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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to Hoops tonight. You're at the volume
Speaker 1: heavy Wednesday. Everybody, hope all you guys are having a
Speaker 1: great week. We're continuing our series previews today with the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Clippers versus the Denver Nuggets. We're gonna do
Speaker 1: the same format we've been doing throughout this series. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do our season series stuff off top the odds
Speaker 1: in terms of gambling, Denver on offense, the Clippers on offense,
Speaker 1: the swing factors I see playing a role in this series,
Speaker 1: and then finally at the end, my pick. You guys
Speaker 1: know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the
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Speaker 1: It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and
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Speaker 1: we can get to them in our mail bags throughout
Speaker 1: the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So Clippers and Nuggets split the season series to two.
Speaker 1: Not really much there in terms of useful information. Quiet
Speaker 1: didn't play a single game. Nicole Yoaka's missed a game,
Speaker 1: Gordon missed a games. Just a lot of different players
Speaker 1: playing for both teams. I see that a lot in
Speaker 1: these series previews, which is unfortunate. You end up digging
Speaker 1: into like different weird parts of the film to try
Speaker 1: to find useful information, like oh, what does it look
Speaker 1: like when this guy guards this guy or vice versa.
Speaker 1: But there's not a lot of really solid data for
Speaker 1: some of these playoff matchups, just because of the way
Speaker 1: the NBA regular season works with load management, injuries and
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. Gambling odds Denver opened as
Speaker 1: a minus one to sixty five favorite, which, as I
Speaker 1: talked about on Monday, I was super surprised by. Regardless
Speaker 1: of who you actually think will win the series, the
Speaker 1: Clippers have just been playing much, much better basketball for
Speaker 1: a long time. The Clippers finished the season series finished
Speaker 1: the season eighteen and three, and I'd argue They're win
Speaker 1: on the road in Golden State was the most impressive
Speaker 1: win I've seen a team get, given the uh, the
Speaker 1: stakes and everything involved over the course that last third
Speaker 1: of the season. That was a super impressive win against
Speaker 1: a very good Warriors team and a must win game.
Speaker 1: They're playing great basketball. The Nuggets finished the season eleven
Speaker 1: and ten, and then they just fired their coach in
Speaker 1: the middle of the home stretch. Now, to their credit,
Speaker 1: they've looked a little better in the last couple games
Speaker 1: of the season. Had a pretty impressive win on the
Speaker 1: road in Sacramento, Sacramento Kings team that's been pretty feisty.
Speaker 1: They looked a little better on defense, but very small
Speaker 1: sample size there. It's hard to say the Clippers have
Speaker 1: been playing better, so I would have made them a
Speaker 1: slight favorite. People seem to agree. The betting line has
Speaker 1: moved quite a bit. That line has moved all the
Speaker 1: way down to minus one thirty five for Denver as
Speaker 1: the favorite on Draft Kings. And again, once again, all
Speaker 1: of our odds are provided by Draft Kings on Denver's
Speaker 1: side of the floor when Denver's on offense. The matchups
Speaker 1: I expect to see, We'll see Kristin and Jamal Murray,
Speaker 1: We'll see Zubats on Jokich, and we'll see Kawhi on
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon. Those are the obvious ones. I think it
Speaker 1: gets a little trickier after that, with Norman Powell and
Speaker 1: James Harden for Michael Porter Junior and Christian Brown. Christian Brown.
Speaker 1: Excuse me. Both guys can cause problem in different ways. Obviously,
Speaker 1: MPJ is more of like a spot up player and
Speaker 1: Christian Brown is more of like a slasher. Right. I
Speaker 1: would go to Norman Powell on Michael Porter Junior because
Speaker 1: I think Norman Powell's pretty solid at lock and trail
Speaker 1: stuff most shooters are. Most shooters are also the best
Speaker 1: at defending shooters just because they know their tendencies pretty well. Powell,
Speaker 1: I would have him lock and trail on MPJ with
Speaker 1: Harden on Brown. Brown does most of his work going
Speaker 1: towards the rim, and that way Harden can kind of
Speaker 1: camp around and the paint uses size a little bit more.
