NBA Gametime react to Denver Nuggets beat Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 6; Jokic 29 Pts ; SGA 32 Pts

NBA Gametime react to Denver Nuggets beat Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 6; Jokic 29 Pts ; SGA 32 Pts

have you with us. The Denver Nuggets have forced a game seven in their conference semifinals with the Oklahoma City Thunder. They were able to summon the physical strength, at least in the case of Jamal Murray, who was questionable to even play in this game. And they summoned Julian Strawther off the bench for 15 points, a playoff careerhigh in order to extend this series to a seventh game. Lots to get into here, including press conference coverage. We hear from both coaches, some of the stars from the game as well. But first, let’s get your impressions of what we saw tonight from the Nuggets. How How did they keep this series going? I I again, I I I thought, you know, the way the way Joic played game five, he came out here in game six and, you know, before he was struggling, he ain’t struggling no more, Matt. You know, that’s over. That that that all that shooting slump and all that stuff that that’s out the door. I mean, he was fantastic tonight. uh scoring the basketball uh passing almost had a you know a triple double you know finished the game with 29 you know 14 and you know eight assists eight assists I mean he was just he he did it all just one turnover for a guy who has the ball in his hands as much as he does I mean so you know we said after game five he’s kind of figured out how to score when to score who to score against and tonight he was just able to pick his spots pick his spots and before you know it, he’s got a stat line and you’re like, “Wow, I didn’t realize he did all that again.” So, I I think, you know, OKC’s got a problem. They got to figure out how to stop this guy because you had him kind of bottled up now. You know, he he’s out and and he ain’t getting ready to stop. No. You know, so you got to figure out your whole game plan now, game seven, is what are you going to do about the Joker because he’s coming. Well, no one’s really figured out that guy tonight. They couldn’t really figure out Jamal Murray. Again, questionable with an illness before this game. He was apparently a game time decision. Comes up with 25 points. He was a plus 28. Best for any player on the floor in this game. As it turned out, Zeke predicted it before. These sick games sometimes, you know, turn out well for the team with the sick guy, man. He came out and he hit him with the, “Oh, my stomach hurts.” He took that and absolutely put the barbecue chicken on him. Their attitude and and I said this at the beginning, their attitude and confidence at the beginning of this game was second to none. They came out established pace. They did not get shook by um anything that OKC was doing. I thought OKC at the beginning of the game wasn’t really focused on what they wanted to attack. They took the shots that Denver was willing to live with. You want to know one thing that I noticed and we’ll talk about this if you know whatever section that is. You want to know why Joic can play 40 minutes and why he’s chilled out now? Cuz he can be they can be in that zone. He not really guarding nobody no more. He’s only having to play offense. If you really watch him, he chilling half the time on defense. He’s getting a break. Now, obviously, is he tired? He’s moving around, but in that zone, he’s not in the action. Yeah. Neither is Michael Porter Jr., neither is Jamal Murray. They might be in one little action. But if you got all these guys that couldn’t kick that thing in the ocean, you chilling and you rebound and then you get to go play offense. And you know what? today as we watched I think if we watch the film only twice did two big men ever come over and they moved Hardenstein they either got check on Jokic and that way he scored on him he’s hitting him with this all game they didn’t know listen they didn’t know left right up down ab what nobody wanted no piece of that and I thought this is a bad every loss is bad in the playoffs this is a bad loss for OKC because what are you going to do now because you got to fight a lot lot of whatifs. Is Jaylen Williams going to show up? What lineups can I play? Are we going to make shots? How are we going to stop Jokic? Oh man, now they can go to another guy on the bench. We’re Aaron Gordon had a bad game, but what’s he going to You just gave him two more days of rest. You gave Jamal Murray two more days of rest. Jokic two days of rest. And now, how do we have confidence? Now we don’t have confidence in what our game plan is versus the most uns right now. So, well, you just addressed several of those several questions to face. There are other questions like, is Aaron Gordon okay? Saw him grab for his hamstring. He was pulled from the game with about 50 seconds left to go. Can OKC solve that Denver zone as well? They really struggled against that at times. Well, they’re they’re seeing they’re seeing 131 zone. Y 3-2 zone, two-3 zone, manto man, trap switch. So they, you know, OKC is used to playing one-on-one