2025 NBA PLAYOFFS West First Round: #4 Denver Nuggets vs #5 LA Clippers (Series tied 1-1)

[STAT_88]

Hot take: Kawhi may have 4 or 5 rings by now if he has LeBron's durability.

The guy is the ultimate 2-way monster that rivals MJ if healthy.

What Kawhi did in the 2017 playoffs before Zaza and the 2019 playoffs was some of the most ridiculous basketball in history. It was a level only prime Lebron and prime Jordan have touched in the last 35 years tbh. Maybe Jokic in 2023 as well but wasn’t both sides of the ball.


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[durden_tyler]

Let's tackle the elephant in the room: what game/series will go out due to injury concerns?

[pepe1991]

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No doubt. He can't stop Jokic but he's the toughest matchup for Jokic/Denver because he can do more on offense than Nurkic can.

The only team that may be a tougher matchup is Minnesota or Peak OKC who is great at smothering Jokic.

Gobert is historically terrible on Jokić. Even last year in playoffs, Jokić shot 60% on 2FGA, it was just his 8-35 for 3 that really sucked life out of a Nuggets, especially in game 7 when Jokić shot 2-10 for 3 ( still made 11-18 for 2 FGA)

Jokić this year vs Minnesota - 70,6% TS over 4 games, 35 ppg
Jokić last year vs Minnesota - 65% TS over 4 games, 33 ppg
Jokić 22-23 vs Minnesota - 66% TS over 3 games, 25 ppg
Jokić vs Utah 2021-22 - 74% TS, 25 ppg over 3 games
Jokić vs Utah 20-21- 3 games, 78% TS, 35 ppg

Jokić is too big, too strong, too fundamentally sounded for Gobert who isn't equipped for that match up. At all.


OKC in playoffs would also probably struggle a lot to defend Jokić, because Holmgren has no weight and I Hart would still give up 30 pounds.
But OKC ball pressure from guards would probably bother everybody else too much, especially since Nuggets only have 3 people capable of handling the ball for more than 3 seconds.

[Mrakar]

Both games decided at the end by made/missed wide open shots and you still have people throwing hot takes out in 2-3 pt game how one team/player is cooked.

This series could easily be 2-0 or 0-2. Clippers proves they can play in Denver, lets see if Denver can play in LA.
I've had Clips in 6 before the series, still have Clips in 6. Gordons calf and Porters shoulder will be factor in comming games.

[Clemenza]

Kawhi da gawd!! Intuit Dome is going to be a blast on Thursday

[lethalizer]

It's interesting reading some of the replies.

A lot of the things that you can say that went in the Clippers' way, applies to game 1 and Denver too.

News flash: These are very evenly matched teams, and the small stuff can swing the games either way on both sides.

Of course if you're rooting for one of the teams you'll say "well yeah if we just correct the stuff a little bit we should be good moving forward", but that applies for both teams.

Clippers had a bunch of unnecessary turnovers in game 1, mainly from Kawhi. He decided to say "f*** it, I'll just go iso, no screen needed" he did, limited his turnovers and basically, won the game.

Nuggets feasted on the Clippers' turnovers in game 1 and event at the start of game 2. Clippers made an adjustment.

Denver turned it over 20 times tonight, mainly from Jokic. Now it's time for their adjustment.

This is basically a chess match, and I love it.

[FuShengTHEGreat]

Jokic is clearly an All time great Center, but thinking back to the Jokic vs Hakeem thread this series is yet another reason i can never put him above Dream or be overrawed by his offensive prowess like others on RealGM are.

His counterpart Zubac is almost putting up 20 ppg on 60+ % FG so far.

And no not all these baskets by Zubac are being scored against him, but in the few instances Zubac hasnt had any trouble scoring against Jokic. id like to see a greater degree of separation statistic wise and being able to limit Zubac's effectiveness.

Dream during his b2b title runs was making it a absolute nightmare for All time great Centers like Ewing and Robinson on the offensive end of the floor. Not even factoring in what he did on offense vs them....

[Dadouv47]

Clippers are impressive..don't think they will lose this series. Really worried about playing them in the second round.

[UcanUwill]

Jokic had a bad game for his standards, Kawhi went into god mode, and Nuggets just get killed with turnovers. Despite that they lost by 1 possession .. you will take that all day as a Nuggets fan.

Not coming at you, but I see these kinds of posts a lot and think does it really matter? Like has the next game ever been influenced because the previous game happened like that? What if next game Harden goes god mode and Kawhi plays great? I think any time you lose, saying the other team played great but you played below your standards is a cop out

Nuggets/Jokic played bad cause Clippers played great D, this is not Baseketball where you can't touch rival team... With that said, both games were decided by like one shot, so it is impossible to predict anything so far, but it feels to me that Denver is having a tougher time. Maybe it just feels this way to me since I pulling for them, but man, I am not optimistic in their chances ultimately, I feel Nuggets are luckier that its 1-1, just seeing Westbrook out there in crunch time in game one, man, they were so lucky to pull that one off.