Speaker 1: It's worth mentioning Harden did have some really rough off
Speaker 1: ball defense sequences at the end of the Warriors game.
Speaker 1: You guys, remember when Gary Payton got blocked at the rim.
Speaker 1: It was on a play right down there in the
Speaker 1: final few minutes of the game. It was on a
Speaker 1: play where Harden just wasn't paying attention and lost Gary
Speaker 1: Payton on a cut he himself miraculously recovered. But there
Speaker 1: was another play where he lost Steph Curry and Steff
Speaker 1: relocated up to the top of the Key and got
Speaker 1: a wide open three, and I think it was either
Speaker 1: Harden or someone else ended up having a run out
Speaker 1: as base and ended up fouling Steph So Harden can
Speaker 1: still be a little bit of a space case off
Speaker 1: the ball, and Christian Brown can do some damage there,
Speaker 1: but I think setting the matchups up like that, you
Speaker 1: get a little less damage on both fronts. Jokic post ups.
Speaker 1: Jokic didn't go down to the post much against the
Speaker 1: Clippers this year. In the three games that Jokic played
Speaker 1: against the Clippers himself, he posted just eleven times. For perspective,
Speaker 1: do you guys remember when the Spurs and the Nuggets
Speaker 1: had that back to back where they split the series
Speaker 1: on each other's home floor. In those two games, Jokic
Speaker 1: posted twenty five times, So that goes to show you
Speaker 1: just the difference in how much he's posting based on
Speaker 1: the matchup. And the reason is Zubots. Zubats is one
Speaker 1: of the few players in the league that is nearly
Speaker 1: as big and strong as Jokiic. Jokic still does have
Speaker 1: a size advantage there, just not much of one, so
Speaker 1: he has to rely on more tough shot making. Out
Speaker 1: of those eleven post ups that Nikola Jokic logged against
Speaker 1: the Clippers this year. Six of them were direct one
Speaker 1: on one post ups with Zoo. In those six post ups,
Speaker 1: he took three kind of difficult jump shots, a couple
Speaker 1: face ups and then the somber shelf will kind of
Speaker 1: turn it over his left shoulder, and then three hook shots.
Speaker 1: He went one for six on those shots and didn't
Speaker 1: draw a single foul. Of the three hook shots that
Speaker 1: he missed, he missed all three of them. One of
Speaker 1: them was kind of a tough, sweeping left handed hook
Speaker 1: that Zoo defended really well. Another one was kind of
Speaker 1: like a contact hook that Zoo defended really well. But
Speaker 1: there was a third one that Jokic got right to
Speaker 1: the front of the ram over his left shoulder, and
Speaker 1: he just smoked a very easy layup and a couple
Speaker 1: of the face up jumpers. He looked pretty comfortable. So
Speaker 1: I think that even though Jokic went one for six
Speaker 1: again Zoo in the regular season, in the post I
Speaker 1: do think Zoo. I do think Jokic can have some
Speaker 1: success there. I just don't think it's gonna be something
Speaker 1: he's gonna do a ton. I think we'll see it
Speaker 1: in rescue situation, so like late shot clock, maybe something
Speaker 1: crunch time. I just don't think we'll see it like
Speaker 1: a super high volume of Yokic post ups agains zubots,
Speaker 1: just because he doesn't have as much of an advantage
Speaker 1: there as he does in other matchups. I do think
Speaker 1: we'll see over the course of the series a dozen
Speaker 1: or so Jokic post ups against Smalls in like transition
Speaker 1: cross matches, pick and roll switches, stuff like that. Jokic
Speaker 1: in the post will play a role in the series,
Speaker 1: just less so than it would in other matchups. Over
Speaker 1: the course of the season. Jokic's work in this matchup
Speaker 1: has been super diversified. Some pick and roll as the handler,
Speaker 1: some pick and roll as the screener, a little bit
Speaker 1: of posting mismatches, a lot of three point attempts he's
Speaker 1: taken seven threes per game against the Clippers this year,
Speaker 1: a lot of spot ups to sixteen spot up possessions
Speaker 1: that he locks. So he's doing a lot of work
Speaker 1: where others are working, and he's just sitting out at
Speaker 1: the three point line capitalizing on Zoo sinking down into
Speaker 1: the paint. Lots of pick and pop stuff as well.
