2020 Playoff - Western Conference 2nd Round: [3]Denver Nuggets vs [2]LA Clippers

[THE J0KER]

[The Rebel]

I cannot be the only 1 to remember last season in the midst of all the George hype Barton shut him down the 2nd half of that game in February? George started off playing well in the 1st half, and if I remember correctly only hit 1 shot and turned the ball over more than he had assists in the 2nd half after ripping up the defense when guarded by Beasley and Morris in the 1st half. Barton shattered George's confidence and 2 weeks later it was rumored that he had a shoulder injury. I never thought I would say this, but it would be nice to have Barton for this series. I heard on the game 6 broadcast they said he was rehabbing off campus, but has anybody heard anything about him coming back?

[The Rebel]

Call me crazy, but while the experts are all predicting the Clippers winning, some I have heard even are saying a sweep, I think we win this series in 7 games.

[TunaFish]

I also think the Nuggets can win this. Need MPJ to blossom and Harris to be revived offensively to make it happen.

[VCfor3]

LAC is rightfully the favorites, but I'd love for Denver to be the one to advance. Joker is going to have to be the best player in the series though with Murray keeping up his absolutely elite play. MPJ with Plumlee off the bench was a great adjustment. Glad Harris is back though I agree his offense needs a little bit of reviving.

[VCfor3]

Heck of a win guys!

[The Rebel]

LAC is rightfully the favorites, but I'd love for Denver to be the one to advance. Joker is going to have to be the best player in the series though with Murray keeping up his absolutely elite play. MPJ with Plumlee off the bench was a great adjustment. Glad Harris is back though I agree his offense needs a little bit of reviving.

The only reason I think that so many have the Clippers is that the Nuggets get little to no attention from the media and nobody knows how good they are.

If you look into the box scores Harris started shooting considerably better in Mid February, and in March was lights out. Very few people realize that Gary used to score at the highest percentage in iso's on the team and 2 years ago was a 40% shooter. Before his injury in 2018 many were arguing he was the 2nd best player on the team, he was amazing on both ends but then he got hurt. Since his injury he has still managed to play great defense being top 5 for allowed shooting percentage and 3 point percentage. He had just finally started to look right on offense when the shutdown hit, then obviously this whole injury. Since nobody seems to know what the hip injury was or how severe it was coming back into the bubble and playoffs it is hard to tell how much it would hurt his confidence. As soon as he stepped on the court it was obvious his defense was as good as ever but his offense is obviously rusty. His handle is still a little sloppy for him, his layups and floaters are way off still, but hitting those 3s is a good sign. Missing him the entire time of the bubble and through game 5 of the 1st round was a big deal.

The Clippers have no way to stop Jokic, they tried doubles and triple teams tonight, that does not work against him as he is too good of a passer. Zubac can't stop him and neither can Green. If Harris even hits at a 33% rate the rest of the series, with grant and Millsap shooting anywhere near their usually 3 point percentage this season, than the Clippers cannot defend the Nuggets offense.

The Nuggets defensive strength is with their forwards. Grant and Millsap are both good defenders, Craig is solid against large guards and forwards, MPJ seems to be improving at a very fast rate, and Harris well if you have watched game 7 against Utah and the game tonight you saw what he brings. Crazy thing is that Barton is also a very good defender, and nobody knows what is going on with him, just that he is rehabbing an injury.

While Kawhi and George are both amazing defenders against large guards and forwards, they are not the same against guards or Centers. Beverly's strength is to get into guy's heads with trash talk and physical play, Jamal plays considerably better when he is mad. Morris's strength is physical play and trash talk against bigs, Jokic also plays better when he is mad, in fact both Jokic and Murray seem to enjoy the games a lot more that way.

The Jazz's strengths matched up well against the Nuggets, we all knew it. Especially without Harris our perimeter defense sucks against smaller guards. Our offense focuses on getting into the paint, either through cuts or Jokic passes, their strength is paint defense. They were a bad matchup but our talent overcame it, which we thought would happen quicker.

