Jazz - Nuggets: Round 1

[Handlogten's Heros]

Donovan was friggin amazing tonight... just want to say it again. Rudy was solid and had some individual plays that were amazing... just a few too many small mistakes. He has to outplay Jokic and he certainly did not do that.

Thought Ingles was pretty good but our role players were terrible except Morgan. Craig, Morris, Grant were a huge part of the reason Denver won.

 

[NAOS]

Defensively we can’t play drop pick and roll against Jokic. We gave up open looks to Jokic and Murray. Someone has to leave and rotate really early if we do. I’d try Morgan on Jokic to start the game and switch the pick. Murray will shoot them in and out of games... make him a chucker and live or die with it rather than get everyone else going.

I wish we could see Morgan on Jokic and Brantley on Murray. Switch that Pnr. Have Gobert playing a Giannis-like defensive rover on their weakest shooter.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Damn I'm really bummed. So many little plays that became massively important, just keep replaying in my head.

Just want to enjoy the historic performance by our guy, but man it sure would be a lot sweeter with the accompanying W.

Yeah super short handed so they get an out... that 8 second call might have swung this series... we had that **** in hand imo with all the momentum.

Murray was absolutely nails today. He runs hot and cold... we gonna be alright I think.

 

[Zombie]

I don't know if this game made me more or less optimistic about this series, but a 57 point game in the playoffs is a level to Donovan's game I wasn't sure he had.

 

[rjfan]

He was solid. I think they should let him tag Jokic for a bit. They need to change how they play the pick and roll and do some switching... too predictable

I am ok with Gobert getting the Jokic assignment for most of the night, if we are able to have a body down there to avoid easy layups/putbacks once he's pulled out of the rim - O'Neale strength and hustle is good and even works some for the boards, but he's just not tall/long enough for being that help defender, and if he has to go out as a help defender, then nobody is there to avoid an alley oop and crash the boards, while we also sent him into foul trouble - the bigger problem on that is Gobert foul trouble, but if we give Morgan on Jokic a bit, that may be easier to avoid.

What is imposible to overcome is have Ingles dying on every Murray/Jokic pnr/pnp and have Gobert on no man's land cause he can't fully commit to either Jokic or Murray for the whole time from Morgan checking out into the end of overtime.

 

[Bawse Dawg]

Niang missed three straight wide open corner 3's in the same possession.

 

[rjfan]

I don't know if this game made me more or less optimistic about this series, but a 57 point game in the playoffs is a level to Donovan's game I wasn't sure he had.

In some ways, he played to the level he's been on the bubble, but sharing much less shot creation with Conley. Kept being much better picking his spots and even make some plays. One or other not so good turnover, yeah, but dude drops 57 efficiently, i can't really blame that...

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I am ok with Gobert getting the Jokic assignment for most of the night, if we are able to have a body down there to avoid easy layups/putbacks once he's pulled out of the rim - O'Neale strength and hustle is good and even works some for the boards, but he's just not tall/long enough for being that help defender, and if he has to go out as a help defender, then nobody is there to avoid an alley oop and crash the boards, while we also sent him into foul trouble - the bigger problem on that is Gobert foul trouble, but if we give Morgan on Jokic a bit, that may be easier to avoid.

What is imposible to overcome is have Ingles dying on every Murray/Jokic pnr/pnp and have Gobert on no man's land cause he can't fully commit to either Jokic or Murray for the whole time from Morgan checking out into the end of overtime.

It is almost impossible to guard a good pick and roll/pop with two people if you aren't going to switch. It require help. If Rudy drops someone needs to come off and get to Jokic. He had way to much time.

Ingles looked gassed and I thought Royce should have been given a shot.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Niang missed three straight wide open corner 3's in the same possession.

That was also bad... we were getting whatever we wanted at the time... I get it that you are open but let's run some offense.

 

[rjfan]

What makes the loss even worse for me is that Conley for sure will be out for games 2 and 3, if not even game 4, but god knows when Harris (and Barton) will be back.

 

[Miggs]

I don't disagree. Would you rather have Torrey Craig or Royce?

Craig at the 2M he makes.

Assuming we keep Mitchell, Gobert and Bojan for the next three years, we can’t afford to sign every day players like Royce to 9M a year or sign Joe to dumb extensions.

 

[LogGrad98]

The question is what adjustements we may make in next one? I don't really see much that we can improve on offense as we have only Mitchell and Ingles who are able to involve others.

The only adjustment we need: take care of the ball. If we take care of the ball in the OT and run the same offense we had for the entire first half, we likely win this one. The wheels came off due to 4 TOs on 4 straight possessions.

