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on very late Friday night East Coast time recording this about 10 minutes after
the Denver nuggets behind the most consequential stretch.
Maybe of Jamal Murray's on court career, take a commanding three one lead in the
NBA finals with a 108 93 win over the heat.
They now go back to Denver with a chance to win at home.
The franchise is first NBA championship.
There are a lot of places we could go Kevin Pelton.
We could go to the heat committing like 75% as many turnovers in this game as
they had for the entire series.
We could go to Aaron Gordon and Bruce Brown combining for 48 points on 19 of
26 from the field Aaron Gordon kept the offense of float when you'll catch
sat in the second quarter made two threes and a crazy across the across his
body post up iso whatever you want to call it mid ranger and just dunked in
offense of rebounded his way into all these points and Bruce Brown.
Pay the man closed out to Miami heat with a couple of pick and roll buckets,
including an up and under against band that I'm not even sure how it went in.
But to me, Kevin of all those angles, we have to start with Nicola Yokic leaving
the game with the nuggets up nine after committing is up 10 rather after
committing his fifth foul.
The heat immediately go on a mini run.
Jimmy Butler plays a little bully ball against KCP and then Jamal Murray hits
an and one with 842 left to cut it to 86 81 and it felt like whoo.
How are they going to hold this together without Yokic Jeff Van Gundy on the
broadcast is basically like bring them back in bring them back in and then the
nuggets run my favorite play in their playbook.
Jamal Murray setting a back screen in the paint catapulting from that off of a
Yokic screen popping out for a three.
The heat miscommunicate justice.
He stopped the momentum in the second quarter of game three with a massive
three of the crowd roaring a huge three to get it back to 89 81.
Then he just sort of grinds and
manufactures a couple of other things, a pick and roll lob to Aaron Gordon that
ends up in a layup for Aaron Gordon.
An isolation against Duncan Robinson where he crosses him up and throws a bullet
to Jeff Green in the corner for a three.
How about old man Jeff Green and I thought that came about a minute after he
forced a shot against BAM or against Caleb Martin.
I think where he could have kicked it to KCP BAM battled and well on switches.
But Jamal Murray
really kept them alive and extended to lead not extended to lead kept the
lead about where it was for five minutes without Nicole Yokic.
It wasn't like other than that one three KP.
It wasn't like pretty.
It wasn't highlight stuff.
It wasn't consistent.
He got shut down on a couple switches by amazing defense from BAM who had a
chase down block for the ages early in the fourth quarter after a Christian
Brown steel, but it was enough.
It was gritty and it was tough and it was enough.
And you know, look, maybe most consequential stretch of his career is an
exaggeration given what that dude did in the bubble given what that dude has
done this entire playoff run.
But that was that was big, big, big time.
What did you think of that stretch if you want to start there?
Yeah, I mean, I don't take my notes written down like I think you do.
I put them in a word document.
So I wasn't able to necessarily like highlight and underline like five times
the moment when Yokic picked up that fifth foul and, you know,
they were up by 10 at that point with 920 left in the game.
And especially after Miami immediately cuts into five you figure,
are they even going to have the lead by the time they bring Yokic back in?
If they'd want to wait all the way for the five minute mark,
which is kind of the traditional coaches indicator of when to bring the guy
back in with five fouls and what it reminded me of different situations
because this came when a player had fouled out entirely and, you know,
very different players at different stages of their career.
But I thought of game three of the 2000 NBA finals when Shaq fouled out
in overtime on the road at Indiana and Kobe Bryant carries the Lakers down
the stretch is the guy who had like very clearly been the number two at that
point in his career to Shaq's number one.
He was still 21, I think, at that point.
And it was kind of a, you know, a moment of what was going to happen,
what was to come for Kobe.
And, you know, Jamal Murray's deeper into his career has accomplished a lot more
frankly in the playoffs than Kobe had by that point in his career.
But similar kind of I'm the guard who can take over even when our dominant MVP,
big man, is out of the game due to foul trouble.
Like I said, it wasn't the prettiest stretch.
It wasn't consistent.
A lot of it was marked by, by tough defense by the nuggets.
I think the highlighted that was KCP stripping butler in the post on a switch.
And they got a Jamal Murray to Bruce Brown run out another basket for Bruce Brown.
But it was just, you know what it was?
It was championship basketball.
That's how you win championships.
It's not always going to be pretty.
You're going to have to manufacture buckets.
You're going to have to make tough shots against the defense.
This is dialed in as, as Miami is.
And I thought, like this was it.
By the way, I got the final score wrong.
It was 108.95 now 108.93.
Sorry, he that short changed you by two points.