Speaker 1: That's really high three point volume for Jokic seven per game,
Speaker 1: also shot over fifty percent on those threes against the
Speaker 1: Clippers the two man game. Now, as we know, the
Speaker 1: Clippers are going to have forty eight minutes of top
Speaker 1: tier perimeter defender to put on Jamal Murray or Russell Westbrook,
Speaker 1: Julian Strather, whoever it is. I think we'll see a little.
Speaker 1: I think we'll see a lot less Julian Strather than
Speaker 1: we did in the regular season, just because James Harden
Speaker 1: hunted him relentlessly in this matchup and to great effect.
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure how much we'll see Strawther, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna see a lot of Jamal Murray obviously, We're
Speaker 1: gonna see a lot Russell Westbrook, and you're gonna see
Speaker 1: a lot of Derek Jones and Chris Dunn on those guys.
Speaker 1: Jamal held up pretty well in terms of efficiency. He
Speaker 1: was good for twenty points a game in the matchup,
Speaker 1: over fifty percent from the field, over fifty percent from
Speaker 1: three no high volume nights. Though his season high in
Speaker 1: this matchup was twenty two points. It's not like he
Speaker 1: was getting off in any of the matchups. They absolutely
Speaker 1: can get the ball to Jokic, though in the pocket
Speaker 1: in pick and roll he's drawing a crowd there. He
Speaker 1: was playmaking out of that a lot in this matchup
Speaker 1: this year. The Nuggets did a lot of damage to
Speaker 1: the Clippers on cuts, on spot ups, just various things
Speaker 1: out of pick and roll from the attention devoted towards
Speaker 1: Murray and Jokic. The transition battle will be huge here too.
Speaker 1: The Clippers gave up twenty three points per game just
Speaker 1: in fast break points against the Nuggets this year. So
Speaker 1: the keys for Denver on this side of the floor
Speaker 1: they need to run out in transition as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Get Christian Brown in the open floor of a hard
Speaker 1: and can't handle him. Get Jokic as many transition cross
Speaker 1: matches as possible. Get Jamal Murray freed up from the
Speaker 1: ball pressure that he could potentially face from Chris Dunn
Speaker 1: and Derek Jones Junior. That's what you can accomplish by
Speaker 1: getting out in transition. Supporting scoring is going to be huge.
Speaker 1: Denver's defense isn't very good. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: it in a minute. So this is going to have
Speaker 1: to be a series where the Nuggets log a you know,
Speaker 1: one to twenty seven type of offensive rating. And the
Speaker 1: only way they're going to do that is if they
Speaker 1: get reliable supporting scoring from Jamal Or, from Aaron Gordon,
Speaker 1: from Michael Porter Junior, from Russell Westbrook. Right, these guys
Speaker 1: are all gonna need to score consistently. And by the way,
Speaker 1: Clippers fans, watch out for Aaron Gordon. This is not
Speaker 1: the same Aaron Gordon. You remember, he's shooting forty seven
Speaker 1: percent from three on over four attempts per game since
Speaker 1: early February. He's just a good shooter. Now. You can
Speaker 1: see it in the form you could see it in
Speaker 1: like his confidence. He's taken him in crunch time. He's
Speaker 1: taken lots of them. He built a gym at his
Speaker 1: house and put in all the work and now he's
Speaker 1: just a good shooter. So that's something that you have
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on in terms of like gapping
Speaker 1: off of guys and letting them shoot. Letting Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: shoot will backfire. It's gonna have to be someone else
Speaker 1: in that situation. Managing Russell Westbrook's decision making is going
Speaker 1: to be key. David Adlman is done a nice job
Speaker 1: in the early part of his tenure here of managing
Speaker 1: Russ's minutes based on where he's at mentally in a game. Russ,
Speaker 1: as we know, has the potential to do a lot
Speaker 1: of damage to his own team period of time. But
Speaker 1: Russ is also one of the most devastating playoff athletes
Speaker 1: I've ever seen, and even in this late phase of
Speaker 1: his career, he can be a profoundly impactful athlete in
Speaker 1: the playoffs when the physicality ramps up, when the intensity
Speaker 1: ramps up, as long as his role is smaller. Right
Speaker 1: two years ago with the Clippers in the first round
Speaker 1: series against the Suns, before Kawhi got hurt, Russ didn't
Speaker 1: have much of an offensive role and he was just
Speaker 1: deployed as like this perimeter defender on Devin Booker, and
Speaker 1: he was devastating. I think he'll get reps on Kawhi.
