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***Official NBA Thread***

Ali TT

International Vice-Captain
I guess you can never really count Miami and Spo and jimmy out but honestly the likelihood of Caleb Martin Gabe Vincent and Duncan Robinson continuing to shoot 75% TS or whatever they did against Boston wasn't exactly high.
They can't shoot any worse than they did on Thursday but then neither can the Nuggets. Miami showed glimpses at the start of Q4 but the game overall had the feel of a tall heavyweight holding off a shorter opponent with his jab to win unanimously on points.
 

duffer

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Heat 11-20 from downtown so far to keep themselves in it. Hoping they cool off sometime soon
 

duffer

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
This is badass from Miami tbf. Still think we can win on their court though. MPJ and Murray have bottled it badly today
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
I think the Nuggets, especially as constructed this season, are a much stronger regular season team than a play-off team because while Jokic's role as a facilitator is getting stronger and stronger in the regular season each year, teams force him to play a much more traditional center iso offence heavy style in the play-offs as opposed to the christmas tree point center role he plays in the regular season. He suddenly is forced to take a lot more shots, jack up more threes and create far less shots in the playoffs for his team every season and considering how heavy the Nuggets are leaning into him as a facilitator, I think this year might be an adjustment nightmare for them in the playoffs considering he has 9.7 assists this season and not be able to generate as much in the playoffs considering the last few years.



Jokic in the last 3 years:


YearAST (reg season)AST (playoffs)
2019-207.05.7
2020-218.35.0
2021-228.05.8
2022-239.7?
Miami played perfect today to force Jokic to let go of being the primary playmaker and end up with only 4 assists. I posted this months ago that the strategy that has worked against Jokic last 3 playoffs is to limit his assists below the 5/6 range and let him score. Draymond mentioned this in a podcast he did a couple of weeks ago as well that the one game Jokic looked normal was when the Twolves choked his playmaking to 6 assists. He was the main playmaker in the regular season but only averaged 5.xx assists in the playoffs for 3 years until this year with Jokic dominating the ball usage%.

I’ll admit that I underestimated them because the adjustment Denver made this post season to counter this is to run the ball through Murray as much as Jokic, they both have nearly the same usage% of 28-29% instead of Jokic dominating the ball with the idea that if Jokic’s playmaking is clamped like this game, Murray can be the primary play maker and Denver’s offence isn’t completely choked. This has made teams just accept the Jokic playmaking matchup.

However, while Denver has this counter, it’s still better for teams to force Denver to play like this, with Murray effectively playing as a play making point guard and Jokic playing as a paint scoring focused power forward offensively.

This creates a much more even matchup because Jokic is reduced to a ‘normal’ 35 ppg elite scorer as opposed to the best playmaker in the last 30 years who will also put up 25 with ease.

Denver still the big favourites because they still have better players but will need to play much better defense and find ways to generate much better looks for 3s through Murray if Jokic is being held down constantly.
 
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duffer

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I'm hoping we don't play that boneheaded again. Took a monumental effort from Miami to get that one even with our stupidity. Assume, ass u me, etc though
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
The raw stats make it look like Jokic had a great game but Denver’s offence was so clamped when Jokic was on the court and they were forcing the offence through him in the first half.

He was -11 in a 3 point game with 5 turnovers while being in the -17 to -20 range until the last minute come back attempt. He’s normally a +8 to +10 so that’s at least a -20 point deficit on the Jokic minutes. He at least played more like a PF in the second half instead of forcing the playmaking which reduced the bleeding from his minutes.

Denver need to make a choice to either decisively run through Murray from the first quarter or have a concrete plan against Miami’s defence clamping Jokic’s playmaking.

Both Jokic and Murray looked shook and had a rough time adjusting to being forced to play new roles by Miami when on the court together in the first half which led to multiple players committing turnovers. The game was close due to the incredible run they went on in the non-Jokic minutes in the second quarter. That was the only stretch that Denver was not either exchanging buckets or getting out hustled.
 

duffer

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
You'd think Malone would call a TO or something down the stretch there? Maybe run some plays or somesh*t?
 

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