MVP Finalists Face-to-Face for this West Semifinals Showcase! | Official Nuggets (#4) vs. OKC (#1) Series Thread!

[Devil Plisken…CMS]

Haven’t had ONE memorable playoff game in his career.

False

 

[aceboon]

okc looked more tired

Yea alot of short rimmed jumpers down the stretch

 

[Mars]

I said it before the playoffs started...."The young teams are not to be trusted."

 

[Primetime]

Williams is 24 and Chet is 23 it's fair to call them young but the rest of these guys... are 26+ and I got the receipts of people crucifying Tatum/Brown when they were 23 and 24-years old respectively. Even after a title, Tatum is 26 and still getting knocked.

SGA gotta step up

Yea, it's not about youth. I mean, we all watched the game right?

Williams, Chet, even that Wiggins kid stepped up for OKC. They were up 3 with the ball, with 30 seconds left and their 26 year old superstar and likely MVP winner had the ball to ice the game.

That's not "youth" being a problem. That's SGA fukking up. Really, the two MVP finalists were both shook and put in jail by the opps, and whichever of them lost was gonna be in narrative hell for the next 48 hours for costing their team the game. The "others" showed up for both teams.

 

[bl2k8]

I said it before the playoffs started...."The young teams are not to be trusted."

That’s the funny shyt about the analytics era we live in. People that leaned heavy to that side would shout you down about the Rockets and OKC because of whatever the fukk stat and completely ignore the human element of basketball

 

[Derek Lee]

SGA really shat the bed down the stretch. Wasting a great Jalen Williams game
My boy Hartenstein missed a bunch of bunnies down the stretch

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

After Game 2 -

You can't take anything meaningful out of the margin of this game.

Denver clearly approached it in a haphazard manner and OKC treated it as a must-win, and their energy levels from the jump reflected that. The Nuggets know they're up against it to win this series, so they opted to live to fight another day rather than burning themselves out when they've already stolen homecourt.

We saw the same in the GS/Houston series when the Warriors stole Game 1, and then they came out in Game 2 without any desire to win (and the Rockets came out like it was do-or-die).

Everyone thought the series was over at this point because OKC blew them out by 40+.

Margins are meaningless because Denver knows they have the advantage if the game is close in the clutch. OKC has yet to prove they can actually close games.

 

[FAH1223]

Oh, so y'all are now gonna hide behind "they're a young team" because they lost but going into the playoffs y'all were saying "OKC are too deep for anyone in the league" and would pull off multiple sweeps

Just gotta keep 2 more games close and out execute.

Yall can have your 40 point wins

 

[FAH1223]

It's early.. but this could be a lot like the Rockets title run where they came out of the 6 seed. Denver has been here before and nobody is asserting themselves against them.

 

[Regular_P]

Denver is by far the mentally toughest team in the league. The Jokic-Murray-Gordon trio will figure something out in a tight spot. One if not all of them is gonna make a play. You can see the difference between them and every other team in the league right now. They have the championship grit.

Murray looks slimmer and seems to have some of his explosiveness back. Gordon grinding and becoming a knock down three point shooter this year has been impressive. He's been their second most consistent player all season.

So far, OKC is backing up my claims about them. Some people were really on here scoffing at the idea of trading guys like Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace. In games one and three, the two that were tight, here's their lines:

Game one:

Joe - 13 minutes, 0-4, no points
Wiggins - 14 minutes, 1-1, five points
Wallace - 21 minutes, 1-4, three points

Game three:

Joe - Three minutes, 1-2, two points
Wiggins - 13 minutes, 3-5, seven points
Wallace - 20 minutes, 1-3, two points

That depth shyt is cute during the regular season but it doesn't matter when the chips are down in the postseason. Those three guys are all way down on their minutes compared to the regular season.

Speaking of frauds, I've been saying for two years, I don't care what Lu Dort shoots over the course of the season, I'm giving him as many shots as he wants in the playoffs. For the second straight year, and third postseason total, he's been a walking brick. He was shooting 33% from the field and 29% from three before tonight's 1-6, 0-4 from deep performance.

Lotta ups and downs still to come in this series but we've been here before with Denver. It's hard for me to imagine them losing this series. They will get at least two more grind it out games and they've done it too many times the past few years not to think they won't pull two more out.