Six in the Row! Nuggets survive injury bug

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The Nuggets got the win.

They're back to getting injured in an entire position group, but they had a great time

against the Golden State Warriors tonight.

We'll talk about it next here on Lockdown Nuggets.

You are Lockdown Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast

Network, your team every day.

Welcome into Lockdown Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, parts of the Lockdown

Network, your team every day.

Thank you so much for tuning into tonight's episode, being in every day or making us

your first listen on this episode.

We are so excited.

My name is Matt, my name is Matt Moore.

He's Ryan Black.

Why don't you drive?

Why don't you drive?

Why don't you drive?

We're just going to, we're just going to go with that one.

The starters minus one problem, we'll, we'll talk about what we mean in the third segment.

Second segment, we're going to talk about, hey, everyone shipping in, but there's still

some injuries that are happening.

About the first segment, we got to lead off with a very, very impressive second half from

these Denver Nuggets, they turn around from what was a pretty paltry first half performance

that pretty disappointing initially, but a strong performance Matt from Nicoli Okic,

from Jamal Murray, from Tim Hardaway, from Bruce Brown, from a lot of guys that you can

point to and say, yeah, Nuggets broaded in the second half of this game.

Yeah, and you know, I think my, the most impressive thing for me in the second half was their

effort level.

I really thought like they hustled in that second half and it wasn't, I think that a

lot of the season, it's been like they've relied on individual players who make hustle

plays like Bruce makes hustle plays or sometimes Tim makes hustle plays or casually Christian.

And I just felt like everybody was actually engaged and make a hustle plays in this one.

Like they really did kind of swarm of second half, held them to 30, here's the numbers

for the golden state and second half, 37% from the field, 32% from three, seven turn

over is leading to 12 Nuggets points, yeesh.

The Nuggets really did just like clamp down, play great basketball.

That third quarter from Nicola was absolutely phenomenal.

It was so great on both ends of the floor.

He was contesting at the rim, making great, like the play where they're in transition and

Jamal finds it many immediately, whips it to the corner in transition, his transition

passing, his passing is always so sublime, but like his transition passing really the

last couple of weeks has been out of this world, just incredible processing and placement

and ability.

They got going on the offensive end in the second half, Tim harder way, junior started making

shots, which he was probably always going to, three or four from three, from Tim in that

second half, Julian Strother gave them a really great lift in that second half that he

was great.

And his men had thought, Val was really great, in five minutes that he played, it was

one of the reasons why that game did not become more of a question mark was like, Val came

in and really held the line and set great screens, including on Jamal, including on his teammates.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was no, it was a very impressive line, hang on.

Why is there this idea that on the anti-Z guy, where did this come from?

I am not the anti-Z guy, this, this, this is the anti-Z guy, and he's open by them.

Yeah.

Like, look, I'm, this is a matchup that he has to be good in, this golden state team where

you are, where you are playing small, there's no real big there having to contend with on

a consistent basis.

Although Christophe Forzing has had some, some good threes, but didn't really do very

well around the rim, like he shot five of five from three tonight, Christophe Forzing

against it, but he shot three of nine from two point range.

So good defense from a variety of guys, whether it was Zeke Nashe, whether it was Bruce Brown

and Tim Hardaway, Jr. and Jamal Murray and guys like that switching in the post, lots of

good things that Denver was able to do.

They outscored golden state 70 to 40 in the second half, like that is a dominant performance.

And it, it washed away what was a ugly first half because Denver does deserve a little

bit of criticism for the way that went.

Some of it was they were missing shots, but a vast majority of it was their defensive

process wasn't very good.

I thought they're, I didn't like their offensive process either, honestly, like I didn't,

I didn't think that they were getting to good shots, I thought they were settling.

I thought that they were clunky.

I just thought golden state was the aggressor and golden state was beating them to loose

balls and golden state was beating them to spots and like they were the sharper CRISPR

team in that first half.

And then Denver woke up and like once they matched golden state's effort, the talent

is substantially higher.

This golden state team is terrible without staff and they're not very, probably not very

good with them, but without staff and Jimmy Butler, like this is like a good idea is like

that's like what 90 million that they're missing.

A lot of money.

It's a lot of millions.

