Kawhi Leonard & Clippers should be FAVORED vs. Nikola Jokic & Nuggets in first round of NBA playoffs
Jason gives his initial predictions for the Los Angeles Clippers facing the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the NBA playoffs, the challenges that Kawhi Leonard and James Harden pose, and why Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets have their work cut out for them this series.
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#nba #nbaplayoffs #nbafinals #nbahighlights #nbabasketball #basketball #sports #reaction #clippers #losangeleslakers #nuggets #denvernuggets #kawhileonard #jamesharden #nikolajokic
48 Comments
Terrible matchup for the Clippers. Stop getting fooled by this stuff. Especially the Harden stuff. This is hilarious. It really is. The nuggets love this matchup. Iso scoring and teams that dont pass well. This is a team that the nuggets historically guard extremely well. Harden better be elite because Kawhi is not going to be able to make plays against Gordon and with the way Denver defends at the level kawhi is not the kind of playmaker that gives them trouble. Having 2 non shooters against Denver helps them even more defensively. They have trouble when they are spaced out and go against jiggerbug guards and wings like edwards that have handles and athleticism. Harden and Kawhi are not that.
Over the last 15 games, clippers 1st in offense, 2nd in defense (by 0.1), 1st in differential. Clippers got 50 wins with only 37 games from Kawhi and a league leading 17(!!) sets of back to back games
Great take 💯💯 Clippers in 6 , they don’t have a bench or defense to last ! They’ll have to rely too much on that starting 5 with no coach ! Yea clippers in 6
Zeke naji. The nugs are gonna play zeke naji for stretches instead of Christian braun
My main concern for the Clippers defensively is they don't really have a big outside of Zu that can come over and give him help v Jokic. I like ZU a ton but nobody can last v Jokic for a series in one on one coverage. Minnesota was able to slow Jokic a little bit last year because they had both Gobert and Towns to play a kind of rover role to harass Jokic. AD was able to play that rover role from the 4 in the bubble v Jokic while Dwight Howard started at center. It was pretty effective. The Clippers don't have the personnel to play that way. So I predict Jokic is going to go off in spite of how good a defender Zu is.
If the Clippers remain healthy then there's no reason to pick the Nuggets to come out this series. Jokic is unstoppable sure, but most of the team is very weak. Plus firing their head coach this late should make it relatively easy for the Clippers imo
Payton Watson could definitely hold his own against kawhi, so can westbrook now you at least 3 ppl that could guard kawhi
Denver Nuggets
Chicken Nuggets
Clippers in 5.
The amount of people falling for this Clippers hype is too funny lol. Nuggets will either sweep or win in 5.
Even if Clippers win the series, I think people over reach on the expectations. Kawhi is injury prone and Harden loses 1/3rd to 1/2 his point average due to differece in off season officiating.
How much can they keep a momentum? 5 games, 14 games, all the way to the finals?
The Nuggets are in a similar position in that everyone outside Jokic is a random number generator in terms of performance. The only caveat to them is aside from Jokic, anyone else can get injured and they can still possibly win the chip. Depends entirely if the rest of the team decide to take up masonry and lay bricks enough to build a small town.
Harden never destroy anyone in the playoffs ever
I know no one cares about my opinion but I loved your show till this season bro. It’s fully Lakers heavy and first when I started watching your videos you were very objective overall with your takes now you just sound like another Laker podcast boy. Dude you’re putting Harden over Joker and the guys he won a championship with just 2 years ago? Bro come on! They’ve had a decent couple of games to end the season so what? Denver has had a terrible group and still they managed to stack 50 wins and you’re just putting the clippers over them? Disrespectful brate. Joker is Serbian, he has inat in him you probably don’t know what that is. But he’ll have you swallowing your takes very soon.
Very silly assessment you don't know what you talking about
Im a nuggets fan so obviously biased, but the more I think about it this is actually a pretty solid matchup defensively for the nuggets. Aaron gordon is the perfect defender for kawhi and Braun has the size, strength and athletecism to guard harden.
Clippers playing better of late, but nuggets a bad matchup for L.A….
The beast is awake. Jokic is the NBA version of Mahomes…so good luck Clippers. Nuggets in 5.
The Clippers need to be up by more than 10 points going into the last 5 minutes of every game. Denver's execution on both ends in those situations is just too good. In those situations they basically turn the game into a tug of war where every time you do not get a basket or 2 of 2 FTs, they will close the gap possession by possession.
Denver again in underdog role, Jokic will demolished the LAC in 5
This series is hard to guage. Clippers have been in must win mode for 2 months just to make it in, Nuggets haven't taken the entire season seriously, got their coach fired and still have home court. Both teams have dealt with long term injuries to their stars impacting their records. The nuggets ceiling is much higher but they will have to try much harder than they have been to win. It might come down to if Murray is 2023 form or not
Nuggets, when clicking on all cylinders, should beat an old and injured Clippers team. 1000%
Mailbag: hey Jason this is kind of a fun one I think. Can you rank the 10 nba players you think will be the best in the playoffs this season? I’m talking about individual players, not necessarily how far their team will get.
