EXCELLENT: Nuggets Bumrush Rockets

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I knew there was a good team in there.

The nougat's absolutely bum rush the rockets.

Sclish the season series.

Cam Johnson looks awesome, Christian Brown looks awesome.

Yogi's doesn't have to score 35, then deep.

That's played well.

The rocket's missed a lot of shots.

We'll talk about it unlocked on Nuggets.

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

network, your team every day.

Welcome to Lockdown Nuggets, your daily Denver Nuggets podcast, part of the Lockdown

podcast network, your team every day.

Thanks for joining us and make it as part of your day, being an everydayer and making

us your first listen Monday through Friday and on the weekends, whenever there's Nuggets

news or games, we are there for you devoted Nuggets fans.

My name is Matt Moore.

I'm a senior MBA writer for the Action Network.

You can catch my writing at fancited and at Harvard Paroxysm and the Denver Dig and

our everydayers club.

I'm on Lockdown MBA daily in a host podcast called Buckets, his name is Ryan Blackburn.

He's host of the Pick Action World podcast and the senior Nuggets writer for Mile High,

Sporting, Catchers, Work.

Over there, all throughout the week on today's show, we will talk about the events we will

talk about, Cam Johnson.

We will talk about Christian Brown.

We will talk about the Nuggets win over the Houston Rockets.

We will not talk about the fact that I call Christian Brown Cam when I asked him a question

tonight and it was extremely embarrassing.

We will not talk about that because that sucked.

Other than that, though, we have lots of awesome things to talk about tonight and we'll

talk about what the Nuggets will choose to do on this second game of a back-to-back versus

the San Antonio Spurs.

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Nuggets get to win 129 to 93 over the Houston Rockets.

You know how the Nuggets have been caught in all these situations where they've been facing

a really good team on the second night of a back to back and they've been tired and

just looked and played like absolute backside.

Yeah.

That was the Houston Rockets tonight.

They walked into a thresher for a Nuggets scene that you could tell.

I wouldn't say that they played mad tonight, but they were ready to put on a good performance

and everything clicked into place.

The most...

This is the big, big takeaway for me from this game in particular, outside of the performances

individually.

It is more about the collective to me because Cam Johnson has statement about defensively

and he was like, I think, you know, understanding the game plan helps you out of time.

That when the game plan clicks and it works, everything starts to make sense and it becomes

easier for you to do your job.

And I think that was true on both ends.

This is not just because of the Mab Heat, the David Adelman has taken.

I would say this, even if there had been no heat on David Adelman in the last couple

of days, I just wanted to say this, tonight was a phenomenal coaching job.

The Nuggets came out with a great game plan versus the Houston Rockets.

They blitzed and double Kevin Durant effectively and unpredictably forced the ball out of his

hands and made the right rotations.

They challenged on catches.

They forced disruptions.

We'll talk about Nikola Yokech and how great his defense was tonight because I want

to rave about how good Nikola was.

But as a unit, they set a defensive tone.

Not of...

It wasn't like Detroit where it's like, we're going to body you and physical you and be

all super tough.

It was, we know the game plan and we're going to execute it and this is going to limit

your ability to do what you want.

The Rockets missed a lot of shots.

That happens.

It happened to the Nuggets on Friday night, which is on the David Adelman said post game.

But the execution of the game plan got them out of rhythm and the offensive execution of

Denver got them in rhythm and it led to great results tonight in a great team win, Ryan.

Great team win.

One of the best wins of the season and yes, there are some reasons why this happened.

Obviously, like you said, Houston's on the second out of the back to back.

Last Denver was extremely motivated after the last couple of games in the situation that

they have gone through.

Quietly, like they have put together a better habits, I think, over the course of the post

all-star break stretch.

The results have not been the way that they want to them to.

And a lot of that was because they had these crooked runs that went against them.

These six-minute stretches, these like non-Yokech stints, these, hey, Yokech stints where

he just couldn't play any defense and things like that.

None of that happened tonight because from the opening tip all the way through the

clothes, I thought that the nuggets played well even when like they didn't have a great

defensive, like second quarter at the beginning with the bench out there, I still thought that

they did well enough in that stretch to give the starters a chance to do what they were

supposed to do.

And lo and behold, this was a very complete performance from the entire nuggets team.

I mean, that third quarter, David Adam and called that maybe a top five quarter of

the entire season for Denver.