Speaker 1: I think he'll get reps on James Harden, and I
Speaker 1: think he'll look really, really good in those reps. But
Speaker 1: he'll have to win, Like David Adaman, will have to
Speaker 1: weigh all of that with how he's kind of like
Speaker 1: managing the game offensively to see what makes the most sense.
Speaker 1: I do think we'll see more of Russ than Jalen
Speaker 1: Pickett in this series, just because young players in general
Speaker 1: can have a little bit of like a of an
Speaker 1: adjustment period when it gets to the postseason. Jalen Pickett
Speaker 1: is a smart basketball player. He's a control basketball player.
Speaker 1: Among young basketball players that I've watched, he's pretty mature.
Speaker 1: But playoffs are a different animal. That's another swing factor here.
Speaker 1: What are you getting out of Jalen Pickett in Russell Westbrook?
Speaker 1: Are you getting a reliable performance out of one of
Speaker 1: those two guys keys for the Clippers. Pressure the hell
Speaker 1: out of Jamal Murray with physicality all the time at
Speaker 1: every point in the series. He's just coming back from
Speaker 1: an injury. He's a little bit out of rhythm. If
Speaker 1: you can do some damage to Murray, if you can
Speaker 1: cut that part of the offense out, you could put
Speaker 1: this offense in a really, really precarious situation. Stay out
Speaker 1: of transition as much as possible. That means good shots, selection,
Speaker 1: no turnovers, and sprint the hell back. Don't get yourself
Speaker 1: caught playing in a track meet with Denver because they'll
Speaker 1: beat you there. Swarm Denver's better offensive players, and tilt
Speaker 1: your rotations towards allowing threes for guys like Christian Brown,
Speaker 1: Jalen Pickett, in Russell Westbrook. Those guys can and will
Speaker 1: hit shots this season or in this series. I mean,
Speaker 1: but they can also go very cold, and you can
Speaker 1: gain some ground in stretches when they go cold. That's
Speaker 1: where you need to tilt the offense. If you let
Speaker 1: those guys, if you let everyone else play comfortable at
Speaker 1: the expense of taking away those shots, that's where you
Speaker 1: can really get torched. Moving to the Clippers on offense,
Speaker 1: the matchups I expect that we'll see. I think we'll
Speaker 1: see Yokich on Zubots obviously, Christian Brown on James Harden.
Speaker 1: I think we'll see Aaron Gordon on Kawhi, Michael Porter
Speaker 1: Junior on Norm Powell, and Jamal Murray on Chris Stunn.
Speaker 1: I'm really nervous about the Nuggets on this side of
Speaker 1: the floor. Post All Star Break, the Nuggets have been
Speaker 1: the twenty third best defense in the league. They have
Speaker 1: a one eighteen defensive rating, and they've been bad at
Speaker 1: every level of their defense. They've been bad at the
Speaker 1: point of attack. Jokic has been bad and is at
Speaker 1: the level coverages, and their backside rotations have been bad.