That means it's now plus 38 Denver for the series.
The nuggets offensive rating in this game was around 119 per 100 possessions
according to cleaning the glass, which is like an elite elite figure as it has
been for this entire series.
The heat just have not had a consistent answer for Denver's offense.
Nobody has nobody has.
And I don't remember where my train of thought was going with all of this, Kevin,
but you can take it where you want.
Well, yeah.
So at the end of that stretch, Yoke, Michael Bologna waits all the way
till the 420 mark to bring him back in.
And Miami ultimately shaved only one point off the lead from there.
And, you know, there was still time, potentially, for another Miracle Miami come back.
But ultimately, I don't think this game ever got to the point where it was one
of these clutch games that they have dominated throughout the playoffs.
It was never within five in the last five minutes, I don't think.
No, what I was going to say was, so Murray finishes five of 17, 15 points,
12 assists as the broadcast said he has 10 assists in all four games of the final.
So far, the first person to do that or some such thing.
Five of 17, not great, was two of six at the half.
So, you know, three of 11 after the half, but it felt better than that.
Yoke, a pedestrian, eight of 19 despite going three of seven on three.
And we'll talk about how he's shooting.
He clearly came in saying, if you're blitzing, Jamal Murray, one of the things we're going
to do is we're going to string it out to the side and you're going to hit me on the pop.
And I'm going to be ready to shoot.
And if they don't send the third guy flying at me,
I'm shooting.
And if they send the third guy flying at me, well, you damn know what I'm going to do.
I'm going to find the right open man and whether it's Bruce Brown or Jeff
Crater, Aaron Gordon, we're going to score.
But 23, 12, four assists only for Yoke.
Miss some bunnies in the post when they didn't send a lot of help.
As that stretch was going on by Jamal Murray, I thought of two things.
Number one, did he do enough in that stretch to make finals MVP a conversation?
I don't think that he did.
Despite the fact that he's been incredible this entire series.
And by the way, the nuggets were plus one in the first half with Yoke on the bench.
And so they were winning or saying even with the Yoke, it's the whole time.
That was thanks largely to Aaron Gordon.
I don't think Jamal Murray again, five of 17 did enough to make it a conversation.
Obviously, there's still a win to be had against the team that is not going to give you
a goddamn thing in the Miami Heat.
And the second thing I thought of was I'm not sure where we left off with the
who's the best guy never to make an all-star team conversation.
But it doesn't have to be Jamal Murray now because Mike Conley got one.
So like, who is it now ever?
Like, doesn't it after if they win the championship, doesn't it have to be him?
I mean, who am I forgetting anyone at this point?
Yeah, I mean, there's players who probably had better overall careers who never made it.
But in terms of the playoff impact, the fact that, you know, we, this is legend,
this is legend stuff.
We saw what Murray did in the bubble, which was also the stuff of legends.
And, you know, I think to agree, people wondered whether it was going to be a legend
in the sense that like, it couldn't be repeated.
But he's done it throughout this postseason.
And yeah, when you think of kind of the championship impact,
the historical metric that I like to use as championships added
and that accounts for playoff leverage.
And Jamal Murray has added a lot of championships,
shares of championships, let's say in 2020 and now in this season.
What did you think of, what did you think of the combined performance
of Butler and out of bio for Miami?
I mean, I thought that this was the, the Jimmy Butler that Miami needed to win this game.
And especially in that stretch right after Yoke, it went out when he was aggressively
attacking the basket.
I mean, 25 points on, on 17 shot attempts, four trips to the free throw line, seven assists.
Like that's generating enough offense to win.
Bam, kind of similar story to much of this series in terms of scoring points,
but not doing so efficiently.
And then the seven turnovers for him jumps out.
You mentioned that earlier, something we, we need to get to in terms of, you know,
Miami's turnover edge throughout this series being flipped on its head in this one,
which was a must for them.
They're a low turnover team in general and a high forcing turnover team.
A Denver has kind of been up and down as a turnover team.
And through three games, the heat had 23 turnovers,
which is just remarkable level of both ball protection and non aggression,
I guess, from the nuggets.
Although, I mean, they're like a swipey, handsy team.
I mean, I think it's more the heat work just really getting shots on goal.
Is there expulsion like say 23 through three games 15 tonight?
I see eight for BAM in the box score.
I thought Jimmy and BAM were just good and barring an outburst from the supporting cast
and the heat only made three eight threes tonight.
So there was no outburst three of them by Kevin love.
Two of them were bank shots, one by Kevin love and one of them by Kyle Lowry.
So six non banked three is the entire game.
