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

[SpurNani]

Jokic looking like 2015 Finals LeBron, doing everything he can, with them 80s shorts and all lol

I hope you’re joking.

2015 Lebron had Mattew Dellavadova against a 70 win team. Jokic teammates are actually playing decently around him. He needs to be more aggressive.

[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.

It's like comparing Magic to MJ (yes i know they play different roles). Yes Magic was a offensive GOAT tier dynamo but I just can't count on him to lock anyone up if need be or make the big game changing defensive play like Michael could while simultaneously killing teams offensively.

Jokic could get his offensively in any era but I shudder to think of him in the 90s defensively against the myriad of HOF Cs in a playoff series in that decade if he's not able to limit Zubac more effectively.

Exactly.
I couldn’t have said it better.
I would have loved to see Jokic compete against those guys. It’s a shame that his positional competition is always injured.

[hauntedcomputer]

Man, starting the Jokic Apology Tour early this year.

[Infinite Llamas]

Jokic looking like 2015 Finals LeBron, doing everything he can, with them 80s shorts and all lol

I hope you’re joking.

2015 Lebron had Mattew Dellavadova against a 70 win team. Jokic teammates are actually playing decently around him. He needs to be more aggressive.

Except guys like Murray, MPJ and Gordon are providing so little defensively that it detracts from any offensive gains. Surely just like Lebron had some decent defenders on that Cavs team with Shump and Tristan and Mozgov who weren’t good offensive players.

…and Lebron at least had Kyrie for three rounds befor the finals.

[SpurNani]

Jokic looking like 2015 Finals LeBron, doing everything he can, with them 80s shorts and all lol

I hope you’re joking.

2015 Lebron had Mattew Dellavadova against a 70 win team. Jokic teammates are actually playing decently around him. He needs to be more aggressive.

Except guys like Murray, MPJ and Gordon are providing so little defensively that it detracts from any offensive gains. Surely just like Lebron had some decent defenders on that Cavs team with Shump and Tristan and Mozgov who weren’t good offensive players.

…and Lebron at least had Kyrie for three rounds befor the finals.

He implied Jokic was carrying the Nuggets like Lebron was in the finals that year against a much better more dynamic team without his #2nd and #3rd option. Not even in the same ballpark. Jokic hasn’t even played great to his standards so far.

And funny for you to harp on defense when Nuggets have actually defended well as a team through first two games, holding Clippers to an average of 100 points in regulation so they are doing something right. The others have also provided support on offense. Its just time for the “greatest offensive player ever” to take over now.

[nazario]

Jokic has a good number 2, an ok number 3 - who can be very good from time to time (Porter), and a fantastic number 4 (Gordon).

The denigration of his supporting cast has gone a bit far when one of the best starting 5's in basketball is talked about like they're scrubs.
The nuggets problem is the bench. It relies heavily on Westbrooks chaotic style to not implode on them. Which it hasn't so far, he's been instrumental in giving them a fighting chance at the end of the games.

[Wolfgang630]

Jokic has a good number 2, an ok number 3 - who can be very good from time to time (Porter), and a fantastic number 4 (Gordon).

The denigration of his supporting cast has gone a bit far when one of the best starting 5's in basketball is talked about like they're scrubs.
The nuggets problem is the bench. It relies heavily on Westbrooks chaotic style to not implode on them. Which it hasn't so far, he's been instrumental in giving them a fighting chance at the end of the games.

He doesn’t have a good number 2. A conventional #2 isn’t just a top 50 player non All Star player.

[SpurNani]

Jokic has a good number 2, an ok number 3 - who can be very good from time to time (Porter), and a fantastic number 4 (Gordon).

The denigration of his supporting cast has gone a bit far when one of the best starting 5's in basketball is talked about like they're scrubs.
The nuggets problem is the bench. It relies heavily on Westbrooks chaotic style to not implode on them. Which it hasn't so far, he's been instrumental in giving them a fighting chance at the end of the games.

He doesn’t have a good number 2. A conventional #2 isn’t just a top 50 player non All Star player.

Jamal Murray in the playoffs is absolutely a #2 and maybe even one of the better ones in the league.

[madmaxmedia]

Jokic has a good number 2, an ok number 3 - who can be very good from time to time (Porter), and a fantastic number 4 (Gordon).

The denigration of his supporting cast has gone a bit far when one of the best starting 5's in basketball is talked about like they're scrubs.
The nuggets problem is the bench. It relies heavily on Westbrooks chaotic style to not implode on them. Which it hasn't so far, he's been instrumental in giving them a fighting chance at the end of the games.

He doesn’t have a good number 2. A conventional #2 isn’t just a top 50 player non All Star player.