So they were without quite a few guys and they just don't know, like they just can't

function offensively.

That's why I was like, so that's why I was so frustrated, even though the offensive

numbers for the warriors in the first half were not good and Adelman liked their process

first half differently.

I was just like, I thought the contest level and effort was not there and you know, I'm

just like, you can't let these guys score like that second half is what you should do

to this golden state team because they are not a serious offensive team.

53 points allowed in the first half, 40 allowed in the second half.

Like, I was talking to you about this in the media room.

It could have been so much worse and maybe that was golden state not necessarily hitting

as many shots as they could.

Yeah, I mean, maybe I'm, maybe I'm being too critical, right?

Of, sorry, I mean, I cut you off, I'm sorry.

Just that like I'd like to hear from the people in the comments of great out Denver's defensive

performance tonight.

First half and second half.

Like, because I think across the two, yeah, across the two, how do you grade them out

defensively?

Because Ryan, you wanted to give them an A, yes?

I, yeah, I think he'll allow 93 and you allow 40 in the second half.

I think you get an A.

And I was more, I said the first half was so bad that I wanted to give him a B plus

because I was like, I think they can play, I also think they can play better defense

than they did.

Like, this is a lot of it for me is when I, when I'm harping on the defense, it's not.

I, I do not think that this team is incapable of it.

There are teams I think they just like can't do it.

I don't think the nuggets are that a lot of the time.

It's just like, okay, you hack, you, you got a lock in here.

You got to actually pay attention to the scouting report.

You got to actually close out with like effort, those kind of things.

So I, I am higher on them, actually, my criticisms than a lot of people are because I don't

think that they're inept.

I just think that they are, I don't think they're lazy.

I think they are easily distracted is a way to do it.

Yeah, like the, the easily distracted part is a good thing because there's, there are

so many things that they feel like they have to cover, but to be fair, they, they locked

in in the second half.

And that's really where I want to focus on for this, this first segment, especially.

I want to, I want to amp up Nicole Yokoch again, because yeah, it was so good.

I thought that that third quarter, I called it, I think it's one of the best quarters

that he has played this season.

And it might not even have been from a numbers perspective, but it was just the mentality

that he brought.

Matt, there was a, there was a drive that he had where he was getting hit by two guys.

I believe it was Gisanto's and Dremont Green, he checks up a floater over them, still makes

it.

He got one free throw tonight.

So it was on an and one in the early portion of the game against Christophe Sporzingas

that he earned by complaining about a call on the other end.

But like he fought through a lot of contact and Dremont Green did a lot of things to disrupt

him early in this game.

He wasn't at his best.

And then he just kind of put his head down and finally did the thing that I think you

and I have both been talking about, stop worrying about the calls, just worry about dominating

the basketball game.

And he dominated the basketball game on both ends of the floor.

His contests were really good.

He was happening to defense in the third quarter, did a lot of really great things rotating

and just covering for other people and then they rotated behind him.

And it looked like the vision of what was supposed to happen for much of this season.

You know, I asked Alman after the game because he had no, he had no fouls at half.

And I asked Alman kind of like how much does that play into it?

And he was like when you play as many minutes as he does, you're always at risk.

Like you have to be able to manage this.

You have to keep an idea of like how much is this there.

And like Alman said, like he can see shots in first halves a lot because he can't pick

up that foul.

And I thought in the third quarter when he actually got aggressive and was challenging,

it was so good.

He made real plays, offensively, look, the biggest thing in the, in that third quarter

was actually the three points.

I made two threes.

He was two of two from two point range.

He finishes with 10 points, didn't need free throws, got through it.

And yeah, like I thought his mentality tonight was the best that I've seen it in a while.

He was, he got away, he stopped with all of the stuff about trying to beat the officiating

and just played the game and really did dominate.

He was plus 19 in that third quarter.

Plus 19 in a quarter is awesome.

Like, and the fact that he wasn't plus 19 in the game, I think it shows, okay, the rest

of it was still, there's stuff to be desired in the first and second quarters.

And what Denver was doing overall, but, but that they needed it.

You know, I think you want to see him have like this 48 minute performance.

And I don't even think, I don't, I really don't think that any team has a 48 minute performance.