Kyle Lowry, great minutes.
Good, barring that kind of outburst, good who is just not is just not going to be
enough against the nuggets.
It doesn't matter where the game is.
Miami or Denver and Jimmy like it.
Look, I we do this thing where this is the burden of being a superstar.
People are going to slam Jimmy for like not enough.
Where's playoff Jimmy?
Where's the guy scored 56 against Milwaukee?
25 seven and seven is a good game.
He got to the line nine times.
I did think for whatever reason is this series is going on.
He's looked much more comfortable being aggressive one on one.
Then he has in the pick and roll and he opened the second half of this game
with a transition opportunity against Yokech where he just kind of pulled up
and shot like a 13 foot jumper where I thought he just could have gone at the rim.
And then another play kind of just like that.
I thought to I don't remember what the other one was.
I think he had Jamal Mariana and I remember what I think it was just like another
short jumper.
He just didn't look aggressive attacking in the pick and roll.
And some of that is like I thought Denver's defense again was pretty locked
in tonight like minimal mistakes, good help decisions, good help and recover
like on the flight of the ball.
Their guys are coming back out.
And Yokech has been pretty damn good at the rim by his standard and by any
standard.
So I thought Jimmy and Bam were just good.
And you look at the start you look at the heat starting five three of their
the other three starters played fewer than 20 minutes.
It was kind of a desperation mode game for Miami and ways that we can talk about.
But just not quite enough.
Another non 100 point game for Miami.
You know, that's rare.
Yeah.
I mean, it was a concern that I think, you know, you had coming into this series.
The reason that Denver was the pick is is good as Miami has been is incredible
teams as they have beaten in this run.
They haven't faced in offense is good and rolling like this Denver team.
And were they just going to be able to score?
Enough points on a consistent basis to win.
And in game two when they knocked down the, what was it 16 three pointers?
That was it barely enough points to win the other three games.
It has not been.
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No zone defense tonight for the heat, which I thought was
indicative of how perilous it felt for them by the end of game three.
We did see a lot of blitz not a lot, but a fair number of blitzing and we saw
that Denver was ready for you know in the first half there was a blitz
where on Murray, Yoke, it's where they kicked it to KCP who kind of rose up
on the wing like here I am I'm the release valve in KCP then lobbed it to
Aaron Gordon for a dunk and then I think on the very next possession they blitzed
again and they brought that guy up on the wing again and tomorrow is like no
I'm cool. I'm going to just slip it to Nicola for a 4 on 3. He hit Michael
Porter Jr who still can I hit a 3 to save his life missed an open 3 and on
the very next possession after that they expected the blitz they lined up
the exact same way and the blitz didn't come, which I thought was a smart
like the heat tried to change things up as often as they could. There were
like some post ups on Yoke, which were they didn't send help and then
somewhere was like hard double team emergency rotations and I thought
they tried to keep them guessing and the nuggets for the most part just kind
of out guessed them we saw the heat play a couple different lineups that we had
seen the whole series up until this point we saw but we saw Martin love and
bam together for little stretches of the game with one time with Butler one
time with Struse we saw Lowry Vincent Robinson butler together with Butler at
the 4 which is a lineup we haven't seen much so they tried lots of
different things they played I think within appropriate desperation both
tactically and just effort wise I mean the effort was there. The nuggets were
just better and they've been better the whole series. Yeah the other thing we
saw is I mentioned on Twitter is that Eric's supposed to change the
rotations not to match BAM out of bios minutes with Nicola Yoke which is as
you've been talking about throughout the series but instead to make sure that
both BAM and Jimmy were on the court at the start of the second quarter when
Yoke it's rested I think they really wanted to like especially with a lead at
that point although you had to make the decision with Jimmy before you knew
that was going to happen to press that advantage and be up you know five or
six by the time Yoke it comes back instead Denver I think outscored them in
that stretch at least it was even I think they were like plus one in that so
was a big loss. The other thing I think going back to their blitzing you know
for all to talk about Yoke itches playmaking and letting him be a scorer in
game two get four assists tonight you know only I think one more than he had in
game two but Denver had 26 is a team on their 39 field goals and I think really
that the the blitzing the aggressive defense from Miami got the ball moving from
Denver and their ball movement was terrific throughout this I mean Murray
obviously the focal point as you talked about his fourth consecutive game with
double digits first player to start his finals career like that but six assists
from Aaron Gordon is also pretty impressive in its own right to go along with
his scoring. He's been awesome the entire series you wanted to talk about
Aaron Gordon I've written and talked I would say an unhealthy amount about Aaron
Gordon for like the last six years of his career I've always been fascinated by
him as a player I love the Nuggets acquisition of him the second that had
happened for reasons that have all borne out but you you you take the floor here
because this was the topic you really want to get to yeah I mean obviously a
