WCQF | P1 (2) Denver Nuggets vs (7) San Antonio Spurs

[Chinook]

I understand people thinking Denver would win. But I don't think SA is a good match-up for Denver at all.

The Spurs play best when they can get away with starting two bigs. It makes them go from a poor defensive team to a pretty good one, and it lets them bring Gay off the bench.

Aldridge on Jokic is actually a good match-up for the Spurs, especially if the refs allow more physicality in the playoffs. LMA is SA's top player, but they don't depend on him for everything like the Nuggets do with Jokic. If they're both beat up and exhausted from banging in the post all night, that hurts Denver a lot.

Outside of believing Jokic is just WAY better than Aldridge, I don't think it makes a ton of sense to say Denver has a huge talent advantage. I think that must come from the idea that a guy like Gary Harris or Will Barton is way better than his SA counterpart. Maybe is some abstract sense that's true, but in terms of performance this year, it's not. That's true when looking at the others like Gay vs Millsap, DeRozan vs Murray and Poeltl vs Plumlee. The idea of a talent gap is mostly myth. Athletic gap? Maybe. Performance gap? Not really.

The most common reason why I think so many are down on the Spurs is because they assume they depend on DeRozan and that DeRozan will choke. Obviously I don't know if he is going to play well or not. But in the past, he's done well in early rounds and faded in later rounds. So I don't think history supports DeRozan not playing well here. He could fail because of Denver having a good game plan against him, but he won't fail because he "always" fails at this point, because he doesn't always fail in the first round.

[Patches Perry]

Nuggets are inexperienced, but I also think the Spurs have this reputation of playoff Jedi that this current Spurs team has not earned. DeRozan is not exactly known for his playoff performances. I think Nuggets win this series in 5 or 6 on sheer talent disparity.

[BVB24]

Only advantage we have is coaching. Denver is more talented top to bottom, and playing at that altitude sucks for opposing teams. Jamal Murray and Gary Harris will eat Bryn Forbes & Patty Mills alive in the backcourt.

Spurs are already a poor road team this season, and playoff DeMar is never fun, but the Spurs will battle as they do. In the end, Nuggs in 6.

[FinnTheHuman]

Role players play bad on the road in PO , their passing game wont work like in RS and Jokic always have meltdown when he don't get foul calls so they could choke , especially bc Popovich is better motivator and better in ingame adjustments and is ready to take technical to protect their stars or to flame fire in his players if he see they aren't passionate enough. I wouldn't be surprised if ends with Crazy Serbian Montenegrinian > Soft Fat Serbian as final result .

Pretty pathetic that you can’t accept that Pop says he’s a Serb, and that you can allow uourself to claim to know who he is better than he does.

Anyway, Nuggets in 4 or 5.

Denver is not good enough to sweep anyone out west that’s ridiculous

I think Denver is super underrated.

I think that people have a wrong perception that Jokic plays 31 minutes because his game drops off when he plays more. He doesn’t, he just didn’t need to play more for the Nuggets to be 2nd in the West. When Jokic plays 37-40 minutes in the playoffs, people will realise how much stronger the Nuggets get. You can’t game plan the defense against Nuggets because they have so many players who are legitimate tripple threats, so swarming on Jokic isn’t gonna work.

On the other side, you have the Spurs who are a playoff team because of the strong bench, while Derozan is a negative +/- player (-2.2 I think), and the starters are generally underwhelming. Those Spurs bench units bailed out the team playing vs the opposing benches, and now if they’re gonna try to save the Spurs, they’re gonna have to win against the Nuggets starters for bigger chunks of the game instead of bench units, which is a completely different story.

I don’t see Spurs winning more than 1 game in this series, just not enough talent.

[timO]

4-2 Denver, Spurs are hard at home.

[Bank Shot]

The Nuggets are clearly the better team so for the Spurs to win they need two things to happen.

1) The Nuggets crack under pressure. Possible but plenty of young teams have played fine in their initial run. If the Nuggets play at their normal level, they win.
2) The worst playoff performer in history has to play very well. If you are picking the Spurs then you are betting on DeRozan. Good luck with that.

Also, the Nuggets are the best home team in the league and of the 16 playoff teams, only the Pistons won less games on the road than the Spurs this year.

Nuggets in 5.