Jamal Murray in the playoffs is absolutely a #2 and maybe even one of the better ones in the league.

I definitely don't like facing him in the playoffs LOL

[madmaxmedia]

What i realised today is that Kawhi is only player i can see cooking my team and be fine with it. Guy doesnt flop, doesnt bait for fouls, he just plays his game. Only thing that i dont like about his game is creation for others. Nuggets let him cook Murray and get hot, later they did better job but it was too late, he was hot as surface of the sun.

He'll never be a great creator, but he could stand to anticipate double teams a little better to avoid TO's. But when you go 15-19 you can do whatever the hell you want.

[Wolfgang630]

Make the Denver team could idk double team and triple team Kawhi from the start to make sure he doesn’t get in a rhythm and not let Murray defend him

[Sofia]

Is there a highlight reel of the Jokic flops?

Idk. Look it up maybe?

I’m just quoting you to waste a few seconds of your time

[Infinite Llamas]

Jokic has a good number 2, an ok number 3 - who can be very good from time to time (Porter), and a fantastic number 4 (Gordon).

The denigration of his supporting cast has gone a bit far when one of the best starting 5's in basketball is talked about like they're scrubs.
The nuggets problem is the bench. It relies heavily on Westbrooks chaotic style to not implode on them. Which it hasn't so far, he's been instrumental in giving them a fighting chance at the end of the games.

He doesn’t have a good number 2. A conventional #2 isn’t just a top 50 player non All Star player.

Jamal Murray in the playoffs is absolutely a #2 and maybe even one of the better ones in the league.

And yet, they showed a montage yesterday of Kawhi 5-5 quarter and every shot he made, Jamal was the defender. Kawhi was hunting him because he can’t guard a paper bag. His offense can be completely neutralized by his awful defense.

[Infinite Llamas]

Is there a highlight reel of the Jokic flops?

Idk. Look it up maybe?

I’m just quoting you to waste a few seconds of your time

How so?

[ILOVEIT]

Gordon postgame:

We made plays tonight (mistakes) like I haven't seen since I've been here.

Yep. Looked like panicked school kids. Was shocking to see.

This is it. It was shocking to see Denver gack up the ball with absolutely no defender on them several times in the last 4 minutes. Very un-like Denver.

Likely the Russel Westbrook effect.

[Wolfgang630]

Game 1 Clippers had 20 turnovers and Kawhi had 7
Game 2 Nuggets had 20 turnovers and Joker had 7

[ejftw]

Is there a highlight reel of the Jokic flops?

Idk. Look it up maybe?

I’m just quoting you to waste a few seconds of your time

I'm assuming by look it up, be meant rewatch the entire game. Looked like Neymar and Vlade had a baby

[SpurNani]

He doesn’t have a good number 2. A conventional #2 isn’t just a top 50 player non All Star player.

Jamal Murray in the playoffs is absolutely a #2 and maybe even one of the better ones in the league.

And yet, they showed a montage yesterday of Kawhi 5-5 quarter and every shot he made, Jamal was the defender. Kawhi was hunting him because he can’t guard a paper bag. His offense can be completely neutralized by his awful defense.

I don't know if you know this but Kawhi happens to be one of the best postseason players in NBA history. Yesterday, he was in a zone and was cooking any and everybody put in front of him. He had to hit numerous high difficulty jump shots to eek out a close game and that's all you can ask for.

It's funny though, with you being the Jokic superfan, to critique and harp on a scoring point guards defense. I bet you turn a blind eyes to Jokic's bad defensive stretches. Although I do give him credit, he has shown better effort on that side of the ball so far in these two games.

[iggymcfrack]

I have to say if there's one thing I've learned so far this playoffs, its that I underestimated the Clippers because I underestimated Kawhi. Their point differential since the All-Star break is +8.0 per game. That matches up pretty well with how long Kawhi's been playing big minutes. And now I see not only is that not a fluke, but playoff Kawhi's still available? To the point that he's maybe the 3rd best player in the league? Yeah, this team's dangerous as hell.

Maybe I was being hopeful as a Nuggets fan, but I still thought they were the slightly better team with Malone and Booth gone, Murray relatively healthy, and Jokic being at playoff level. Now it almost feels like their best chance to win the series is for Kawhi or Harden to get hurt. I think the Clippers should absolutely be in my "contender" tier with Cleveland and Golden State behind only the 2 frontrunners. They're for real. If they stay healthy, they can beat anyone including Oklahoma City.

[Sofia]

This might as well be a highlight video of all the flops and embellishments Jokic pulled in game 2.

Watch on YouTube