PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#3, R2): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [2]LA Clippers (1-1), MON 22:00ET

[THE J0KER]

Unfortunately, there are some dark clouds before this game.
Nikola Jokic Questionable For Game 3 Due To Sprained Right Wrist

But if the Nuggets are ready and healthy, this can be a key game for Denver making a historic upset.

[skywalker33]

Good possibility Jokic misses this game, guess we’ll see if Murray can show some more of that “take over a game” ability again.

If Jokers out, Plumlee starts which will be a let down but perhaps we’ll get to see Bol Bol go off for 20

[TunaFish]

Questionable doesn't mean out for sure. Jokic was not himself in the second half of the last game so if he is injured and can't play to the same degree, that would be a blow to the Nugget's chances.

Lets hope he heals fast.

[skywalker33]

Better to have him heal over this game than miss multiple games IMO

[NuggetsWY]

Good possibility Jokic misses this game, guess we’ll see if Murray can show some more of that “take over a game” ability again.

If Jokers out, Plumlee starts which will be a let down but perhaps we’ll get to see Bol Bol go off for 20

I expect Jokic will be playing but if he isn't, Malone could choose to go small-ball and start Millsap, Grant, Porter. But that would leave a very thin bench. Who starts is less important than who plays more minutes. It would be interesting.

[psimanic1]

Man, I hope they will write on Twitter earlier today if he will play. It sucks to have games @ 3 in the morning where I'm from, didn't sleep at all last few games, just like 3-4h after the game Got prepared today and already slept for few hours, so I really hope he plays and we have a chance to go 2-1

[NuggetsWY]

Man, I hope they will write on Twitter earlier today if he will play. It sucks to have games @ 3 in the morning where I'm from, didn't sleep at all last few games, just like 3-4h after the game Got prepared today and already slept for few hours, so I really hope he plays and we have a chance to go 2-1

I can relate for different reasons. I may be an old cripple, but I still have a life and seldom get to watch any games live. The afternoon's are my best shot, but even then, I usually end up watching it recorded. At this point, I'm quite used to it.

We had a nice sunny day today in the mid-70s and are expecting below freezing temps tonight with snow almost a certainty. I think I'll get to watch the game live.

Totally agree with your sentiment regarding announcing lineups.

[NuggetsWY]

Halftime: Looks like the old Harris is back. His shot seems back and his defense is the same as usual = excellent.

Murray was good, but he's done better. I like his effort on defense.

Jokic was great until late in the half and then he had some fumbles. His defense has been good and his rebounding is nice.

Grant has been hustling, especially on defense.

Porter has been out of place on some defensive plays, but it's usually for hustling and covering for others or doubling. He crashes the glass at both ends. His shot is right. He's legit!

Morris was his usual consistent self on both ends of the court.

I loved seeing more help defense - especially a few times when Kahwi was pushed away from the paint and someone was waiting to double.

[skywalker33]

Scrappy effort where most predicted a revenge blowout game. Still have a half to go but I like the defensive effort

[THE J0KER]

Jokic is playing, and that is the most important news about tonight's game. More important, Jokic actually looks healthy and probably going to make triple-double monster game. Murray is not that good tonight but still good enough, but compared to the previous game where Clippers two forward stars shot awful 11-36, today they are 13-19 already at halftime, and that makes difference. Denver still leads +2 on halftime thanks to fact that Porter and Morris outplayed the Clippers GOAT bench. But unfortunately, Malone being Malone once again when everything looks perfect about Denver offense he sits with no reason MPJ, so +12 lead was downgraded to +2 in less than 4 minutes. Even if we ignore MPJ great offense which he showed in the first halves of game#7 vs POR, game#2, and tonight vs LAC, his rebounding is enough reason to not have reduced playing time. He has 6 rebounds in 11 minutes while Millsap 1 rebound in 16 minutes. Grant another bad shooting night this time hurts because Kawhi is not stopped, but nice to see Harris is great again from three. Big credit to the bench once again.

[THE J0KER]

Despite Murray have his worst 2nd half in this 2020 playoff, for me, Malone is to be blamed for this loss.