I think it's more like the nights it feels like 48 is probably closer to 42, sure.

You want to feel like they can put that, like they can have a night like that though where

it's like everything goes right because so much as it has gone wrong for them this season.

But ultimately, it's like, look, you know, they are in a spot where teams can hang with

them.

And I actually think it's really positive that these teams have hung with them and the

nuggets have been like, no, no, you're not winning.

Like we're not good enough to blow you out, but we are good enough to beat you for sure.

And that I think is really good.

They did blow them out tonight.

So six games in a row is the tide for the longest win streak that they've had since

December.

They had a November, like early, a late October early November win streak that went for seven

games.

So they'll be challenging that.

We'll see if they can continue to push that up higher.

But tell you what, let's take a break.

When we come back, we're going to talk about some of the injuries that they faced.

We'll talk about some of the ramifications of that and the rotation and what the nuggets

will do next.

We'll be right back here on locked on nuggets.

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We are back locked on nuggets.

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button would really, really appreciate it.

Also put out an everyday or club episode at midnight last night.

A little bit late, but talk a little bit about pressure and adversity and uncertainty

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which is where the nuggets are about, it can be really difficult.

It can be really tough.

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Okay, let's talk about the injuries Matt, can you run me through like how many injuries

there were tonight?

It felt like there were a million.

Okay.

So A.G.

misses the game.

It was a hamstring, yes.

This was a left calf injury, which is new new cat, new new injury on the calf.

Tightness, Adeland says before the game that it popped up this morning, he called in and

told them that he was dealing with discomfort there and they decided to be proactive with

it.

I understand being worried about it.

Yes, there was a possibility he misses the jazz game.

Yes, there's a possibility at lingers.

I'm not going to sit here and be like, it's fine, everything's fine, but also just because

people are so scarred at this point, if this was, if things had not gone the way that they

had this season, I would just be like, yeah, he had some tightness, they're holding him

out at the big deal.

Because I pay attention to the injury report across the league because I have to and this

stuff happens all the time and that's just like how it is and it should be okay.

But if you want to do them about it, you can.

So no A.G., Spencer Jones gets hamstring tightness, he's out.

Cam Johnson suffers back spasms, had a big pack on his back tonight and came back out

by the way to the bench and was trying to get loose to play and the nuggets held him

out.

Good.

There's no reason for them in this game to try to force that.

Yeah, the way he was, they pulled away so you didn't have to.

And then, the technology suffers an injury and is on crutches and a walking boot after

the game.

So by that count, or technically players that can play the position, that would be one,

two, three, four, and if you count Peyton Watson's minute restriction, five power forwards

for the never nuggets and foul trouble, by the way, with injuries.

Yeah, like I is just just a lot to deal with.

And so if Denver had like won this game very close or had like gone for a bit lost this

game, there would be a lot of questions about, oh man, why did they go small?

Why were they going so small?

Like, what do they do?

And that's the reason, like literally the reason is they did not have another option.

So look, it's an unfortunate situation.

We asked them about a post game and they have a lot of experience doing this.

Bruce Brown said that is that they, they understand how this has gone because it feels like

the season has been like that a lot.

But David Adamin also said much of the same that it's just, it's very frustrating.

He woke up and he thought he was going to have a full roster at his disposal again.

And instead they went from not one, not two, not three, before power forwards outs at

the same time.

So look, sometimes that's how the cookie grumbles, but that's just Denver's lot in life this

season.

No indication on Jamal concussion protocol that I saw.

And Adamin said, you know, he was like, I haven't talked to, talked to medical staff

Steve short.

He said, you know, the players after when these things first happen, they always think

they're going to be fine and play and then it swells up.

So I think the questions kind of, what do you need to get, like what do you need to get

through the jazz game?

I think it is a valid question, especially after it was so close last last time.

And it's fine.

However you want to answer that, you can answer that.

I think Cam could go if it was an important game.

I think Spencer could go if it was an important game.

I think no.

And AG probably, and AG definitely goes if it's an important game.

That's my opinion.

It's just like, yeah, they, you know, and so this isn't great, but I also, this, it could

be worse.

Yeah.

I believe, and it has been worse like this, this actually happened kind of at the perfect

time for Denver because they've just won six games in a row.