lot of what you were fascinated by was his desire to play a certain way and you
know to talk about the Paul George comparisons and wanting to run pick and
roles and have the ball in his hands and you know I think everyone else
seen like no actually you're probably better suited to be a secondary player
and you know do a lot of the things that Raymond Green does and we kind of
envision that Norlando and one of the things that I've reflected on after the
trade to Denver is like actually it makes a lot of sense that he would think
this in Orlando like you look at the guys who are the focal points of that
offense it's Ivonne Fornier who is no longer playing for the Knicks it's Nicole
of Vouch Nikola Vouchovich who is the third option for a Chicago team that is
not actually all that good offensively despite its apparent offensive talent
like of course Aaron Gordon would look around to be like hey I should have the
ball in my hands I should be doing things and then you get to Denver and
granted Jamal Murray got injured shortly after he got there but you see Jamal
Murray after what he'd done in the bubble you see Nikola Vouch on his way to his
first MVP season it becomes a lot easier I think to understand that you're
gonna play a secondary role and that's one of those you know kind of finding
the the right spot or team fit things that maybe we don't always think about it
quite from that perspective what it means for a player embracing their role but
then the other thing about this that should be a lesson to everyone coming up
with skill sets like Aaron Gordon is you can be very successful it might not be
every night you're gonna score 27 points but it can happen because of the
fact that you're taking advantage of the attention that your teammates are
creating and he's not gonna get paid as much as he could because he signed the
extension right away after he got to Denver but you can make a lot of money and
you can have a lot of success with your team and then you can ultimately because
of that get a lot of credit if you embrace that kind of smaller role it sounds
hokey and maybe it's really just more about Yoke and playing with Yoke
than anything else but like sometimes a player just meets his basketball
destiny like this is the kind of place that Aaron Gordon needed to be to
fulfill the kind of player he could be defend the best guys run the floor lead
the break if you get a rebound set screens I don't think they've even used him
as a screener enough in this series considering he's got Kevin Love of him
on him a lot Jamal Murray got a floater early in the game on that make plays
in open space whether it's in transition or in the half court set screens for
Yoke catch cut offensive rebound like this this is the player he was meant to be
and what I would always write about him in Orlando and you're absolutely right
they put him in an ecosystem at his age when he was like yo why not me who am I
gonna turn to here really these other dudes like I'm better than them I was at
the fourth pick in the draft or whatever and I would always write if he just
embraced whatever his version of dream on green could be he's so good he will
just sort of walk in to 15 points eight rebounds and four assists and you might
not get for now playing all every game with Yoke and Murray but like that's how
good he is it that's just a day at the office without plays being run for you
really unless you count like I'm the screener and a pick and roll is a play
being run for me which I guess is should be the approach you have and it just
never worked and you got traded to Denver and I have talked a lot about what
those eight games that they played before Jamal Murray towards ACL meant meant to
my perception of their team I have said consistently that I was gonna pick
them to get out of the West and make the finals that year I you wanted to
talk about those games too I've talked about them enough including the
Clippers game which is a landmark game for me but you you tell me well the
concern I had that I never said publicly because I think it would have sounded
like concern trolling is you know 10 years from now are we still gonna be
talking about those eight games yes I will if they win the championship but but
like if from the standpoint of like man if they only could have gotten everybody
healthy at the same time we saw those eight games like what really could have
been like how the 2008 Celtics still haven't lost a playoff series when they're
healthy I was thinking about it like somebody thinking back on their high
school partner and like reflecting about like what could have been and just that
kind of wistful nostalgia for something because you didn't know that Michael
Porter Jr's surgery was gonna work that Jamal Murray was going to get back to
play at the same level that he and even a higher level now in the playoffs than
he played at beforehand and I am thrilled for the nuggets that everything
broke so that we finally got to see kind of the culmination the realization of
you know the seeds that were planted back after the trade I want to go
rewatch that Clippers game because it really I just remember vividly I wanted to
watch it it was I booked a market that day because it's like this Denver
team's Roland like they look scary they just beat the hell out of the Clippers
in the bubble the Clippers want revenge they're playing Kawaii they're playing
PG and we know that anytime the Clippers play Kawaii and PG like you have to
drop everything that's going on in your life and watch the game because it might
not happen again for two months and it was in staple slash crypto slash I still
crypto I don't know why we'll see for how long and and and the nuggets just beat
the living hell out of them the entire game and I mean that both in terms of
score and in terms of with AG were bigger and better than you and you do not
have an answer for us and we know and you know and they just blew the crap out
