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PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET

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PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#1 » by THE J0KER » Sat Aug 22, 2020 6:07 pm

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Not looking good so far. One overtime win and two blowout losses. It reminds me so far on previous two seasons WC playoff upsets when also #6 seed as an underdog destroyed favorized #3 seed at Western Conference (Portland beat Oklahoma 4-1 last season, while New Orleans beat Portland 4-0 two seasons ago).

But the result is still very active 1-2, and if we win this game-4 and tied, everything will be back in the beginning. Denver team has enough quality to fight Jazz. We missing two starters but in the half of bubble seeding games we even played without three starters (including team's 2nd best player Jamal Murray), but the team played some competitive basketball. The team looks last two games broken and without a soul, and whatever generates that guys need to stop with it before this game.

Miami Heat using on a very smart way their two best 3pt shooters rookie Herro and sophomore Robinson with "Shoot! Shoot!" strategy, exactly what we should do with our best 3pt shooter rookie Porter. Jokic, Murray, and MPJ should take over 50 shots together every game because the gap with other players is too big. The worst things happen to us in the 3rd quarter which we lost all three times with -12, -14, -15 difference which is really shocking.
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#2 » by skywalker33 » Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:51 pm

One thing seems for sure, if PM has ANOTHER mediocre game today, this will be his last season with the Nuggets. I doubt they will even offer him a small contract. I had high hopes that he'd be one of the veterans to return refreshed and motivated, looks just the opposite, looks like he done.
Texas Chuck wrote:I'd like to see Utah, and Denver lose


Exactly as I've been saying all along !!
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#3 » by NuggetsWY » Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:02 pm

I'm a true believer. I still believe the Nuggets should win tonight. Jokic needs to look to score and the rest of the Nuggets need to stop being spectators on offense --- MOTION is the answer on offense. BTW MOTION is the answer on defense. The Nuggets do not do well at helping each other and even if they make a rotation to cover an open guy, they are terrible at a second rotation.
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#4 » by The Rebel » Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:09 pm

I have a good feeling about this game tonight, but Malone has to turn our offense loose, let Jokic go to work.
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#5 » by skywalker33 » Sun Aug 23, 2020 9:28 pm

Know he's upgraded to "doubtful" but any other word on Harris ?
Texas Chuck wrote:I'd like to see Utah, and Denver lose


Exactly as I've been saying all along !!
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#6 » by THE J0KER » Mon Aug 24, 2020 1:00 am

Read on Twitter

Porter and Craig are stripped from starting lineup, but not because Harris is back.
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#7 » by skywalker33 » Mon Aug 24, 2020 1:23 am

THE J0KER wrote:
Read on Twitter

Porter and Craig are stripped from starting lineup, but not because Harris is back.


Surprised Millsap is still in the lineup. Craig, I would NEVER start him again !!
Texas Chuck wrote:I'd like to see Utah, and Denver lose


Exactly as I've been saying all along !!
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#8 » by THE J0KER » Mon Aug 24, 2020 1:44 am

I love stat they just showed - Denver won last 5 game#4 in playoff 1st round!
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#9 » by THE J0KER » Mon Aug 24, 2020 2:36 am

I asked for over 50 shots from Jokic+Murray+Porter, and they shot 28 in the 1st half. Maybe we can't stop Jazz offense, but we have a great offense too, so maybe 65-64 half is a formula how to beat Utah, but Utah backcourt trio Mitchell-Conley-Clarkson killing us with 46 points with unreal 85%TS%.

In all previous three games, Utah outperformed us badly in the 3rd quarter with at least 12+ points advantage, so it must stop tonight.

Nice to see Millsap playing good.
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#10 » by THE J0KER » Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:06 am

-9, another disappointing 3rd quarter despite Jokic and Murray played full 12 minutes. But the result is still active.

This is a must-win game for Denver.
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#11 » by skywalker33 » Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:45 am

And they're paying Harris HOW MUCH to WATCH these games ???
Texas Chuck wrote:I'd like to see Utah, and Denver lose


Exactly as I've been saying all along !!
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#12 » by The Rebel » Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:43 am

The offense played well in the 1st half, then it was back to Jokic and Murray pick and rolls every play. Murray and Jokic played well, but the 3 other guys on the court could have contributed and we may have won. I blame Malone for this loss, he finally made some adjustments and then went back to his old ways at half time.

It is a sad state when the best defender you have to guard an undersized SG is your backup PF, Grant did as well as you can expect, but nobody available for today's game is going to stop the Jazz guards. Although Murray and MOrris did much better on defense than they had been today.

For whatever reason the Jazz seemed to get the calls all game long, maybe I missed a few calls that went the Nuggets way, but I saw several that the foul was questionable at best against the Nuggets and many that were not called on the Jazz.
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#13 » by THE J0KER » Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:43 am

Murray was a heroic, 50p franchise all-time playoff record with a great all-around game 50-11-7 (with zero TO and 9-15 for threes!). So frustrating to see such spectacular effort was not awarded with a win.