Anybody who has spent any time watching the Nuggets knew within 2 minutes of game 1 starting that it was going to be a bad loss. It was actually sad listening to the national guys trash the Nuggets, thinking that is how they normally play. It was almost as sad as listening to Miller talk up how good the Clippers are while down 23 points. They had just come off a draining 1-3 deficit to come back and win a series playing 3 straight elimination games, that is tough for a young team to get their crap together in 1 day. The Clippers are a much better matchup for the Nuggets, and while the Clippers have more proven talent on their roster, I am not so sure they have the talent to overcome the bad matchups if Denver's role players play anywhere near what they are capable of.

[NuggetsWY]

Game 2 showed the Nuggets can indeed compete with the Clippers but for the most part, the Clippers have demonstrated they are still the better team.

Our team is very inconsistent. Both the Clippers and the Jazz have shown they can adapt to our game.

We need Jokic & Murray to find a way to assert themselves more consistently.
We need Millsap, Grant, Porter, and Morris to contribute in every game.

But most important of all, we need solid man-defense and even better team-defense.

I still believe the Nuggets can win this series, but if I were a betting man, I would not bet on the Nuggets in this series. The Clippers are proven and the Nuggets are still learning how to win.

[THE J0KER]

Will Barton Rehabbing Knee In Miami, Not Ruled Out For Clippers Series

Once Harris is back, I'm not sure how positive would be eventual Barton's impact considering he is traditionally damaging Murray and Porter offense, and his own offense would be questionable after not playing over 5 months.

[skywalker33]

Will Barton Rehabbing Knee In Miami, Not Ruled Out For Clippers Series

Once Harris is back, I'm not sure how positive would be eventual Barton's impact considering he is traditionally damaging Murray and Porter offense, and his own offense would be questionable after not playing over 5 months.

With Murray being nullified last game, wouldn’t having one more offensive threat changed the outlook of that game last night ??

[THE J0KER]

Spoiler:

Will Barton Rehabbing Knee In Miami, Not Ruled Out For Clippers Series

Once Harris is back, I'm not sure how positive would be eventual Barton's impact considering he is traditionally damaging Murray and Porter offense, and his own offense would be questionable after not playing over 5 months.

With Murray being nullified last game, wouldn’t having one more offensive threat changed the outlook of that game last night ??

Prolonging MPJ playing time from 23 to 35 minutes would be enough yesterday.

[The Rebel]

Spoiler:

Will Barton Rehabbing Knee In Miami, Not Ruled Out For Clippers Series

Once Harris is back, I'm not sure how positive would be eventual Barton's impact considering he is traditionally damaging Murray and Porter offense, and his own offense would be questionable after not playing over 5 months.

With Murray being nullified last game, wouldn’t having one more offensive threat changed the outlook of that game last night ??

Prolonging MPJ playing time from 23 to 35 minutes would be enough yesterday.

It is not a secret that I am not a fan of Barton, but to pretend that MPJ can just replace him in the 2nd round of the playoffs is crazy talk.

With the entire starting lineup the Nuggets are +7.2 points per 100 possessions on over 753 minutes, that is a strong indicator that Barton back will help the team. No matter how much he annoys us, having that 3rd option on the court opens up the floor considerably for the rest of the team. Suddenly they cannot double Murray and Jokic at all times and dare our other guys to beat them, as especially with Harris finding his stroke, and with Barton back, those 2 will beat them.

For as much as it appears to hurt Murray to play with Barton, oddly 2 of Murray's best 3 lineups have Barton on them. So while he may hurt Murray's numbers, it does not hurt the team.

Barton is actually the 2nd best perimeter defender on the team, he is clearly better than Craig according to the stats, and for the last 2 years has been in Paul George's head. George does horribly when matched against Barton and does well above average against the rest of the team.

While I love what MPJ can bring, he is a rookie that has gotten very limited minutes to this point. There is very little margin for error the further you go in the playoffs, and as all rookies with limited game time do Porter is making too many errors. He is fine getting 15-20 mpg off the bench right now, we need someone that can guard George and that forces defenses to spread for Jokic and Murray. MPJ can only do 1 of those right now.