We struggle to score in the 2nd half, we have problems with rebounds, but our genius reduced playing time on just 23 minutes guy with the highest +/- and which produced 18-10 in these just 23 minutes. Porter's defense was not so bad (3 steals) and he alone has 4 offensive rebounds, while all other players together (Nuggets+Clippers) have just 7, so he was destined to be difference maker tonight just if Malone allowed him.

Jokic has a monster game, Grant was very good in 2nd half, Millsap and Morris are offensively very efficient, George (32-4-4) used much better his size and power against Harris tonight but at least it is refreshing to see Harris back-to-back good in the offense, so the team is good tonight... but we lose probably the key game of this series.

[Manolito]

Result has been a pity because it was our chance, Kawhi was below his average and none from LouW, Morris or Harrell had a great game, which is unlikely to happen. These 3 consecutive misses from Grant hurt, but in the end he should be our 4/5 offensive option, LAC want him to take these shots.

IMHO free throws are killing us. We need to go to the line more often, especially in 4th quarter when defense are considerable tougher. Only 10 free throws tonight is not acceptable, those are easy points we simply don´t have.

Murray was horrible, but it is part of the process. Now he needs to learn how to play against best defenders in the league, he needs to increase another level his game. It is priceless for him this type of experience, I am sure he will learn from it.

[Mickey8]

Malone should have played Jokic whole 4th quarter , he did same in one of the games with Utah might have been a game 7 , when Jokic didnt have the rest between two last quarters and he was fine , this was the big opportunity for Denver , I think Clippers will win the next two game easily , I hope I am wrong. I wish this was a blow out , instead of Denver leading in this game right until the end, this was a very bad loss , that Denver wont recover from I think.

[skywalker33]

I try not to be one of those guys but the refs sure seemed to control Millsap in that 4th qtr.

Give credit to the Clips, they sure made Murray disappear, do we know what Witness Protection programs he’s in ?

[skywalker33]

For the most part thought it was a good game ( better than most LAC supporters projected anyway ). Murray was MIA, they clamped him down. He has to find a way to break out of that or this series is over. MPJ is on a learning curve rollercoaster, a few highs an a lotta stupid lows.

[manchambo]

Denver's playoff problem seems to me to be pretty simple: they have too many players who tend to shrink in the pressure of 4th quarter playoff games. And this goes back to last year.

Grant just wasn't going to hit a 3 in that situation last night. Murray, for whatever reason, is all or nothing: last night was nothing. Harris also is hot or cold. MPJ might have fared better--might, because he's young and not immune to pressure, and he had already made a number of mental mistakes.

But to me the solution is fairly simple: Jokic needs to get more selfish in crunch time. By all rights he should have had his triple double because he made good passes for open shots in the 4th. But, I think that if he had shot the ball 4 or 5 more times down the stretch, Denver might well have won the game.

[skywalker33]

Denver's playoff problem seems to me to be pretty simple: they have too many players who tend to shrink in the pressure of 4th quarter playoff games. And this goes back to last year.

Well wouldn’t it be nice to have 7-8 Alpha dogs on this team instead of the 2-3 stars and role players

[quote=“manchambo”]
Grant just wasn't going to hit a 3 in that situation last night. Murray, for whatever reason, is all or nothing: last night was nothing. Harris also is hot or cold. MPJ might have fared better--might, because he's young and not immune to pressure, and he had already made a number of mental mistakes.[/quote]

You DO realize Grant has one on the highest 3-pt % on the team, right ? To say NEVER is just silly.

Murray was the focus of the LAC defense, do you think that had anything to do with his performance ??

[quote=“manchambo”]
But to me the solution is fairly simple: Jokic needs to get more selfish in crunch time. By all rights he should have had his triple double because he made good passes for open shots in the 4th. But, I think that if he had shot the ball 4 or 5 more times down the stretch, Denver might well have won the game.[/quote]

As expected, contrary to popular belief, Jokic isn’t/can’t be a one-man team, he isn’t Superman !

[manchambo]

Denver's playoff problem seems to me to be pretty simple: they have too many players who tend to shrink in the pressure of 4th quarter playoff games. And this goes back to last year.