And like they are going into a couple of days off before they face Utah and then they've

got another couple of days off after that.

So there will be time for these guys to recover to put themselves into the best position.

I actually think that going into Utah, like I would not play any of Jamal Murray, Cam

Johnson, Aaron Gordon, or Zeke Najee, probably.

I would certainly, like I don't know where Spencer will be on that, on that situation.

But I think that this is why you get the point cards that you do in the buyout market

in the free agency.

And like you, this is the opportunity to give Jamal a day off against the Utah Jazz in

a one game road trip.

Like it's just pretty reasonable to do so.

I don't think he says, man, I, he'll try not to, like he'll, he'll desperately want

to play.

But like, I did, I did 65 game threshold.

I mean, look, Houston won again today.

Yeah.

So like, I do think you're kind of in a spot in terms of, I think, I only need to set

Jamal.

I think it's five in place.

They got two days off.

Like it's two days off and then they play.

Okay.

So like, A.G.

I think is a different matter where it's like, why, like what's the benefit, right?

Like what's, like the risk, the risk reward isn't as worth it with A.G.

I think it's a little bit, I think it's worth it with Jamal.

Well, if it is just one game of maintenance, then there's, there's at least a question

there for Aaron.

Like if this is something that he just woke up and was uncomfortable, then it is what

it is.

But like, do you get the sense that this is something that's going to linger with A.G.?

No, but I also think it's like, look, you said this and I think you're really, really

smart about it, which is like, if you, if you miss this game, have him miss the next

one and you give him six days off.

That's great for him.

True.

Yeah.

It's, it's the absolute best case scenario at this stage of the season.

So, and then you'll lead into that San Antonio game against Victor Webñamas.

No, the, so here's the other problem though.

It's like, all right, let's, let's say a cam can't go.

Okay.

Let's say the back spasm is still bothering cam, so he can't go and you'll have A.G.

The temptation is going to be to raise Peyton's minutes restriction.

And I don't know if that's a good idea or not.

He's played four games now, right?

Like, how long do we expect minutes restrictions to usually go 10?

Okay.

Um, yeah, it's, it's a tough situation.

Like who would start a power forward in that case?

The good news is that against Utah, like, there's not like a whole bunch of physical.

Good news with Utah as you can play as badly as you want.

Yeah, like I, that's, that's fair.

So it'll, it'll, it'll be interesting.

This is something to monitor.

We'll talk about it throughout the week, obviously, but I do think that Denver did a really

good job of responding to the injuries in this particular game.

I think they evolved.

I think they did a lot of good things and didn't let that kind of get them down in a situation

where they might have gotten down before.

Now, if it was an injury to Joker or to Jamal, then maybe that's a different feeling,

but they, they still steady the ship.

This is a game to play Doron Holmes and get him minutes next to Nicola.

Ooh, good call.

Like you want to start him next to Nicola?

I don't know if I would start him, but I would definitely put him in the,

I don't think he should be playing just the non-yokeage minutes.

Yeah.

Like I would legitimately, I would look at the possibility of having him finish the quarter

with Joker and then have him bridge and go that way.

And then if you need to, if you get the gas, play Val, there's why he's here.

Like these are the kinds of games that are important for Doron to get,

especially at this stage of the season.

So I'm either going to be, we need to go break.

But I just want to like, I want to make this point.

This is the hard part when you are in a tight seedings race.

And you're on a win streak and you feel like things are finally good.

We got to keep it going.

So we can't screw it up by playing a kid that's been in the G league.

This is the game that you play him in.

This is the game where you get a good result out of him.

And if it's disastrous, do you pull it?

Yes, you pull the plug.

If, if Doron comes in and it's like a 12-0 run and he's turning the ball over

and missing terrible shit, like, if he has that kind of stint,

but I don't think he's going to do that.

Like I just don't get this isn't, this isn't.

I mean, he's a very good, he's a good player now.

He's a really important player for the Minnesota gym rules.

But this is not the one's highland, like he's just not that kind of guy.

Yeah, his role isn't that.

So I think you play Doron Holmes in this one.