Speaker 1: I also think it's just a tough matchup for Denver's
Speaker 1: defense in general. The only like really favorable natural matchup
Speaker 1: for them is Jokic on Zoo as like a post
Speaker 1: up and rebounding threat. But even then that could get
Speaker 1: tricky in pick and roll. When Jokic has to go
Speaker 1: up to the level and Zoo gets behind him, then
Speaker 1: he's got inside position and he can do some damage there.
Speaker 1: So let's start with the pick and roll part of it.
Speaker 1: In Norman Powell screening actions and James Harden screening actions,
Speaker 1: they're going to bring Yokic up to the level. Both
Speaker 1: of them are way too good as pull up shooters,
Speaker 1: and that's just kind of Denver's base playoff coverage anyway,
Speaker 1: the other guy is going to be off the ball
Speaker 1: in that situation. Ironically, in the November thirtieth game that
Speaker 1: I was watching earlier this morning, there was a sequence
Speaker 1: in the second half where the Clippers generated multiple consecutive
Speaker 1: wide open threes for James Harden by running Norman Powell
Speaker 1: screening actions on the opposite side, two on the ball,
Speaker 1: drop to Zoo, four on three. James Harden's wide open
Speaker 1: on the wing hit them both, Like, there's going to
Speaker 1: be easy opportunities for the Clippers to generate those four
Speaker 1: on threes by having Norman Powell or James Harden coming
Speaker 1: off of those screening actions. A lot of it is
Speaker 1: going to be about setting up the sequencing, setting up
Speaker 1: the spacing to make it more difficult for the Nuggets.
Speaker 1: Like you want to have Zoo rolling into the middle,
Speaker 1: which means you need to run those ball screens towards
Speaker 1: the sideline. So having Norman Power James Harden and let's
Speaker 1: say he's on the left side, you want to almost
Speaker 1: screen him towards the sideline because if you screen him
Speaker 1: towards the sideline and Yokic steps up, Zoo's rolling right
Speaker 1: to the elbow, and when he rolls to the elbow,
Speaker 1: it's an easy little pass there. And as he turns,
Speaker 1: it's a two to on one because the guy who
Speaker 1: comes up and tags Zoo is the guy that's coming
Speaker 1: off of the corner and the guy who's guarding the
Speaker 1: wing is dropping to the corner or playing in between
Speaker 1: those two, and Zoo can then make a pass, fake,
Speaker 1: or do whatever he needs to do to read that
Speaker 1: two on one to create that passing angle when they
Speaker 1: set up their spacing and they're sequencing properly, those catches
Speaker 1: in the middle of the floor for Zoo were getting
Speaker 1: them great shots. And again, like we talked about, Zoo
Speaker 1: had twelve offensive rebounds in just the games against Denver
Speaker 1: this year, So there is an opportunity there for him
Speaker 1: when he gets behind Jokic in those ball screens as
Speaker 1: Jokic goes up to the level for them to do
Speaker 1: some damage. Also, we talked about James Harden getting those
Speaker 1: catch and shoots. Norman Powell is a very very good
Speaker 1: closeout attacker. You guys saw that at the end of
Speaker 1: the Warriors game, right close out attack off of the
Speaker 1: left wing where he got a scooping layup in the middle,
Speaker 1: and then another one out of the left corner where
Speaker 1: he got the reverse layup. That was all off of
Speaker 1: attention drawn on the strong side. Those hardened ball screens
Speaker 1: that draw that extra defender are going to get a
Speaker 1: lot of opportunities for Norman Powell to attack from the
Speaker 1: weak side. Also in ball screens, different kind guard guard
Speaker 1: ball ball screens, James Harden will do a lot of
Speaker 1: matchup hunting here. He talked earlier about how he did
Speaker 1: a ton of it against Julian Strawther, but he also
Speaker 1: did a lot of it against Jamal Murray in this matchup,
Speaker 1: setting up his ISOs getting into a step back three driving,
Speaker 1: getting to the foul line. That's another thing that the
Speaker 1: Clippers are going to be able to go to in
Speaker 1: the half court that I think they will have some
Speaker 1: success with Aaron Gordon on Kawhi Leonard. This is a
Speaker 1: natural matchup in terms of the one on one Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon is actually one of the better defenders I've seen
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference, specifically at guarding the power, you know,
Speaker 1: size oriented wings in the league, So like Lebron you know, Cole,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, you know, like even against guys inn Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference like Jason Tatum or a you know, a Pala Bancaro,
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Like Aaron Gordon is a very
Speaker 1: good matchup for that type of player. But the issue
Speaker 1: that you have with Denver is Michael Porter Juniors having
Speaker 1: one of his worst defensive seasons post All Star Break.