Well wouldn’t it be nice to have 7-8 Alpha dogs on this team instead of the 2-3 stars and role players

[quote=“manchambo”]
Grant just wasn't going to hit a 3 in that situation last night. Murray, for whatever reason, is all or nothing: last night was nothing. Harris also is hot or cold. MPJ might have fared better--might, because he's young and not immune to pressure, and he had already made a number of mental mistakes.

You DO realize Grant has one on the highest 3-pt % on the team, right ? To say NEVER is just silly.

Murray was the focus of the LAC defense, do you think that had anything to do with his performance ??

[quote=“manchambo”]
But to me the solution is fairly simple: Jokic needs to get more selfish in crunch time. By all rights he should have had his triple double because he made good passes for open shots in the 4th. But, I think that if he had shot the ball 4 or 5 more times down the stretch, Denver might well have won the game.[/quote]

As expected, contrary to popular belief, Jokic isn’t/can’t be a one-man team, he isn’t Superman ![/quote]

I didn't say never about Grant--I said last night the pressure was too much for him. And I'm not asking for everyone to perform in the clutch--similar to game 7 vs. Portland last year, Denver just needed one or two players to hit a couple of shots in crunch time.

And all I'm suggesting Jokic should have done yesterday is take maybe 4 more shot attempts. He got the ball where he could have shot multiple times in the 4th quarter and passed out. I understand why he did it--they were good passes. But at that stage it was a lot more likely that Jokic was going to hit a shot than anyone else on the team.

As for Murray, of course the defense was tough on him. But he was also as cold as cold can be.

[The Rebel]

It is funny reading the general board and certain other basketball boards with the way they have done a 360 on Murray within the last 10 days. There was even a certain Nuggets fan posting Jokic trades to rebuild around Murray a week ago. I think we were all expecting him to have an off game, he was past due. The fact that it took this long is a good sign to me.

I think the pain medicine they had Jokic on wore off late in the 2nd quarter, that is when he started making some bad passes and not having as good control of the ball.He was dominate that 1st quarter again and played well overall, I just wish guys would hit their wide open shots he is getting them.

Grant is usually pretty consistent, I cannot remember when he had 2 offensive games this bad in a row. I wonder if the minutes and the task of guarding Kawhi is just making him too tired to hit his jumpshots? I wonder if KBD would be effective for 10 minutes giving us a defender to harass Kawhi and getting Grant a few minutes more of rest?

Looks like Harris found his stroke, I would have liked to see him get a couple of more 3s, they were sagging off of him but it seemed they recovered quicker than most teams can.

MPJ had his moments where he looked like a star, and then he had plenty of moments where you remembered he was a rookie.

IT is interesting Craig only got 6 minutes, he was not bad on defense, but the Clippers do not even pretend to cover him on offense.

Anybody else hear Barton maybe back in this series? We could use his defense on George, that is the guy who is killing us so far.

I still think we are going to win 3 of the next 4 games.

[manchambo]

It is funny reading the general board and certain other basketball boards with the way they have done a 360 on Murray within the last 10 days. There was even a certain Nuggets fan posting Jokic trades to rebuild around Murray a week ago. I think we were all expecting him to have an off game, he was past due. The fact that it took this long is a good sign to me.

I think the pain medicine they had Jokic on wore off late in the 2nd quarter, that is when he started making some bad passes and not having as good control of the ball.He was dominate that 1st quarter again and played well overall, I just wish guys would hit their wide open shots he is getting them.

Grant is usually pretty consistent, I cannot remember when he had 2 offensive games this bad in a row. I wonder if the minutes and the task of guarding Kawhi is just making him too tired to hit his jumpshots? I wonder if KBD would be effective for 10 minutes giving us a defender to harass Kawhi and getting Grant a few minutes more of rest?

Looks like Harris found his stroke, I would have liked to see him get a couple of more 3s, they were sagging off of him but it seemed they recovered quicker than most teams can.

MPJ had his moments where he looked like a star, and then he had plenty of moments where you remembered he was a rookie.

IT is interesting Craig only got 6 minutes, he was not bad on defense, but the Clippers do not even pretend to cover him on offense.

Anybody else hear Barton maybe back in this series? We could use his defense on George, that is the guy who is killing us so far.

I still think we are going to win 3 of the next 4 games.

Barton would be huge. He's also a streaky guy, but he's another possibility for scoring support.