[CS707]

Anyone thinking this is anything short of a dogfight for Denver is crazy.

Not the logical bet but I'm taking SA in 6.

[Bornstellar]

Homer in me picked Spurs in 6 but realist in me says Nuggets in 5

[Bornstellar]

Also, as much as everyone hates on Derozan (myself included), the whole worst playoff performer ever thing is a bit overblown. He has had good series in the past. And on this team he is not the first option and he has mostly played team ball here. Aldridge is going to feast on Denvers front line and will be our go to. So it's not like we're depending on Demar to carry us because our PG is injured and a playoff choker also like the old Raptors teams

[VinBaker6]

Denver is playing the worst coming into the playoffs. I know a fraudulent team when I see one (Raptor fan), Spurs in 6

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[Smitson]

Spurs in six, Demar and Aldridge are going to have a big series.The thing thats overblown about Demar's playoff struggles that skews the stats is that he'll have three really good games, two decent or good games and two horrific games. When he's bad in those horrific games he's bad and that's what brings down his stats. But he's had some huge games against the Bucks, Wizards and Cavs the last two years that are often overlooked.

I like the upset potential for the Spurs here, especially the way the Nuggets limped into the playoffs. A young team like the Nuggets can have trouble getting back to firing on all cylinders after sitting guys and resting and getting into a lull.

[Sgt Major]

Spurs in 6. Experience matters in the playoffs. Spurs will slow the game down, and that doesn't suit Denver.

Denver actually play slow and that style fits them perfectly.

Role players play bad on the road in PO , their passing game wont work like in RS and Jokic always have meltdown when he don't get foul calls so they could choke , especially bc Popovich is better motivator and better in ingame adjustments and is ready to take technical to protect their stars or to flame fire in his players if he see they aren't passionate enough. I wouldn't be surprised if ends with Crazy Serbian Montenegrinian > Soft Fat Serbian as final result .

Yeah, right, Jokic is getting those calls all the time, that's why he had such a season.

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[skones]

Denver in 5. I expect them to steal one on the road and put on beat downs at home. That altitude is going to be absolutely brutal for teams throughout the playoffs. There's a reason they're the tops in the NBA at home.

[Kabookalu]

This series hinges on if San Antonio's role players actually show up. They were the reason why their offense was so good pre all star, and the reason why they had their struggles post all star break.

Davis Bertans is shooting like 33% from 3 post all star break.

[jason bourne]

What do the Nikola Jokic fans say now? I don't think he can deliver the Nugz past the first round and the Nugz look great on paper. They seemed to be the favorites to lead the WC a few weeks before the end. I will be watching this matchup as Greg Popovich will come up with something to surprise the Nugz. He was planning the same if his team drew the Warriors. I got the Spurs in 7. It will be a tightly contested series.

[Joey Wheeler]

Pop in 6

[blind prophet]

Denver in 7

Don't be surprised if the Spurs take the first game though. Hang in there Denver fans, may be a rocky series before you seal the deal.

[TunaFish]

What do the Nikola Jokic fans say now?

They might say that Jokic is a 24 year old, 7 foot-250 lb center and is leading his team into the playoffs for the first time in years as the number 2 seed in the Western Conference. They also could point out that his season numbers for 2019 are 20.1 points per game, 51.1 % shooting, 10.8 rebounds per game and 7.2 assists per game. At age 23, he became the third-youngest player to reach 20 triple-doubles with only Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson ahead of him. In his 22nd career triple-double on 1/19/2019 he passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to move into second place on the NBA all-time triple-doubles list by a 7-footer.

I say as long as he can play, we are in for a ride.

[reignfire]

Spurs in 6.

Jokic is picked and rolled to death and gets exposed all series.

[Sgt Major]

What do the Nikola Jokic fans say now?

They might say that Jokic is a 24 year old, 7 foot-250 lb center and is leading his team into the playoffs for the first time in years as the number 2 seed in the Western Conference. They also could point out that his season numbers for 2019 are 20.1 points per game, 51.1 % shooting, 10.8 rebounds per game and 7.2 assists per game. At age 23, he became the third-youngest player to reach 20 triple-doubles with only Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson ahead of him. In his 22nd career triple-double on 1/19/2019 he passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to move into second place on the NBA all-time triple-doubles list by a 7-footer.

I say as long as he can play, we are in for a ride.

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