of them I remember watching that game being like I know this is just a regular
season game I know I shouldn't I know I shouldn't read too much into it it it
stood out to me as a statement by them and I thought back to that bubble series
tonight because by the end of that series the Clippers essentially had just
given up they had no answer for the Murray Oakich pick and roll it's unswitchable
it's undropable it's unblitzable like they have an answer for whatever scheme
you want particularly when Yokeich is shooting threes and by the end they just
sort of decided we're all gonna fall on the floor and give up and go home and
get out of the goddamn bubble we don't like it here and I thought of that
tonight because like like I said we the heat of cycle through pretty much
every answer and tonight Yokeich with his pick and pop jump shots and the
response that drew from Miami it felt like the bubble to me and in terms of
just we're out of answers they beat us every possible way and we don't we just
don't have an answer like there was a back-to-back I think there were
consecutive possessions in a third it was either I think it was a third quarter
where Yokeich hit a three when they when Murray strung out the blitz nobody
rotated to him is all right I'll shoot I'll shoot my little lazy three lazy and I
mean that in an affectionate way just takes a little while and it goes in when
he has time and on the very next position they ran it again and they switched
and immediately because I'm like well he's gonna shoot threes we got to switch
oh shoot Gabe Vincent's on him because the nuggets did something really smart
which is run Murray off a guard guard screen to get Butler off of him and get
Gabe Vincent on him okay well that's an emergency let's give the ball to
Yokeich Yokeich immediately turns at the nail starts dribbling into his
floater throws this like out and nowhere lob to Aaron Gordon on the back
line for a dunk because he sees Aaron Gordon's guy like not even stepping up
but like thinking about stepping up that's all I need done and it just like
what do you like there's the heat are working hard man they're working hard
they're a good defensive team and they just Yokeich didn't even shoot that
well from two Murray didn't shoot well from two and they're just picking him
apart picking him apart what about Bruce Brown what the hell the what kind of into
Bruce Brown I mean I love Bruce Brown Captain Luke Walton all stars like three
years ago this is just is just holy smokes was back in his old collegiate
stomping grounds you know where he he legitimately played point guard as
opposed to to just playing it in the spot minutes when Jamal Murray is out of
the game right now so you know exploring exploring that area the studio space a
little bit with his skill set I rewound the up and under against BAM that kind
of was a semi dagger I guess KCP's run out three was like the official dagger
and I'm like that was BAM out of bio he's just like I'm Bruce Brown I'm going
at you man I'm not afraid the series is not over and if the Miami Heat have
done anything in these playoffs and they've done a whole hell of a lot it's
they've earned the benefit of the doubt that they are never ever ever going to
stop playing and they do not care that the next game is in Denver and they
they've now got to win in Denver twice their mindset is gonna be we got to win a
game we win one game in Denver and suddenly we're coming home when that game
and suddenly all the pressures on Denver is this gonna be three one lead we know
three one leads are kind of a flashpoint did you see anything tonight or have
you seen have you had any ideas as the series is going on because this is now
again plus 38 over four games this is almost a double digit average win for
the nuggets now over four games the one game they lost Jamal Murray had a three
to tie it at the buzzer and they just flat played badly on defense for like 10 to
12 minutes of the game that's how close we could have been to a suite are you
are you do you have any ideas I mean it's interesting because one of the things
you wanted to you said earlier to go behind the scenes you wanted to talk
about if Miami was one one the game is sort of are there any takeaways from
this Miami run that other teams can use and I'm not sure that like just keep the
game close until the final five minutes and Spowe and Jimmy Butler and
company will figure something out and we'll win all these close games is really
a reproducible strategy for other teams and it might not be a reproducible
strategy for the heat in this series I mean we we've talked around it but
they they have to win the shot volume battle they actually won it in games one
in three in the games that they lost previously in the series and it was a
tie-in game to the one game that they did win where shot making was the biggest
factor but you look over the course of the playoffs as much as we talk about
shot making teams that have the advantage in terms of what all let's call true
shot attempts so you know shots on goal is actually probably not a good
descriptor of this because that makes it sound like free throws are bad because
they don't count as shots on goal but you really want those so it's shot attempts
and trips to the free throw line is what you want and teams that have to lead
over in shot volume by that definition over their opponents have won
about 60% of the time in the playoffs with Denver winning tonight Miami's 88
and 4 in the playoffs when they have the shot volume edge now three and five
without it so that's that's the thing that is I think more in their control
though one of the things they will have to do is find a counter for I mean the
way that Nicole Yokech is taking off BAM out of IO and trying to get in the
passing lanes whether it's kicks or deflections like that that was a huge