For example, I believe Jokic will still be the best in the playoffs even though I don’t really expect his team to make a deep playoff run
He is so bias … Unfortunately Jokic is smarter than u
Let's go Kawhi
The Claw is locked tf in right now and it's sight to behold 😂
man with the best analysis. I highly appreciate and respect him. I agree with the analysis that the Clippers will be slightly favored in this duel. As for defense, I expect a lot of takeovers in Denver. AG should be a natural on the KL. And that Watson and Jokic are down. Against GSW Green guarded the KL in the last attacks. AG is at a higher level. The Clippers' main advantage is not even Harden and Kawhi, but Zubac in the racket.
LA REALLY needs Batum back, their guards become so much less effective when teams can hunt them easily.
If the nuggets were a big city team you’d be swallowing you hop on every la team Denver will have the best player on the court hater !
No one ever struggled against Harden in playoff, ever.
i’m a die hard nugs fan, and it’s clear u haven’t really watched them much. i’m not even saying we win this series, we have glaring holes. but god damn are the lakers the only team u watch before u talk about them?
My initial impression is that Nuggets will beat the Clippers.
I LOVE seeing this Nuggets squad as a quiet underdog, limping along since the coach and GM got fired to sure defeat at the hands of the Clippers. Calvin Booth did a fantastic job evaluating players and stocking a deep bench, which will only get deeper next year with the return of DaRon Holmes II. The Nuggets' starters are SOLID, though some were oft-injured this year. Right here, right now is as healthy as the Nuggets have been all season long. David Adelman has been a Nuggets coach for 8 years, so letting Coach Malone and Booth go now to spark the team was a good move, necessitated by the ever-souring relationship between the two men. The players have responded positively. Frankly it was amazing the Nuggets won 50 games this year, given persistent injuries to AG and Jamal Murray. Malone/Adelman used at least 26 different starting lineups, so a lot of younger players got playing time they otherwise would not have had (especially under Malone, who preferred Jokic be paired with veterans, and wasn't all that into developing the deep bench).
I like their chances so much that I put money on them.
You must be a clippers fan, GO NUGGETS
Nuggets in 5. They own the clips. I'd even put a few bucks down on a sweep
I want to see what Murray does against Kris Dunn and how he guards harden, norm and bogi on defense. I also want to see how they guard Kawhi.
Only time jokic lost in the first round was when his entire team was hurt, and that was to the eventual nba champs
This feels right as a nuggets fan. Win or lose, I’d rather everyone tell us we’re going home
Nuggets the better team
Well… some good arguments from Jason here.
But – harden is a perfect target for Murray on o. Zu can`t really guard Jokic and in switches – there`s no one else.
Looking at 3 and 4s – Aaron and Mike are bigger (and better shooters) than their opponents.
CB might be the wildcard in this matchup (also Watson on D side).
I expect Deandre and Russ to play big part in this series too.
PACE will determine the winner – and Nuggets can play quicker and faster.
If DEN can produce good (not even great) defense – DEN wins this in 5.
I can’t doubt joker and Westbrook clamps harden but the claw bag carry a team by himself healthy y normal Powell. Your forgetting Gordon offensive game. He’s forgetting Westbrook can guard 1 to 5 and there center can’t shoot y Westbrook will be left open a lot but keep him in the corner and makes it better, it’s going to be good!!
If jokic average 30 10 10. Clipps win in 5.
Jokic needs 40 13 13 just to win in 7.
Jokic should gtfo there asap.
Jokic is gonna have to actually defend zu in the post, harden step back and drop 40 and 13 13 to win this series.
Jokic is by far the best player this series and I'm a kawhi fan.
And jason is right. Jokic efficiency slightly drops against big strong bigs. Jokic struggles against guys like embiid and zu in post ups. Though jokic just brings them out to defend in space to counter.
But that's 1 weapon neutralised.
ABSOLUTELY NOT !! DENVER IS THE BETTER TEAM !! 💯💯
Nuggets fan.
Leonard is a problem, hopefully AG and Watson can do something. Harden and Powell always give us problems, and Zu is better than in the past. MPJ is going to have to make contested shots and that's not his thing in the playoffs, so Zeke Nnaji is going to have to play more or Denver is done in 5.
I'll say Nuggets in 7 because of Jokic, but Clippers probably win in 6. I just hope the Nuggets find a GM and rebuild their front office asap.
Bro you’re falling prey to all these mainstream takes..crazy how quickly we forget how good Jokic is
problem with nuggets is they have shitty bench end of story clippers in 6
Completely writing off Peyton Watson defensively is kinda a stretch
The Nuggets have to get rid of Jabum27 ASAP
For Nuggets this series depends upon how well murray will play and can westbrook guard kawhi and harden like he's been good defensively this regular season