against their guy. Beat you off the dribble, drive, kick. You know, Shay does his thing. But now you’re sitting back and you’re saying, “Are they in a two-3 zone? Are they in a 3-2 zone? Are they in a 131? How we’re attacking?” Okay, game seven. Now, when you talk about preparation, you want your players prepared. You want them understanding what what they’re facing, how to attack it, when we’re attacking it, what to do. OKC, right now they’re on their heels because they’re seeing a lot of things and I’m going to keep saying this. Then after all of that, you got to figure out what are we going to do about the Joker cuz he’s out of the box. He’s out of the box. Here’s one thing that just jumped out at the page. When you’re in the zone, you know what that makes you do? you have to rely on three-point shooting or you have to rely on the pass. When you have to rely on the pass or three-point shooting, what does that do? It keeps you off the free throw line. Y So Denver had 32 free throws, right? Yes. Sorry, I don’t have my glasses. OKC had 16. 16. Yep. So, you know, Shay is working hard to get them free throws, but he’s really the only creator. And Jaylen Williams, like you’re the number two guy. You played almost 40 minutes. You can’t get to a free throw line. That’s a thing. You you got to have a different mentality, brother. We we need more than six. Are they playing against Jim Beaheim and Syracuse? But the thing is, it has them so shook that they are not doing what you have to do. And maybe it’s film, maybe it’s youthfulness, but you can’t settle a game with 16 and give up 32 free throws because that means they putting that body on you. You’re fouling. Think about the dumb fouls that they had today where you were like, “For what?” Yeah, right. For what? And then Shay gets four. Now he really ain’t playing defense. Huge story line in this game. We can delve deeper into a lot of this uh including the OKC offense which got really stagnant at times. Just a lot of dribbling and one-on-one leading to nothing. Here’s Denver head coach David Adelman. Go ahead, David. I’ll start with Julian. Um the run at the end of obviously huge in terms of getting you guys some separation. How important was it to have someone kind of lower down on the bench I guess step up in those moments? Yeah, and I think Julian’s going to get credit for scoring 15 points. Uh I thought he held water defensively, too. That was a big deal. Uh you want to keep an offensive player out there. Uh but they have to be able to handle their own on the other end, and he did. Uh we didn’t have to change schematically defensively, uh because he sat down, moved his feet, and guarded. And then obviously him being able to stay out there because of that, uh 15 points in 19 minutes. Uh yeah, I mean it’s it’s funny thinking about game five and game four. You know, game four their role players make threes, game five, Dort makes threes. Uh tonight we had a guy step up uh make some shots and then our main people are so complimentary. Um and obviously in the fourth quarter to win that quarter after what’s happened the last two games uh says a lot about our guys and the fact that they can bounce back from anything. Uh and I keep saying that. Uh so I don’t know, we just keep finding a way. We’ll go play another game. Seven coach. Um, another game where you have an eight-point lead going to the fourth quarter and this time and you talked pregame about getting time to rest Jamal and you did rest Joic as opposed to last game. Can you just take us through the thought process of why you sort of changed things up and how that worked for you? Well, it’s going to be one or the other. Like I said, last game I I kind of kicked myself for not taking one of them out. Uh, and Nicole seemed body language wise like he wanted to sit for a second. Uh the beautiful thing was they had four timeouts. Again, I know it didn’t work out last game, but that does let you control your substitutions. And those guys held water, you know, to start that quarter. Uh so this was an incredible team win. Uh small thing I know Michael’s been struggling. Mike made it two early threes. It kind of loosens up the floor a little bit. It allows you to play in space much easier for Jamal and Nola. And then obviously Julian in the second half. So you had two guys make impactful threes where you’re allowed to play the way we want to play offensively. And outside of the end where we turned it over, I thought we took care of it pretty well throughout. What did you see from your guys backs against the wall facing elimination, two heartbreaking losses to be able to come out and get a pretty dominant win today and force a game seven? Same thing I always see. Uh yeah, I mean those losses were tough, but I mean it was 3-2. The series is still here. I’ve said this, I know it’s cliche, but every game is its own chapter. It’s its own thing. It’s an it’s its own entity and people different people are going to step

NBA Gametime reacts to Denver Nuggets beat Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 6; Nikola Jokic 29 Pts ; Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 32 Pts