problem that was a huge factor in those eight turnovers according to NBA
dot com seven according to our box score at spn dot com for BAM
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Mary and the number one to get started I do think and I said this after game
three I do think the connectivity between the butler mismatch hunting
offense and the butler bam pick and roll offense and the shooters flying around
bam handoff offense the connection has not quite snapped but is just not a solid
and as as afraid afraid maybe it's afraid like they're at their best when they
flow from one into the other when Jimmy runs a pick and roll with bam and
Yoke it drops back and bam flies out and gets into a handoff with shruce or
Robinson and Yoke chest to sprint up and then the pocket pass to bam is there
and suddenly they're moving and I just feel like maybe it's the pressure of
playing from behind a lot maybe it's trying to keep the tempo slow maybe it's
trying to be careful with turnovers maybe it's just they're tired at this
hundred whatever games into the season I just feel like the connection from
those two subsets of offense hasn't been there and the snap and the verb in
their offense when it's rolling hasn't been there enough either and I don't
know how to tap in to tap more into that I mean they know how to do it they're in
the finals there's still just three wins from the title they need to they need
to find that kind of vigor and connectivity again or else I just don't think
they can get game five but knowing that you haven't watched all the film yet
back but he is shooters flying off of those out of bio screen or handoffs the best
way to take advantage of the fact that Yoke is giving him so much space when
out of bio has the ball at the elbow maybe I mean again we're recording this
right after the game like he said so I haven't gone back and watched it I like
when they flow from one into the other when they set who used Jimmy to set up
the other thing or but yeah maybe you just lean I mean it's hard to say lean
away from the guy who's got you this far in Jimmy Butler can you lean five
percent away from it maybe can you use him as a screener more somehow I mean
they've used them as a screener for on-ball picking roll stuff a lot and it's
been good and they've gotten a ton of switches I don't I don't it's too late at
night and too recent from game four for me to think too hard about this but I've
just felt like holistically the heat offense hasn't quite been where it needs
to be and like the results clearly haven't been what they need to be
especially against an offense as good as Denver's what other things should we
hit from this game only five offensive rebounds for the nuggets so the heat
took care of the glass 14 of 28 from three though I mean that's really that's
Denver shooting 50 percent from three that's the heat formula turnovers we
hit Duncan Robinson had a good game Kyle Lowry 13 points in the first half
zero in the second half Kevin Love played a nice
nice 18 minutes I thought Michael Porter 11 points scrounged his way to 11
points mostly on cuts most my favorite Michael Porter player the game and I've
been watching him carefully because I want is I've been like is he going to come
to life for like what's going on here they ran a play for him to curl around
and down off a yoke it's off ball screen he caught the ball and he could have
forced it could have forced like a two or he was like euros stepping all around
in the first half of the game kicked it back to yoke itch and then screened for him
in an inverted pick and roll faded to the right wing
and his yoke it's drove then back cut max screws for either a dunk or a layup I
can't remember I was like all right he's he like manufactured 11 points that's
not it's not nothing but it's all they needed with Aaron Gorton you get 48
points of Aaron Gorton and Bruce Brown what are we missing with Aaron Gorton it
made some threes any other kind of Aaron Gorton stuff that we didn't get
I mean just him continuing to take advantage of Miami's lack of size especially
in that stretch of the start of the second quarter when yoke it was resting and
they really ran their offense through him instead of Jamal Murray and
you know that was kind of the second extended stretch the start of game one being the
other where he has just bullied Miami's smaller defenders especially I think
you know they they get a little smaller in that second unit without love out there next to
at a bio so that's a that's a place that makes a lot of sense for Denver to attack now
we just may not see that in the fourth in game five because you know
bam and Jimmy played the entire second half of this one I'd expect we'll probably see
something very close to that again on Monday night because there's there's no
offseason left to save them for at this point if you don't win that one well part of the reason
they played the whole second half is we had the rim delay yeah bam broke the rim for a second
I mean not a second I think it was a seven minute delay it was also very funny because Denver
this season was crippled by a series of rim accidents like the Boston game was delayed by
like 45 minutes when they played there in Denver during the regular season so for it to happen
to the nuggets on the road was pretty amusing uh the NBA dot com just updated the stats for the
series um Denver's offensive rating is 118 now through four games which would have been second
only to the kings in the regular season uh and the it's 118 108.6 for the heat which would have
been I don't know if last but not far from last in the regular season um and now for the playoffs
KP I mean look the warriors with Durant just broke everything um to the point that you're like
or whether how do we even talk about this team that went 16 and one in a playoff season within
net rating of plus 9000 Denver is 15 and four in the playoffs 119.3 offensive rating which is