[THE J0KER]

Isn't Barton showed in last season playoff that similar to Plumlee he tends to underperform badly in the playoff? Under 45%TS% in 14 games was just pathetic for 28 old starter, and nobody complained during the 2019 PO when Malone gives Barton's starting job to undrafted role player Craig. And coming from a 5+ month pause is always risky. As I say once George is offensively a wild unpredictable player, especially in playoff, which more depending on himself than on his guard so in less than 10 games of this 2020 playoff he already has twice 12-18 monster shooting nights, but also has such 3-16 or 4-17 nightmares too. Denver tortured Oklahoma in these two seasons when PG13 played there, and in most cases, he has very bad numbers for his standards, but still, he managed to score 43 points once, 32 the other time, and the only time he meets Barton this season as Clipper, George was clearly a man of the match, scoring 24p in just 25 minutes in +29 blowout win.

The biggest argument in MPJ favor is not threes anymore, Malone ruined it lately with killing his shooting confidence (but Porter FG% is not so bad thanks to his points from the paint). The biggest argument in Porter's favor right now is his superior rebounding. Playing just 24mpg he still managed to have more rebounds than Grant and Millsap combined, and all that in a playoff where Jokic has the biggest rebounding problems ever (I blame COVID19 for that, and he looks clearly better now in September than in August) and Plumlee is arguably not worthy to play only because of rebounds. With MPJ is on court opponents don't have extra 2nd chances, while Nuggets have it! That explains why he has the team's highest +/- so far despite he must to learn so many things about defense and despite his shooting is badly damaged (from 42%3p% 83%FT% in the regular season, and 50%3p% 80%FT% in first 5 playoff games, MPJ drop to 16%3p% 66%FT% in last 5 PO games - it is all about his confidence ruined by Malone).

[manchambo]

Isn't Barton showed in last season playoff that similar to Plumlee he tends to underperform badly in the playoff? Under 45%TS% in 14 games was just pathetic for 28 old starter, and nobody complained during the 2019 PO when Malone gives Barton's starting job to undrafted role player Craig. And coming from a 5+ month pause is always risky. As I say once George is offensively a wild unpredictable player, especially in playoff, which more depending on himself than on his guard so in less than 10 games of this 2020 playoff he already has twice 12-18 monster shooting nights, but also has such 3-16 or 4-17 nightmares too. Denver tortured Oklahoma in these two seasons when PG13 played there, and in most cases, he has very bad numbers for his standards, but still, he managed to score 43 points once, 32 the other time, and the only time he meets Barton this season as Clipper, George was clearly a man of the match, scoring 24p in just 25 minutes in +29 blowout win.

The biggest argument in MPJ favor is not threes anymore, Malone ruined it lately with killing his shooting confidence (but Porter FG% is not so bad thanks to his points from the paint). The biggest argument in Porter's favor right now is his superior rebounding. Playing just 24mpg he still managed to have more rebounds than Grant and Millsap combined, and all that in a playoff where Jokic has the biggest rebounding problems ever (I blame COVID19 for that, and he looks clearly better now in September than in August) and Plumlee is arguably not worthy to play only because of rebounds. With MPJ is on court opponents don't have extra 2nd chances, while Nuggets have it! That explains why he has the team's highest +/- so far despite he must to learn so many things about defense and despite his shooting is badly damaged (from 42%3p% 83%FT% in the regular season, and 50%3p% 80%FT% in first 5 playoff games, MPJ drop to 16%3p% 66%FT% in last 5 PO games - it is all about his confidence ruined by Malone).

My recollection is that there were 2 Bartons in last year's playoffs. He was really bad for several games and really good for some others. Which Barton would we have gotten this year? But I think that, overall, Denver has a number of streaky players--the more you have available, the better odds that one of them will be hot on any given night.

[Mickey8]

Sorry but I have to tell you Murray is overrated , he had that explosion against the Jazz in three games but his points even there didnt come easy and effortlessly , comparing to Mitchell for an example , it seems Murray is laboring for every point he makes , he dribble dribble , dribble than he takes difficult shots , against the Jazz they were going in against Clippers with much better defense he can't do anything , Murray had a good support in Jokic in the series against Utah, now when Jokic needs the same against the Clippers hes nowhere to found. Also Malone have cost the Nuggets last two games, Clippers were nothing special and both those games were up to grabs. His player rotations were dubious , he kept Porter on the bench start third quarter even though he brought Denver back in the second quarter , then when Nuggets have tied the score in the third quarter, they started to play through Millsap and Grant which led up to the disaster , he brought Porter back in the game when the Clippers went back to +16 again, Malone just dont have a feel for the game, also he refuse to try to mix it up, experiment, why not try with Dozier a bit , he cant be worse than Craig and Morris , he had good moments against the Jazz , I hope at least in the last game he starts the game with Porter instead of Millsap and Grant duo, he got nothing to lose anyways.

