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Post by Ring on May 15, 2024 0:21:49 GMT -5
The turnaround by this team and how quickly it came is pretty insane. Basically looked awful the entire run. Got smoked in game 2 and just flipped a switch. Nuggets play like this and nobody can beat them. Obviously the shots aren't always going to fall but just the effort/decision making. Actually treating possessions like they are important. You'll always have the occasional bad possession for a heat check or a mistake(MPJ/Murray had a few tonight) but they aren't wasting as many as they did in games 1/2 and as many as they did vs L.A. The thing that is great about this team is different guys can step up in different series. In LA it was MPJ and Murray late in games. In Minnesota it's been AG and CB. Tonight KCP was nails. It's just awesome having that kind of depth. Nuggets are showing Championship level resolve and I think AG is the guy that shows that most. The energy that he has played with since Game 2 has been outstanding and I think it's rubbing off on his teammates.
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Post by alchemist76 on May 15, 2024 0:22:14 GMT -5
Props to Jamal for showing up in the 4th to close the game.
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Post by famicommander on May 15, 2024 0:22:32 GMT -5
I think this song is quite appropriate for tonight, especially the chorus The game is over (the game is over) No more rounds to play, it's time to pay Who's got the joker? The game is over Who's got the joker To kill the lies and make your heart recall There's no other sky to fall
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Post by Ring on May 15, 2024 0:23:00 GMT -5
Max player on the bench again lol. Like Facundo Campazzo It's just not an MPJ series. This one reminds me of the Suns series when Murray went down with an injury. MPJ isn't capable of playing against physical defense and the Wolves aren't really doubling Jokic and if they do it's off AG. It's just not a series where MPJ is going to thrive or even play well. He doesn't really have a role other than space the floor.
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Post by bignuggets on May 15, 2024 0:24:01 GMT -5
It’s about time for one of those 20+ point games from KCP tomorrow night. MPJ hopefully goes off too. I called it. Missed the 20, he got 16, but it was a big 16. Love me some KCP!
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Post by passtheballquick on May 15, 2024 0:30:09 GMT -5
It’s about time for one of those 20+ point games from KCP tomorrow night. MPJ hopefully goes off too. I called it. Missed the 20, he got 16, but it was a big 16. Love me some KCP! Huge 16 points. He alone had more points than mpj and Murray combined 2mins before the end on 75% less shots taken
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Post by passtheballquick on May 15, 2024 0:31:48 GMT -5
Props to Jamal for showing up in the 4th to close the game. For showing up in the garbage time? When you're giving props to Jamal it has to have a big sarcasm behind it lol
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Post by inyourmind on May 15, 2024 0:36:55 GMT -5
The turnaround by this team and how quickly it came is pretty insane. Basically looked awful the entire run. Got smoked in game 2 and just flipped a switch. Nuggets play like this and nobody can beat them. Obviously the shots aren't always going to fall but just the effort/decision making. Actually treating possessions like they are important. You'll always have the occasional bad possession for a heat check or a mistake(MPJ/Murray had a few tonight) but they aren't wasting as many as they did in games 1/2 and as many as they did vs L.A. Don't give credit to the entire team please. Our 2 max players sucked big way in the entire series Turnaround started in game 3. Murray was huge that game. He's also been better overall the past 3 games. Yeah he's had some mistakes but he hasn't been close to whatever he was in games 1/2. MPJ was very good in game 3 and I'm giving him abit of a pass because he was a major reason why the Lakers series wasn't as ugly as it could have been. It's just been a night and day difference in effort and focus since game 2. Yeah not everybody's going to play lights out every game. Murray isn't nor will he ever be Jokic. Won't s**t on him for that. I will give Jokic s**t for not being aggressive tho because there's not a matchup in the league where he can't be the best player on the floor.
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Post by aussie on May 15, 2024 0:39:20 GMT -5
I love sports fans in general. They're no different here in Australia.
Yet we're so quick to jump on someone (MPJ) having a sub par series, yet we're quick to forget what he did vs the Lakers. Last I remembered it's a team sport and as Ring pointed out:
"The thing that is great about this team is different guys can step up in different series. In LA it was MPJ and Murray late in games. In Minnesota it's been AG and CB. Tonight KCP was nails. It's just awesome having that kind of depth."
We'll need MPJ moving forward if we want to go back to back.
Hell of a win and words simply do not describe how good our Joker is..
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Post by inyourmind on May 15, 2024 0:40:10 GMT -5
The turnaround by this team and how quickly it came is pretty insane. Basically looked awful the entire run. Got smoked in game 2 and just flipped a switch. Nuggets play like this and nobody can beat them. Obviously the shots aren't always going to fall but just the effort/decision making. Actually treating possessions like they are important. You'll always have the occasional bad possession for a heat check or a mistake(MPJ/Murray had a few tonight) but they aren't wasting as many as they did in games 1/2 and as many as they did vs L.A. The thing that is great about this team is different guys can step up in different series. In LA it was MPJ and Murray late in games. In Minnesota it's been AG and CB. Tonight KCP was nails. It's just awesome having that kind of depth. Nuggets are showing Championship level resolve and I think AG is the guy that shows that most. The energy that he has played with since Game 2 has been outstanding and I think it's rubbing off on his teammates. Everything just goes how Jokic goes. Every single player outside of Murray relies on Jokic thriving IMO. How teams decide how to guard Jokic dictates what the other matchups will look like. MPJ is in a tough spot where he's just not playing great and he clearly wants to be on the floor. He wasn't aggressive last game and clearly came out tonight trying to get going and it didn't work. The threat of him shooting the 3 ball will always be valuable for Denver tho even when it's not dropping.
