots. He shout out to Jamal Murray.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: But you don't want to go to ot in the
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Malha city, man. I just know they were so drained,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: and one of these teams do this forty games a
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: season and you don't an amazing win. I feel like
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I'm forgetting some stuff. But them, this game was so
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: damn good, So shout out shout out to them for performing.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I love that a lot of these games have been
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: defensive Hornets. I know it ended up being one hundred
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: and thirteen, that's what the extra five minutes minutes of play.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: It's been a really grinded out postseason. That's what I
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: absolutely love. Let's get to the first game of the
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: day with the Cleveland Cavaliers have all their guys. There's Mobiley,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: there's Hunter, and there's Garland, and my question was, yeah,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: they're active, but how effective of how good would they look?
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I thought that Darris Garland, you could definitely tell you
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: he was laboring out there. He got into f trouble
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: very early on. But the real winner of tonight was well,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I guess two big winners. The first one I'm gonna
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: say is Evan Mobley. Now it is Don of Mitchell
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: number one, but I want to talk about Evan Mobiliy
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: because he was so great today. I think that other
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: than him having Rudy Gobert hands in the first half.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: He was so great. The Calves also threw out a
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: zone today and I think the number said that when
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: they ran out that zone, the Pacers shot all of
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: eleven for three during during that stretch, which I don't
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: know how much of that is a zone, how much
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: of that is bad shooting varias, but the zone looks
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: so damn dominant, and it was a different kind of
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: zone that you would see the Calves run the Calves
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Ransom zone in the regular season, but not really did
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: they have it be like Evan Mobley is the point
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: of attack on like a three to two zone or
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: one two two, I don't know how you want to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: characterize it. And he was causing habit and it was like, yes,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: that is the defensive player of the year. You saw
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: that type of form city. I know he had six stocks,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: which was great, but even though six stocks don't tell
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the full story of how great he was defensively. But
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: on the offensive side of things, Donovan Mitchell's averaging forty
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: plus points in this series. He's been unguardable. He shoots
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of threes today he actually hit some, so
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: that's cool. But the thing that makes it so amazing
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: is if the Pacers don't really have an answer for
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: when he wants to put his head down, and he's
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: been wanted to put his head down. Another double digit
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: free throw game for him ten or fourteen, and I
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: just feel like he's been so damn relentless it's kind
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: of getting scary. I see that man take so much contact,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: so much, so much contact that it's like, Man, I
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: just know this is what you gotta do to keep
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: your team afloat and to win these games out. I'm
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: living a fright for you. Man, You've hit that floor
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: pretty hard. But he was amazing today, and yet the
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Pacers don't have an individual answer for him. You can
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: throw some Nie Smiths, you can throw some nim Hard.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Those guys can't really stay in front of them. As
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: good as defenders as they are. Donald Mitchell has just
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: been that relentless And I love it because it is
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: actually like I remember speaking to the Cavs when one
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: of the biggest criticisms about bron even though it wasn't
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: really warranted back in the day. It's like, he's six eight,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: two fifty, Why don't he just put it his head
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: down and get to the freak throat line and get
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: to the basket every single possession. That shit is hard,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: first of all, but also is so very taxing. I
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: feel like Donovan Mitchell is doing exactly that. Put his
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: head down, get to the basket. Some of the finishes
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: he had in this game was disgusting. I know he
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: always dos that that high low dribble, but he had won,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, yeah, when it's all said
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: and done for Donald Mitchell and we go typing Donovan
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Minchew mix in twenty years from now, one of them
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: finishes in that first first quarter, I think it was
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: It's going to be on this highlight reel forever. He
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: was disgusted today. Max Strusz was also pretty good. Good.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I can't say good bounce back game because he was
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: good in game number two. He just had the bad
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: turnover down the stretch. He hit four threes. Jared Allen
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: was out there being physical as hell, and they were
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: reciprocating that the only loser for them was ty Jerome
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Man Damn ta. Jeron's been really bad in this series,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and he was destined to make so much money this offseason.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: So I hope that Kenny Atkinson don't bench him. But
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: through these first three games, it's been it's been bad, man,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: it's been really really bad. The pace. They just had
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: both of their star players struggle pretty heavily. Today. Tyres
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Haliburton ended up with four point and he realized he
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: got to four. I thought he gave us a two
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: piece or a zero piece, but they were denying ball
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: from very early on. I gotta give credit for the
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Cavaliers there, and he missed his first shot. And once
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Tyre's missed his first shot, things get kind of iffy,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you know. But they did an amazing job not allowing
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: him to break down the defense full stop. I mean,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: I think the part of that is his own. He
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: didn't really get a lot of dribble penetration to spray
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: out to the shooters. They really was like Miles Turner
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: early in this game. They're gonna let you do you.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: We're gonna eliminate Pascal Si Yakam, and we're gonna eliminate
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: some of these other guys. So an amazing win for
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the Cleveland Cavaliers, and I think this series is alive now,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: especially if everybody's gonna be healthy. I think that's it. Man,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: whoa okay, great, another great night of basketball. Man, we
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: are getting so spoiled, I tell you,