 

[LoPo]

Look at the number of solid players who make less. The list is lengthy.

NBA starters on their second contract at 26 years of age? I bet that's a pretty darn small list actually.

 

[rjfan]

It is almost impossible to guard a good pick and roll/pop with two people if you aren't going to switch. It require help. If Rudy drops someone needs to come off and get to Jokic. He had way to much time.

Ingles looked gassed and I thought Royce should have been given a shot.

The biggest problem with drop against Jokic is that not only he's more than capable to shoot, but the great playmaker he is, so whenever someone closeout on him, its a money assist, but if a switch is made and a shorter guy like O'neal is on him, he's also able to use his back all the way to the basket (or a comfortable midrange), while also being good at drawing fouls and finding assists if a help defender comes, he's just that complete. You either commit to him when he pops or you hope they fumble/brick their possession by themselves.

Id say need to either have Morgan or Rudy follow Joker on the pnp (and the other keep his position on the rim, but i think Joker would foul Morgan much more, which i'm not sure is that bad at all if as i said, it avoids Gobert foul trouble) and have a body on Murray (be it Ingles or Royce, but we need to keep track of Royce's fouls and Ingles stamina).

 

[LoPo]

The play that killed us was the miss and offensive rebound by Denver at the end of the fourth. We get that board up by 3 we are in control. But instead they rebound and throw it out to Murray who hits the 3 to tie.

Yep. And the offensive rebound Jokic got and got fouled on with 26.8 seconds left. They went up by two. If we get that rebound, we hold for last shot.

 

[Miggs]

NBA starters on their second contract at 26 years of age? I bet that's a pretty darn small list actually.

He’s a good defender but nearly a 0 on freakin offense. I don’t wanna hear his 3 point percentage on limited attempts. This is a scoring league now. We can’t have him and the offensively limited Gobert out there so much with a bench of offensive duds outside of Clarkson.

 

[homeytennis]

The only adjustment we need: take care of the ball. If we take care of the ball in the OT and run the same offense we had for the entire first half, we likely win this one. The wheels came off due to 4 TOs on 4 straight possessions.

Also Quin needs to read the three second rule to the refs. Jokic at times would camp in there with no whistle. If they are going to let him get away with that then Rudy needs to do the same thing.

 

[Friend2bees]

Great game. I think I actually feel slightly better about our chances now. I was a little concerned about how well Mitchell would play since he hasn't really played well vs Denver this year except after Torrey Craig fouled out of the 2ot game a week ago. He's not going to put in 57 every game but it looks like he's figured out Denver's defense.

The biggest takeaway to me is that we had a few really bad sequences and Denver made us pay every time. Mudiay and Bradley combining for 3 straight missed layups and then Bradley gets an offensive foul the next possession, Niang bricking 3 straight 3s, obviously the 8 second call but also letting Murray hit a 3 in like 4 seconds afterwards. Even if we didn't score on the lost possession we could have run more time off the clock.

Edit: forgot a play from the first half where for some reason Mitchell doubled Jokic in the post even though Gobert was on him, and it predictably led to Denver hitting an open 3 because Mitchell was down in the post instead of on his man. Jokic is too good of a passer to double, just let him try to score on Gobert

 

[LoPo]

You can’t challenge a call if there isn’t a call. Wish it was different but it makes sense.

I don't understand that. If they can go back and look at if somebody stepped out of bounds or stepped over the 3pt line, why can't see if a guy gathered the ball in the frontcourt and took it to the backcourt? Right when the 3 went in, they could have stopped the game for a review. If he was cool, bucket counts. If he wasn't, ball goes to Utah at the time of the infraction.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

The biggest problem with drop against Jokic is that not only he's more than capable to shoot, but the great playmaker he is, so whenever someone closeout on him, its a money assist, but if a switch is made and a shorter guy like O'neal is on him, he's also able to use his back all the way to the basket (or a comfortable midrange), while also being good at drawing fouls and finding assists if a help defender comes, he's just that complete. You either commit to him when he pops or you hope they fumble/brick their possession by themselves.

Id say need to either have Morgan or Rudy follow Joker on the pnp (and the other keep his position on the rim, but i think Joker would foul Morgan much more, which i'm not sure is that bad at all if as i said, it avoids Gobert foul trouble) and have a body on Murray (be it Ingles or Royce, but we need to keep track of Royce's fouls and Ingles stamina).

They were scoring every time down the court though... end of 4th quarter you make other guys beat you... if Grant hits a three from the corner then you lose, but can't let Murray and Jokic be that open at the top of the key during crunchtime.