And like, this is the game you play Julian and you play Doron and give Curtis some run

and go that route and be like,

let's try some stuff because you don't need to worry about the jazz getting away from you.

They proved the last game.

Don't worry.

They will find a way to let you catch up.

They've got it in them.

So no, it's a good point.

And I think you might as well take advantage of the depth that you do have.

So let's take a break when we come back.

We're going to discuss the starters minus one problem.

I'll let you guys know what Matt's going to tell you about that.

We'll be back here on locked on nuggets.

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Final segment locked on nuggets.

Thank you so much for tuning into the show.

What you wrote here the starters minus one problem it is something that we talked about

at the arena but I want you to tell the world a little bit about what Aaron Gordon means

to this team.

I don't know what's about Aaron and this is a theory and not a fact okay and Ryan has

understandably skeptical of this.

Where I noticed though was here's what I have been able to figure out is like all right

Spencer's been a positive this year we can all agree on that it's like Spencer.

Makes hustle plays which they need Spencer rebounds which they need Spencer is a good good

switch defender which they need Spencer has been a good good three point shooter which they

need like all these things are good so why is it that I know is that when Spencer's in

the starting unit they absolutely get annihilated with what was that that is a make any sense

you add a pretty good player in in place of AG even if it's like well the role is very

different yes but like you should be able to play differently and then I was noticing

also that I've thought about this and like when Tim hard away junior starts I hate it

I hate those minutes I feel like the Tim starting games this year has been awful when

Nicole has played like it just doesn't work and then Peyton started tonight and Peyton

was really bad I thought in that first quarter playing alongside the starters and I was

like and then it hit me I was like wait so no one can start with the other four starters

except AG and so we start looking through the numbers and it's like they've only played

with that Peyton lineup with Nicole with the other four guys nine minutes going into

the night and I haven't checked what the numbers were tonight but like to me to and immediately

what happens and I don't think this is about cam at all at all because I thought cam actually

was playing pretty well that everybody's like the eyeballs and I'm like okay but I care

more about did he create the shots that needed like I don't I'm not he's having a career

from three I'm not worried about I'm shooting um but like cam goes out and all of a sudden

like everything figured like clicks into place what is it with Jamal Christian cam and Joker

that if it's not a G that combo has struggled this year why would that be the case it's

a good question it is a good question now I will say kind of encounter counter intuitively

the nuggets are sixth in net rating in the first quarter themselves in the first quarter

Aaron Gordon oh here's a good one Aaron Gordon has a plus 22 net rating when Aaron Gordon

is off the floor the nuggets have a plus 2.3 net rating now with Jamal Murray off the

floor there minus 0.9 with Nicole Eokich off the floor on the first quarter there's 0.6

it gets a little bit like more like different levels at that point but with Spencer Jones

by the way off the floor in the first quarter there plus 11.9 so yes like Spencer has definitely

filled in a lot of the hustle things that they need but like him and Bruce specifically

like for whatever reason their numbers are not good in first quarter specifically in terms

of the actual impact on on what the plus minus says for the team so I don't know why

like I don't I don't know what the the answer is like okay so just to put this out there

let's just let's just look at Christian cam and Jamal and then let's look at the four

man combos so with JV they played 13 minutes it doesn't matter they played 270 with Gordon

in their plus seven that's really good pretty good they've played 116 with Julian and

they're plus 5.6 which is interesting to me that's interesting they're plus by the way

they are better that those three with Julian are better than the numbers with those three

and Yokech now Yokech is included in those minutes but they're plus 5.6 those three with

Julian plus 5.0 with Joker wow weird all right Christian cam Jamal and Tim Tim hard

way are minus 5.6 Christian cam and Jamal with Spencer are minus 15.4 and with Bruce in 20 minutes

it's minus 22.5 so like this is my problem is I'm like I noticed that that combination of

those three guys Christian Jamal and cam like we can even remove Nicola from this equation

sure those three guys only work with AG and I think it's as simple as you have to be

able to operate Dunker like Tony says no shooting or spacing that's incorrect yeah that's

like just not that's a lie it's objectively false yeah because like if you were right Tony

what it would tell you is that those combos are really great and then when Christian is added

to it it's bad and or and when Christians off it's great that's what those numbers would tell you