Speaker 1: The Nuggets have almost a one to twenty one defensive
Speaker 1: rating with Michael Porter Junior on the floor. If you
Speaker 1: put Aaron Gordon as the guy who's guarding Kawhi out
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. Kawhi, who's just been Robot Kawhi, the
Speaker 1: Kawhi that we have grown to recognize as one of
Speaker 1: the most devastating playoff players in the league when he's healthy.
Speaker 1: That pulls Aaron Gordon away from the low man situations
Speaker 1: that he can be more impactful. Other than Peyton Watson,
Speaker 1: I'd argue, I'd argue, Aaron Gordon is your best lowman defender,
Speaker 1: so pulling him out to deal with Kawhi just could
Speaker 1: leave them in some precarious situations where it's like just
Speaker 1: Michael Porter Junior on the back line where he's been
Speaker 1: an issue. And there's also a little bit of a
Speaker 1: quickness thing that's starting to show up with Kawhi, where
Speaker 1: he's starting to get separation just ripping through and driving
Speaker 1: on these guys. And again, Aaron Gordon is a little
Speaker 1: bit better equipped to deal with some of the power
Speaker 1: stuff that Kawi does because he's big and strong and
Speaker 1: also has size on Kawhi. But there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a quickness advantage there for Kawhi that wasn't showing
Speaker 1: like a month ago, but now is really starting to
Speaker 1: show and I think that that's something that could swing
Speaker 1: the series if Kawhi just proved to be too fast
Speaker 1: for a guy like Aaron Gordon. I do think we'll
Speaker 1: see some Christian Brown here. I do think we'll see
Speaker 1: some Russell Westbrook here as well. But you know, Kawi
Speaker 1: is just in one of those zones right now, and
Speaker 1: it might not matter who's on him. Keys for Denver.
Speaker 1: Denver's pick and roll defense, like they just that, it's
Speaker 1: all three levels, right, have to do a better job
Speaker 1: of pressuring the ball. Then when the ball gets into
Speaker 1: the ball screen, Jokic has to do a better job
Speaker 1: of pressuring the ball on his side of the ball screen,
Speaker 1: on his side of the bracket, getting his hands up,
Speaker 1: being active, making those passes go through tough windows, deflections,
Speaker 1: having to throw them looping over the top, stuff that
Speaker 1: makes your rotations easier. And then obviously that third piece
Speaker 1: of it is those backside rotations. They have to be
Speaker 1: sharp in this series testing other defenders on Kawhi. We
Speaker 1: talked about Aaron Gordon as your second best back line defender.
Speaker 1: If you can find a different defender that can do
Speaker 1: a decent job on Kawhi, Leonard, then you can keep
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon on the back line, which raises the floor
Speaker 1: of your defense considerably, playing more defensive personnel and counting
Speaker 1: on Jokic to raise the offense. This is something that
Speaker 1: I would think of as a big picture goal for
Speaker 1: the Nuggets in terms of roster building after this season.