just basically all time great 111 defensive rating which this season what would that have gotten
you fifth sixth eighth something like that in that range like pretty damn good I don't I don't
have the energy to look it up right now plus 8.2 net rating for the entire postseason that is a
not quite elite but really really strong figure for a full playoffs um the next best team
in net rating in the playoffs is now the Boston Celtics plus 3.2 the heat are plus 2.2 so the
nuggets are five full points in net rating in the playoffs above anybody else they have been far
in a way the best team in the playoffs and if they win game five 16 and four like that's real
that's real stuff like if they go 16 and now again I everyone knows we all respect Miami that's
just the stakes now is like that 16 and four would would be a real strong stamp on a real strong
season a guy and a season in which we spent a whole year talking about well there's no great team
there's no great team there's no great team and in the regular season there wasn't this is a great
team playoff run and I can already hear it I can already hear how many play in teams did they be
in the playoffs I just what do you think of that because you've heard it surely people taking
these subtle jabs of like well they'd be at the seventh seed and then another seventh seed and
now they're playing on eighth seed and I mean for me it's someone handling this statistically like
it makes it a lot more challenging because you know not the nuggets specifically but just the fact
that the regular how good a team is in the regular season is no longer is good an indicator
of how they're good they're going to be in the playoffs as it used to be so the fact that the
lakers and the heat probably the tempo will still fall into this category but the fact that they
were very good in the regular season doesn't mean that they were necessarily easy opponents
for you know Denver in the playoffs because they were playing a different version of those teams
a Miami team that had knocked out you know the top two teams in the NBA during the regular season
a lakers team that had been dramatically better after they remade themselves of the trade deadline
so I think you know kind of my subjective assessment of the competition the nuggets have faced is
a lot stronger than my objective competition I will say I think there's enough room for the
nuggets to have had a great playoff run and to have you know caught some breaks along the way
that they didn't face the very most difficult opponents that they possibly could have both of
those things can be true and that's the kind of nuance that sometimes gets crowded out of these
arguments and we maybe you know push too far the other direction in terms of overstating how
little opponents matter to counter this idea that oh they had an easy path to the title because
this wasn't an easy path to the title and no path to the title is ever easy.
Well no there's no there's no such thing as an easy path to the title as evidenced by you know
injuries happening every year including Yannisetsu Takupo right away in the box the box seat series
in the first round you know you just look back at it it's like okay so they're the number one
seed the first round is supposed it is by definition a play in team like it's not going to be a great
team and they beat Minnesota for one second round they faced the team that everybody was trying to
duck in the first round that everyone people thought well the clippers should adopt them the
sons with KD and Booker and CP were Vegas favorites I believe over Denver so I don't really I mean
like that I picked them I know I think did you as well that picked the sons I did I picked the
sons in seven because I got spooked by the last month of Denver's you know regular season where
they just will look totally checked out and then it's like well okay so was Phoenix the best possible
team they could have faced in the Western conference you know with the rant I mean where they
better than Memphis now Memphis was missing two big guys Brandon Clark and Steve Adams so probably
Sacramento the clippers Paul George got her right away I would have loved to see them play the
warriors even though I don't think the warriors necessarily were you know in all time great team
or anything this year's is their series against the Lakers conclusively prove I I think just that
would have been the most interesting matchup and maybe test of the nuggets especially after those two
teams played with Denver shorthanded in last year's first round but yeah I don't think it was necessarily
like a huge break to play the Lakers instead of the warriors from an overall ability standpoint
no and the Lakers I mean look yes fans minutes a lot of time talking about the Lakers I don't
think that's a secret and the Lakers became a legitimately really good team over the last 30
games of the season once they remade their roster and a lot of that talk on the ESPN family of
networks was framed around questions like can the Lakers win the championship what would be a
successful postseason run for the Lakers what would a fifth ring mean for the legacy of LeBron James
um is Anthony Davis back to his dominant MVP form like there were my point was there wasn't a lot
of underselling the threat of the Lakers until the Lakers were rendered no longer a threat by the
Denver nuggets in a sweep if you want to tell me like oh they just eat this thing out against the
Lakers and that's not a great showing no they swept them 40 to two wins on the road game three was
pretty convincing game four was a gut check close win and then the heat like what are they supposed
to do apologize for the fact that the heat beat the Celtics and the bucks and in the next in the
play like what what could they do it like I think the heat is the one where you just are like you
anticipate this juggernaut clash of the in the finals and the heat were not a juggernaut they