[skywalker33]

Sorry but I have to tell you Murray is overrated , he had that explosion against the Jazz in three games but his points even there didnt come easy and effortlessly , comparing to Mitchell for an example , it seems Murray is laboring for every point he makes , he dribble dribble , dribble than he takes difficult shots , against the Jazz they were going in against Clippers with much better defense he can't do anything , Murray had a good support in Jokic in the series against Utah, now when Jokic needs the same against the Clippers hes nowhere to found. Also Malone have cost the Nuggets last two games, Clippers were nothing special and both those games were up to grabs. His player rotations were dubious , he kept Porter on the bench start third quarter even though he brought Denver back in the second quarter , then when Nuggets have tied the score in the third quarter, they started to play through Millsap and Grant which led up to the disaster , he brought Porter back in the game when the Clippers went back to +16 again, Malone just dont have a feel for the game, also he refuse to try to mix it up, experiment, why not try with Dozier a bit , he cant be worse than Craig and Morris , he had good moments against the Jazz , I hope at least in the last game he starts the game with Porter instead of Millsap and Grant duo, he got nothing to lose anyways.

Sorry Mickey, you are in the minority here. Murray isn't a superstar yet, but he has the talent, is gaining the experience and is only 23yo, still a lot of room to grow. He is facing double-teams, who does that to JAG ...nobody ??

[The Rebel]

Sorry but I have to tell you Murray is overrated , he had that explosion against the Jazz in three games but his points even there didnt come easy and effortlessly , comparing to Mitchell for an example , it seems Murray is laboring for every point he makes , he dribble dribble , dribble than he takes difficult shots , against the Jazz they were going in against Clippers with much better defense he can't do anything , Murray had a good support in Jokic in the series against Utah, now when Jokic needs the same against the Clippers hes nowhere to found. Also Malone have cost the Nuggets last two games, Clippers were nothing special and both those games were up to grabs. His player rotations were dubious , he kept Porter on the bench start third quarter even though he brought Denver back in the second quarter , then when Nuggets have tied the score in the third quarter, they started to play through Millsap and Grant which led up to the disaster , he brought Porter back in the game when the Clippers went back to +16 again, Malone just dont have a feel for the game, also he refuse to try to mix it up, experiment, why not try with Dozier a bit , he cant be worse than Craig and Morris , he had good moments against the Jazz , I hope at least in the last game he starts the game with Porter instead of Millsap and Grant duo, he got nothing to lose anyways.

Murray is laboring against double teams every time down the court, and that is rare? Sorry but everybody labors against double teams, unless those double teams are MPJ and Morris like what Mitchell was facing. Conley is a better defender than Mitchell faced for the 1st 5 games of the series.

As for Malone, I will not disagree with you there.

[skywalker33]

Well, gotta say this team has heart !!

[manchambo]

Very impressed with MPJ hitting a key three and 4 free throws to close out that game. He’s more clutch than a lot of guys with a lot more experience.

[skywalker33]

Sorry but I have to tell you Murray is overrated , he had that explosion against the Jazz in three games but his points even there didnt come easy and effortlessly , comparing to Mitchell for an example , it seems Murray is laboring for every point he makes , he dribble dribble , dribble than he takes difficult shots , against the Jazz they were going in against Clippers with much better defense he can't do anything , Murray had a good support in Jokic in the series against Utah, now when Jokic needs the same against the Clippers hes nowhere to found. Also Malone have cost the Nuggets last two games, Clippers were nothing special and both those games were up to grabs. His player rotations were dubious , he kept Porter on the bench start third quarter even though he brought Denver back in the second quarter , then when Nuggets have tied the score in the third quarter, they started to play through Millsap and Grant which led up to the disaster , he brought Porter back in the game when the Clippers went back to +16 again, Malone just dont have a feel for the game, also he refuse to try to mix it up, experiment, why not try with Dozier a bit , he cant be worse than Craig and Morris , he had good moments against the Jazz , I hope at least in the last game he starts the game with Porter instead of Millsap and Grant duo, he got nothing to lose anyways.

Another of your great calls, keep it up and we'll win a championship....