And it's one of those where it's very reminiscent of what the nuggets used to be, or even like

earlier in the season, where like they're, you know, when they were healthy, when they

had everybody, when they had a soul back then.

It's kind of interesting to see what happens and what this team looks like when they can

get into a rhythm, when they are motivated, when they are connected.

Yeah, Adam R. Has leaned over to me when they were making that run.

And he was like, I can't believe we were denied this for four months.

Yeah, it's so true, man.

Like it's just like again, I understand why nuggets fans have been frustrated.

And like I, like I have tried to validate those feelings because I don't like telling

fans that they're crazy all the time.

But also like this was the team that has been in there.

And they face the right opponent on the right situation, on the back-to-back at home.

But hey, look, I'll just tell you, there's been a lot of nights this season where it's like,

yeah, they should win this game.

Like I'm walking into this game.

I thought it was going to be close because I was like they should win.

But and instead they were able to absolutely demolish them.

How about this for your starters tonight, Ryan Blackburn?

Nicole Yoga, St. Malmurri, Cam Johnson, Christian Brown, Aaron Gordon, a plus 17 on the

night with a 148 offensive rating and a 92.9 defensive rating for a plus 55.4.

That'll do that'll be pretty good, Matt.

That's that's a pretty good number.

Glad the plan works starters, collect them bench.

I thought was good enough.

Like some people were upset because it was like they were minus four.

And it's like, look, let's take the minus four and be okay with it.

Like that's what I'm saying is like they had Murray at the free throw line immediately at that point.

Like it was, it was fine.

Like a 17 to 13 stretch for the rockets in that first six minutes.

I'm not going to be up in arms about that.

The nuggets did enough scoring in order to keep it a, keep it abreast.

And like I thought that Jonas Balanchunis had a pretty good game in this one after kind of like

the first couple of minutes were a little rough.

But like immediately got back into the rhythm of it and did exactly what he's supposed to

doing this match up and and outscore their, their big before we go to break.

And we'll talk about Cam Johnson and we'll talk about Christian Brown and we'll talk about

Aaron Gordon, kind of a rough night.

Well, I'll talk about Nicole Yokech and his night and what I love from that.

We will talk about all of that coming up.

I want before we go to break his single out this comment from DTM and Z, who made this comment.

And I think it was huge.

He said, I like that one trap they did on KD before a cross half court.

This is what I'm talking about with the game plan execution.

The rockets are bringing up to end the half and KD is going to rush because he knows it's a two for one situation.

Kevin Durant's going to run up the court and he's going to take either a pull up transition three or he's going to drive in the lane and

try and get a foul or he's going to pull up for mid range jumper and they're going to get a two for one situation.

The nuggets instead spring a trap on him and that completely messes up the entire sequence.

And that leads to them being able to do the last possession and Christian Brown hits his pull up three.

And it's just like like these little details are very, very big and the nugget execution of the details tonight were so good.

It's the first time we've been able to say that in a long time, Matt, like that, that to me has been what has eroded over the course of this stretch where they had to survive so often without like they just had to gut it out.

And oftentimes when you got it out over the course of four months, like you're going to have the details erode a little bit.

This is the first time where I think you really feel good about not just the game plan, but also Denver's execution of set game plan and attention to detail.

This is championship habits. This is what it looks like. This is how it feels and this is exactly how the nuggets are supposed to act.

If they have that ceiling, if they want to win the title.

We'll tell you about the implications of this, plus we'll talk to Nicola, Christian and Cam coming up on lockdown nuggets.

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Let's start with yoke because I do want to make this point.

There is a chicken in the ex situation that occurs where if the team is struggling Nicola tries to lift them up because he's a great player and he wants to do that for them.

So my suggestion here is not that Joker chooses to score more and that makes the team worse does not what I'm trying to suggest what I am going to tell you though is that in this game when Nicola Yoke scores just 16 points on six of 12 shooting in 30 minutes along with 12 rebounds 13 assists and five steals to five turnovers.

This is how this team should play more often this team should not have to rely on a 40 point 15 assists night from Nicola Yoke he should have a night with 13 assists where he only has to score 16 again.

Nicola starts scoring more when the game gives him that or when he feels that's what the team requires to get a win so it's like if everybody else can eat he'll let everybody else eat and I understand that but this is the model for what they like they should try and play like this every night and yes it would be great if every single night the opponent shot four of 33 from three point range that would be ideal actually be better if they shot four of 20.