clearly were much better than what they showed in the regular season so they're hard to parse but
look this is just life the this is the path that the nuggets have gotten I think it's pretty solid
overall I think their western conference path is probably pretty typical difficulty level I mean
the Lakers were that were the seventh seed they were like three games out of the fourth seed it's
not like they were a distant seventh seed um the other thing is if you start talking about the
the the players they faced like if you if you phrase it as they went through Durant and Booker
LeBron and AD and then Jimmy and Bam in the finals like that that sounds a little different than
three play-in teams well they're not through them yet but I'm just saying like this is kind of
objectively a pretty impressive playoff run for the nuggets so far um and they have a chance to
finish it at home on Monday I will be in the building for that I'm going to Denver on Sunday
um and I'll have to drag someone if they win from Denver onto the podcast because I mean what
what a moment for the nuggets game five is going to be just did not win or lose like the Denver
nuggets this sort of you know well they put up a hundred million points in the 80s and they never
won very much I mean they were pretty good for part of the 80s and then they just sort of
farted around for a while then they peek a little bit during the mellow era they have a random
George Carl like they're the third seed with Iguodala and all that but just never never a team
that seemed to capture the imagination of their city and their market never a team that was in the
real high-level discussions in the Western conference really hardly ever conference finals in 2009
obviously a couple in-bounce passes go a different way they might be in the finals um
it's a it's a big deal for this franchise obviously that they're going to be playing for a title at
home for sure I mean I feel like Denver maybe not as much so as Phoenix which is another team that
has not won a championship and and probably had even more success than Denver but like a lot of what
uh Bill Simmons would call critically acclaimed teams like those those uh post mellow teams were
incredibly fun to watch uh it really interesting from an analytical standpoint but you also never
kind of felt that they really were going to make a serious playoff run and that kind of describes
a lot of you know probably the Doug Moe teams as well before my time obviously but uh you know since
the late 70s and they were losing to the sonics my beloved sonics in the Western conference finals
in 78 was you know other than the 2009 appearance the the last time you really took them seriously
as a championship contender well on the sons have had you know multiple finals appearances including
Kana and iconic 93 finals against Michael and the bulls and those Charles against Michael and
greatest game ever played in 76 and the finals against the Celtics the triple triple over time
or quadruple over time I think triple um uh Paul Westfall that that whole group and
they just feel more central to their city than the nuggets ever have with the Broncos and the
Avalanche and the Rockies I know those are relatively new teams but they immediately enjoyed like
high high level success um and you know the nuggets are like what am I one of my good buddies from
from living in the city now it grew up in Denver now lives back in Denver he's a lifelong
nuggets fan and just like he's been waiting for this his entire life and he's been waiting to share
it with other people who cared about the team as much as as much as he does and there's
thousands of people like that who are like yeah all my buddies are Broncos fans and they kind of
follow the nuggets like they're aware that they have this yogic guy or like it's cool that mellows
here but they know they're not like watching the games well now they've risen to that level it's
it's a cool thing but the heat are gonna fight like all hell to make to bring the series back to my
I mean wouldn't shock me if they did the heat of shocked us all the whole playoffs any parting
thoughts yeah I mean I think you know you and I were both you what you've articulated about your
pick for the series about thinking it it had a pretty good shot to be Denver in five but my
I mean Denver in six out of respect to Miami is about where I was with my pick and we'll see if
they can you know make it at least six yeah my official pick was Denver in six flirted with Denver in
five never never thought about picking Miami honestly like I was it was it was going to be a pretty
clear even before I went and dove into the film I was pretty strongly in Denver well they got a shot
to wrap it up any any parting thoughts on this particular game I feel like we've now gone away from
what actually happened tonight feels like it ended four hours ago it does yes I you you said it but
I wanted to rejoin offer rejoinder like kudos to Michael Porter Jr. I don't know if a couple
of years ago if Michael Porter Jr. is going through a shooting slump like this like he's gonna
continue to cut and and play hard defensively and do those things and contribute and stay on the
court and deserve to stay on the court even when he's not making shots can someone get Michael
malone some tea with lemon in it I mean I love that the voice just by the third quarter huddle
we did not miss the events of the air right here wow that's where we are it's 12 15 a.m. I'm a little
punchy Kevin it's only nine 15 p.m. where you are you're living the life out there yeah might
I just still young I still got Seattle Storm post game media to do here all right go do that thank
you Kevin pelton we'll see we'll we'll I'll see you guys I'll see everybody after game five we're
whenever and wherever and however that goes thank you k.p. thanks for having me
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