Officials have unbalanced criteria, 36-13 in FTA decided this close game in Jazz favor, and instead of some phenomenal Murray or Mitchell move, this game was decided by not calling Gobert foul on Murray at last minute, so instead 122-124 it was 120-126, and no comeback from that. OK, we once again have a terrible 3rd quarter, but the game was close until the end.

Big credit to Jokic for 29-7-6 game, he takes 24 shots. As I said, every shot Jokic+Murray+MPJ takes in a game is good for us. But it seems Jokic is not physically 100% recovered from COVID19. In 8 bubble games and 4 playoffs so far Nikola only 4 times have more than 7 rebounds (3 of these 4 games are overtime games).

Credit to Malone for finally ordering Murray and Jokic to take shots tonight again and again and again, and to play 40 minutes. That's how stars which are efficient scorers too should be used in a playoff. But we have third elite shooter there, and he is not used on the proper way tonight, as a bench player with limited minutes, and more in defense than the offense which is insane. And just like in the previous three games Utah once again scored 124+, so limiting MPJ minutes doesn't improve our defense, only damaging our offense.

Millsap was great in 1st half, but not so great in 2nd half. Grant was decent once again, and we definitely need to re-sign him. Morris and Craig were 4-14, 9 points from 55 minutes, 0-6 for threes. With both playing that it doesn't metter who is a starter when opponents backcourt line Mitchell-Conley-Clarkson literally scored over 100 points tonight.
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#14 » by skywalker33 » Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:58 am

Well, at least that's what a playoff game should look like.
Texas Chuck wrote:I'd like to see Utah, and Denver lose


Exactly as I've been saying all along !!
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#15 » by NuggetsWY » Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:23 pm

I loved the effort of our guys!

The most significant number regarding Denver's offense, in my opinion, was the disparity in free throws and that wasn't the fault of the referees. Our offense was predominantly outside shooting. We committed 24 fouls, Utah committed 19 fouls. That's not a huge discrepancy. They took 36 free throws and we took 13.

24 fouls = 36 free throws for Utah --- that's exactly 1.5 fts per foul
19 fouls = 13 free throws for Denver - that's less than .68 fts per foul

Watching the game a second time and focusing on fouls, Utah was heading to the basket a lot more often - when they were being fouled.

*** *** ***

The most significant number regarding Denver's defense, in my opinion, was Utah's shooting percentages (plus the aforementioned disparity in free throws). They shot 58% from the field with 48% from three - hard to beat any team that is getting that many open shots. BTW - remove Mitchell's shots from the stats and Utah still shot 58% from the field and 45% from three.

Defense is the reason we lost the game.
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#16 » by skywalker33 » Mon Aug 24, 2020 3:47 pm

Quite a discrepancy in the number of fouls though, Utah being coddled by the refs. Utah shows me that they go as Mitchell goes, so goes Utah's chance of winning, such a one-man team.
Texas Chuck wrote:I'd like to see Utah, and Denver lose


Exactly as I've been saying all along !!
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#17 » by skywalker33 » Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:54 pm

Utah has always been a good 1st rd playoff team though, usually not much more
Texas Chuck wrote:I'd like to see Utah, and Denver lose


Exactly as I've been saying all along !!
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#18 » by NuggetsWY » Mon Aug 24, 2020 9:09 pm

skywalker33 wrote:Quite a discrepancy in the number of fouls though, Utah being coddled by the refs. Utah shows me that they go as Mitchell goes, so goes Utah's chance of winning, such a one-man team.

We average 23 fouls per game. They averaged 20. So we were +1 over our average and they were -1 to their average. That isn't that great a discrepancy. The discrepancy was the number of foul shots and that's based on when/where on the court the fouls were called.
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#19 » by skywalker33 » Mon Aug 24, 2020 10:41 pm

NuggetsWY wrote:
skywalker33 wrote:Quite a discrepancy in the number of fouls though, Utah being coddled by the refs. Utah shows me that they go as Mitchell goes, so goes Utah's chance of winning, such a one-man team.

We average 23 fouls per game. They averaged 20. So we were +1 over our average and they were -1 to their average. That isn't that great a discrepancy. The discrepancy was the number of foul shots and that's based on when/where on the court the fouls were called.


Would’ve thought it was clear what I was trying to point out, thanks for the clarification WY
Texas Chuck wrote:I'd like to see Utah, and Denver lose


Exactly as I've been saying all along !!
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Re: PLAYOFF-2020 (Game#4, R1): [3]Denver Nuggets vs [6]Utah Jazz (1-2), SUN/Aug23, 21:00ET 

Post#20 » by The Rebel » Tue Aug 25, 2020 1:51 pm

NuggetsWY wrote:
skywalker33 wrote:Quite a discrepancy in the number of fouls though, Utah being coddled by the refs. Utah shows me that they go as Mitchell goes, so goes Utah's chance of winning, such a one-man team.

We average 23 fouls per game. They averaged 20. So we were +1 over our average and they were -1 to their average. That isn't that great a discrepancy. The discrepancy was the number of foul shots and that's based on when/where on the court the fouls were called.


While that all may be true, I don't know if I have seen the Jazz set a single legal screen, every single one they move on. Maybe it is just me but it seems like the only team I see get called for it more than 1 time a game is the Nuggets.

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