Speaker 1: But like if Michael Porter Junior isn't in the game, mentally,
Speaker 1: more Peyton Watson, play Peyton next to Aaron Gordon, lean
Speaker 1: into your defensive personnel, and count on the fact that
Speaker 1: Nikole Jokic can generate those guys easier opportunities on the
Speaker 1: other ends of the floor. Keys for the Clippers, I
Speaker 1: would lean a lot more on James Harden than I
Speaker 1: would on Kawhi Leonard in this series. The nuggets Achilles
Speaker 1: heel is their pick and roll defense, and Kawhi will
Speaker 1: get to play a lot in the get to be aggressive,
Speaker 1: a lot in the opportunities where James Harden's off the floor,
Speaker 1: in second side opportunities, when the Nuggets do defend a
Speaker 1: Harden pick and roll well, in crunch time, that sort
Speaker 1: of stuff. He's gonna have his opportunities. But I like
Speaker 1: the idea of James Harden and him getting two to
Speaker 1: the ball as a foundational concept for the Clippers to
Speaker 1: play with an advantage in the entire series. I'd lean
Speaker 1: on a lot of James Harden pick and roll in
Speaker 1: this series. Norman Pallin but bog Don mcdonovich supporting scoring.
Speaker 1: Denver is very good offense. They will score quite a
Speaker 1: bit in the series. Even when the Clippers do everything right,
Speaker 1: it will turn into a shootout at points. The shot
Speaker 1: making of Norman Powell and bog Don mcdonovitch will be
Speaker 1: really really important for the Clippers in this series. And
Speaker 1: then Chris Dunn and Dereck Jones junior hitting spot up threes.
Speaker 1: Chris Dunn went three for three against the Warriors. That
Speaker 1: was a huge part of that game, played really well
Speaker 1: out of some double teams of Kawhi Enard late. If
Speaker 1: you tilt things towards Chris Dunn and he misses, that
Speaker 1: could be a big swing factor in this series as well.
Speaker 1: And so as we look at the swing factors for
Speaker 1: both teams, the play of Russell Westbrook, just because he
Speaker 1: has such a high ceiling and such a high floor
Speaker 1: which direction that tilts, could play a huge role. The
Speaker 1: Nuggets young guys like how much do you get out
Speaker 1: of Peyton Watson. How much do you get out of
Speaker 1: Jalen Pickett in a series like this? Norman Powell, excuse me,
Speaker 1: Chris Dunn and Derreck Jones Junior and their spot up
Speaker 1: shooting like we talked about earlier. And then lastly, Kawhi's health. Obviously,
Speaker 1: this is going to be different than playing one super
Speaker 1: important regular season game. This is going to be a
Speaker 1: two week long battle with the Nuggets, and we got
Speaker 1: to see if Kawhi's knee can hold up my pick.
Speaker 1: This has been the hardest series for me to pick
Speaker 1: so far. So out of all the series that picked
Speaker 1: easily the closest margin. I do believe the Clippers are
Speaker 1: a slightly better team, but I think Jokic is the
Speaker 1: best player in the series by a decent margin, which
Speaker 1: I think matters. And the Nuggets have home court, so
Speaker 1: that's what kind of made this super tough for me.
Speaker 1: That said, I'm picking the Clippers in six games. Going
Speaker 1: back to the comfort thing I talked about yesterday, it
Speaker 1: really comes down to me which defense has the better
Speaker 1: chance of making the opposing offense uncomfortable, and through Derek Jones,
Speaker 1: you and You're and Chris Dunn, pressuring Jamal Murray, through
Speaker 1: Zoo's size on Jokic, through the Clippers just genuinely being
Speaker 1: a better defensive rotation team. I think they're going to
Speaker 1: be able to do more to make Denver's offense uncomfortable
Speaker 1: than the other end of the floor, where Denver is
Speaker 1: this abhorrent defense and the Clippers are really starting to
Speaker 1: find some formulas that are working for them on the
Speaker 1: offensive end of the floor. So my prediction is that
Speaker 1: Jokic is awesome, but that Murray and the rest of
Speaker 1: the Nuggets struggled to be consistently good on offense, and
Speaker 1: that the Clippers end up getting this done. That's all
Speaker 1: I have for to get today, guys. Is always. I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys next time. What's up guys? As always,
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