[og15]

Wonder if Batum should get more minutes. Feel like he’s the only bench player who can shoot (Simmons… DJj) while not being a liability on defense (Bogi)… also his length and shot blocking might help when Zu is on the perimeter

Feels like since the second half of G1 Nuggets have crushed the clippers on the boards lol

Gordon/Mpj/Russ have been doing a good job on the glass

Amir Coffey will likely earn a chance if Bogi continues to suck. He generally can shoot and is aggressive and he can also hold his own defensively

[bledredwine]

Jokic is clearly an All time great Center, but thinking back to the Jokic vs Hakeem thread this series is yet another reason i can never put him above Dream or be overrawed by his offensive prowess like others on RealGM are.

His counterpart Zubac is almost putting up 20 ppg on 60+ % FG so far.

And no not all these baskets by Zubac are being scored against him, but in the few instances Zubac hasnt had any trouble scoring against Jokic. id like to see a greater degree of separation statistic wise and being able to limit Zubac's effectiveness.

Dream during his b2b title runs was making it a absolute nightmare for All time great Centers like Ewing and Robinson on the offensive end of the floor. Not even factoring in what he did on offense vs them....

And Hakeem averaged 27 in the finals, alongside his GOATed defense.

[Bloodbather]

Just when you think Kawhi is damaged goods and stop ranking him highly based on thinking about how he plays when healthy, he goes and does that.

One of the weirdest careers in NBA history. Would probably be talking about a Top 10-15 player in NBA history if he stayed healthy throughout.

[Woodsanity]

This game felt like vintage kawhi dude was unstoppable.

[worldjbfree]

Great game, but they probably shouldn’t let Van Gundy commentate his brother’s games. It somehow reached a bias level higher than Doris Burke last night, and by the fourth quarter became unbearable.

[OkcSinceSGA]

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Porter may be out

[bbms]

Jokic has put up good numbers this series, but he hasn't been great by his standards. It kinda reminds me of what he looked like in the first 2 games from the Wolves series last year. We saw him respond in the next 3 games. Let's see if he can do that again in LA

let's be real he has played poorly. and gun shy. it's a joke (no pun intended) on what bulk defensive rebounds and assists mean in today's nba.

there's no way to slice and see jokic playing remotely close to well this series so far, but i wonder how much bpm it's worth.

really puts things in perspective

his defense has been decent though

[PeteyPablo]

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[hardenASG13]

Jokic is unreal..
26 points 12 rebounds 10 assists 3 steals 8/16 FG 4/8 3PT

That’s on an off night lol.

If he doesn’t have legendary performances game in game out Denver struggles to win.

I'm sorry, but, you forgot the 7 turnovers and inability/unwillingness to take shots down the stretch (and really all game). Westbrook almost bailed them out, again. 16 FG attempts just isn't nearly enough. He had lots of opportunities to lower his head and get into the lane and shoot. This has been a knock I've consistently had against him, for when he's up against a good team in the playoffs. He's gotta take over and show he can create shots outside of slipping the pnr or popping after a screen/hand-off. Last night he forced passes a bunch when he could've shot, and turnovers were an issue as a result. These players he's playing with are supposedly trash, so go off script and make a play scoring if you're "the best player in the league". Thats what it takes in close playoff games/series, and what separates great players. It's no BPM, DRAPM, the LEBRON formula or any of that. He was too passive as a scorer last night, but got his triple double because their whole passing system runs through him. At no point has it felt like Jokic is dominating in this series yet, despite his numbers.

The flopping has to embarrassing for the crew who's adamantly stated he doesn't flop for years as well.

[bbms]

Jokic is unreal..
26 points 12 rebounds 10 assists 3 steals 8/16 FG 4/8 3PT

That’s on an off night lol.

If he doesn’t have legendary performances game in game out Denver struggles to win.

I'm sorry, but, you forgot the 7 turnovers and inability/unwillingness to take shots down the stretch (and really all game). Westbrook almost bailed them out, again. 16 FG attempts just isn't nearly enough. He had lots of opportunities to lower his head and get into the lane and shoot. This has been a knock I've consistently had against him, for when he's up against a good team in the playoffs. He's gotta take over and show he can create shots outside of slipping the pnr or popping after a screen/hand-off. Last night he forced passes a bunch when he could've shot, and turnovers were an issue as a result. These players he's playing with are supposedly trash, so go off script and make a play scoring if you're "the best player in the league". Thats what it takes in close playoff games/series, and what separates great players. It's no BPM, DRAPM, the LEBRON formula or any of that. He was too passive as a scorer last night, but got his triple double because their whole passing system runs through him. At no point has it felt like Jokic is dominating in this series yet, despite his numbers.

The flopping has to embarrassing for the crew who's adamantly stated he doesn't flop for years as well.

that or show up for the offensive board

[TinmanZBoy]

This series probably will end the Jokic era, in the playoffs, great got to be more aggressive… joker is fading away