if that was the the problem if it was spacing but it's not because cam's a 43% shooter you do

have Christian's rim gravity which I'm telling you is a real thing had a great

finish hold of spacing and you have Jamal Murray yeah so that's not it so I think it's it's fair

to have questions as to why it is so like why they are so dependent on that level of rim gravity

is it because Yokech is more of a floater player is he's more of a an 8 to 10 foot kind of guy

that's where he operates that's where like he's he sometimes gets all the way to the rim and yes

that's a great thing but a lot of times he's able to do that a little bit better when like there's

a guy in the Dunker spot that's that's removing that second bit of help and I don't know like I

actually don't know what it is part of it is the defense like I'm not going to say here and say

that it's all offensive related like Aaron has been one of their best stabilizers on the defensive

event in the first quarter a g's offensive or his defense of rating is 108.1 now his offensive

rating is 130 in the first quarter and then when he is off the floor it's 117.3 offense 115.1

defense so it's probably both it's probably both of those things and they're just not getting the

right mix of stuff without him at this point so they miss him and it's going to be very important

for him to stay healthy in the playoffs which is why you don't play him in Utah. I mean you've

made the AG point here but to me this is the bigger problem because if if this is the it is not good

for a playoff environment for you to be able to say that these three starters don't work together

without a fourth you need to be able to build like all right we're gonna play those three and then

maybe Val or Spencer at five and then work in whoever like you need to be able to like mix and

match a little bit better and if you just like can't do it because those like those guys go to

pieces without this specific it's very rare for those three to play together in a bench configuration

while Yokech isn't out there so I think a lot of these minutes also include Yokech I'm not gonna

say here and like say that they don't like how many of those happen without Yokech on the floor

is as I think a fair question it's got to be about the absolute most I mean no like those three

with AG and Yoke are 268 minutes the second biggest combo is actually those three Julian and Yoke

like this is the crazy one Ryan that's 112 minutes

well they uh that that was a lineup that they started in February yeah and plus 6.6 it wasn't the

problem that's really good like that works um they actually it looks like so I did those three

and five man combinations those three have the very this is gonna blow your mind those three let me

remove the um leverage because that's a problem on data baller okay nope those three have played a

grand total of five minutes without Nicoli Yokech on the floor in five minutes like I don't I don't

think that they can't it's just a mechanism that they don't ever go to within the style of rotations

that they play it's very because like a lot of the time what they do and what they have done for

a long time is they might stagger Jamal or they might stagger camp or they might stagger both

right it's very rare that they stagger their three kind of guard and wings but so this is the one

that kills me because again going back to the spacing thing yeah this is the one that kills me

all right so you should be able to say all right we're gonna have Cam Johnson at 43% sheer this year

and we're gonna have Tim Hardaway Jr our best three point shooter and we're gonna have Jamal Murray

just broke the record for three's in a nugget season yeah

that lineup struggles like shooting it no struggles defensively okay okay

it's I mean it's just it's crazy to me that like yeah my only point here is really and again

the plus minus data that we're running through here the way to think of it always is

it's not even will this work it is has this worked that's the best way to look at net rating plus

minus data and this is why I get really upset with people that try and like dismiss it I'm like

you don't have to get defensive about this this is not telling you how good a player is or even how

good a lineup is it's saying did it work or not and you can break it down to offense and defense

and like it hasn't worked defensively it's kind of the key here yeah um I just like it is insane to

me that these three guys and Joker if you don't have a G struggle that's crazy to me yeah like

it shouldn't be the way that it is there like for a lot of that stretch like they've played some

really tough teams I'm not gonna say here and say that they haven't but like they they have also

played bad teams and they should be hold held to a high standard as the best player in the world

and an all NBA caliber player this year so it'll be interesting to see if they can like

survive that or maybe they won't have to maybe the playoffs like they're just going to play

these guys will hook a heck of a lot and they'll they'll say good they'll be it'll be fine so

we'll see um that's all I've got you got anything else no okay I mean uh

uh 6-0 6-0 it's not nothing like they can win three more games

that's about it that's gonna do for this episode of Lockdown Nuggets Denver Nuggets definitely

not going on a 10 game losing streak that's not happening thank you so much talk to you guys

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