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Post by passtheballquick on May 15, 2024 0:40:49 GMT -5
Ant is cool man. I like the guy. I hope he's out soon but he's going to be a winner in this game in the future
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Post by alchemist76 on May 15, 2024 0:42:08 GMT -5
Props to Jamal for showing up in the 4th to close the game. For showing up in the garbage time? When you're giving props to Jamal it has to have a big sarcasm behind it lol
I honestly thought he played well in the 4th
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Post by passtheballquick on May 15, 2024 0:50:02 GMT -5
Don't give credit to the entire team please. Our 2 max players sucked big way in the entire series Turnaround started in game 3. Murray was huge that game. He's also been better overall the past 3 games. Yeah he's had some mistakes but he hasn't been close to whatever he was in games 1/2. MPJ was very good in game 3 and I'm giving him abit of a pass because he was a major reason why the Lakers series wasn't as ugly as it could have been. It's just been a night and day difference in effort and focus since game 2. Yeah not everybody's going to play lights out every game. Murray isn't nor will he ever be Jokic. Won't s**t on him for that. I will give Jokic s**t for not being aggressive tho because there's not a matchup in the league where he can't be the best player on the floor. That's not enough from Murray. He took the most amount of shots in PO's so far. He absolutely needs to be the second best player every night and him and mpj are the 2 worst starters. That's unacceptable. The entire PO's he didn't have a single good game like kcp tonight. Not even a single game close to Gordon
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Post by Camby's Left Nut on May 15, 2024 0:51:44 GMT -5
I love sports fans in general. They're no different here in Australia. Yet we're so quick to jump on someone (MPJ) having a sub par series, yet we're quick to forget what he did vs the Lakers. Last I remembered it's a team sport and as Ring pointed out: "The thing that is great about this team is different guys can step up in different series. In LA it was MPJ and Murray late in games. In Minnesota it's been AG and CB. Tonight KCP was nails. It's just awesome having that kind of depth." We'll need MPJ moving forward if we want to go back to back. Hell of a win and words simply do not describe how good our Joker is.. Exactly. I get maybe people can look at his contract and use that as a reason to justify their takes...but the reality is that he's still a #3 or 4 option on offense most nights, and is asked to play a very specific role in an offense that is such a well oiled machine. Just like how Braun and Holiday weren't as important vs the Lakers because it wasn't a series or matchup that really played to their strengths (but both have been huge in this one), this series and matchup isn't as suited for MPJ to really make as big of an impact (even though he was possibly our MVP vs LA). But that's the beauty of having such a well balanced team full of guys who know and accept their roles. This team, and specifically Jokic and Malone, have learned how to pick apart and figure out matchups to the point where they can always find an edge against any type of team. As long as everyone continues to buy in and do whatever is needed to win against any given opponent, the Nuggets will always have a chance.
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Post by passtheballquick on May 15, 2024 0:54:13 GMT -5
For showing up in the garbage time? When you're giving props to Jamal it has to have a big sarcasm behind it lol
I honestly thought he played well in the 4th
He was scoreless from 5 minutes before the end of the 3rd Q till 2.4min mark before the end of the game. He scored 6 points in the garbage time when the game was over
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Post by somborshuffle on May 15, 2024 1:44:36 GMT -5
We don't beat LA without MPJ being an absolute monster of efficient 3pt shooting.
I'll cut him some slack.
So long as Jokic is monster every game, the other 4 can take turns stepping up.
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Post by famicommander on May 15, 2024 1:52:15 GMT -5
MPJ and Watson will both have contributions to make in the next round.
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Post by somborshuffle on May 15, 2024 2:16:09 GMT -5
Anecdotally, the game started at 0430am here in Europe. And I bypassed the first half because the nerves of watching game 3 at 2am wiped me out for the rest of the day.
So I could only handle one half with a full day ahead. Even still, woke up at 0430am and chose not to turn it on but proceeded to snooze and daydream that we were down 20 or 30 which was worse.
So I at least got to witness that 2nd half Joker masterpiece. Maybe his GoaT performance given the stakes.
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Post by duh88 on May 15, 2024 4:48:49 GMT -5
Really could care less about criticizing certain players right now.
Ultimately guys - This series is the nba finals. Two heavyweights just pummeling each other. Once you get to the 8th round of a boxing match, deathly exhaustion kicks in. Anything can then be an xfactor - one unprotected punch to the nose wins the match (whereas a punch like that in round 3 is meaningless). But it usually comes down to: Which fighter has the conditioning to stay up and adjust.
My point: Heavyweight matches in the nba (and we all know this series is THE finals) are going to have an array of surprises. Minny has gone all-in on suffocating Murray and mpj. Heck - they’ve had Kyle Anderson guard jokic on major stretches, basically banking on jokic being lazy.
But a good heavyweight fighter pivots and adjusts when his known arsenal is taken away. Enter AG.
Minny’s plan of suffocating MPJ and Murray actually worked great the first two games. Then we adjusted - and they are absolutely flummoxed.
Few things are pretty in a heavyweight matchup. The winner is usually crawling into the locker room once the series is over - much like mpj and Murray are doing now. But make no mistake - Murray and mpj are a major reason why we are a heavyweight.
The real championship always unleashes new surprises and new heroes. Teams that are conditioned and able to adjust, win.
Stop obsessing over individual optics, and instead appreciate how f***ing good our team is, and how well we can pivot in a clash against another heavyweight.
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Post by TNF on May 15, 2024 7:04:16 GMT -5
It has been an epic battle.
The interview with Joker is classic stuff (he goes last)
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