Because 33 is actually kind of a lot for Houston and that's a problem they left reach shepherd Jamal like it was first quarter and there was two sequences where Jamal just like goes to help and leaves reach shepherd and like I'm get like I am prepared to throw my laptop that has the scouting report I wrote up on it because it's just like don't leave reach ever the one thing you can do.

And like balance units left him wide open on a pull up three but just it wasn't use in night but this offensively for Denver this is the way that they like this is what it should look like more often there will be nights when joker is going to have to absolutely punish teams in the post but it should never have to feel like it like as much as I've been like this isn't last year and it's not in the locker room.

But there have been times to your words of well I guess joker's just gonna have to do everything it should not feel like that and tonight was the first night since not since November that it has felt like oh that's right that's what this looks like when everything is clicking because

joker's game the best thing about it isn't that he scores 40 points with with a billion rebounds and a good jillion assists it's that he doesn't need to it's that he can shape the game without putting up those points yeah I love this game from Nicoli Yokech not only from that that standpoint Ryan well give me a reaction to that and I'm going to rave about the defense.

Statistically in that first half he is the first player in NBA history to have seven rebounds nine assists and five steals and a half let me repeat that first player in NBA history to have seven rebounds nine assists and five steals

like that's ridiculous first and foremost and it shows people that as long as everybody's kind of holding up their end of the bargain and yokech is holding up his end of the bargain on the defense of end the nuggets can do anything that they need to and win against any team including the okay see thunder even if it doesn't feel like they can like they can do that.

If yokech is absolutely fully locked in on the defense of and and everybody else is being aggressive like you can't play fearful that you just can't and it was really cool to see Christian Brown letting it fly it was really interesting to see yokech spoon feeding him in terms of the the dump offs in the the dunker spot and like on the short roll and back cuts and things like that he was really trying to get Christian Brown going that was very clear he was also really trying to get cam Johnson going he.

Like there were a couple of times earlier in that game where cam Mr three cam Mr shot cam didn't make the perfect read he might have hesitated on something and yokech just kept going to him it was it was very noticeable to me that like they were actively trying to keep everybody involved in the way that you're talking about and I do agree with you the best version of the nuggets is the one that has yokech scoring 20 not 30 is the one that has him averaging 12 rebounds 12 assists two steals.

Extremely efficient and just locked in doing everything for the team.

I'll come back to camp.

This is what Nicola yogurt is capable of and when I criticize Nicola yogurt defensively you will notice that when I criticize Nicola yogurt defensively I don't talk about what he can't do pay attention to that note that like just follow that away that when I criticize the defense from Nicola yogurt and its impact on the rest of the team it's because if I watch the tape and I see

Oh this is what's the problem is that is me that is me diagnosing a problem in my analysis it is not Nicola yogurt is a bad defender who can't do this it is Nicola yogurt has an incredible offensive load is worried about foul trouble and doesn't always engage on these possessions in the regular season that man was flawless tonight he was not there were a couple of possessions underneath the room with the room protection wasn't great but at the level.

Yogurt was incredible this is exactly what I love to see I talk about this all the time when people are like what why are you leaving that corner open and the problem is you're putting players in a impossible position the point of playing at the level is to stop the ball joker's hands were so active tonight he was disruptive everywhere not just on the initial sequence though it's one thing for you to show hard and be like I'm defending you ball handler and then quit the moment that that guy starts to reverse the ball but Joker would show and then go back to the big

and have his hands up disrupting that past and closing off passing lanes now it especially works versus the rockets because they don't have a point guard and Kevin Durant has one of the highest he is 21st in the league amongst 85 players with a minimum 200 possessions being doubled out of pick and roll in turnovers number eight and 10 are a men Thompson and regeppered this is what happens if you pressure the ball they turn it over and this is what happens if you pressure the ball they turn it over and then

this team in the nuggets who never gets turnovers generated way more tonight and it was such a massive advantage and this is what they're capable of it was just great it was great quarterbacking the behind line sequence was a great Aaron had several amazing plays including insane block on the back line Jamal's close outs were great Tim Hardaway junior had a low man possession that was absolutely terrific I was so excited to see this defensive ever from the never nuggets it was so good Ryan hey cam Johnson also two steals into blocks like there's

don't forget to credit your guy like there's there's stuff coming on and the third segment I got to imagine but a on on yoke it's on yoke it's specifically they started him off on Tari use it they started Aaron Gordon on Alperin Shengoon and they started Christian Brown on Kevin Durant and I thought that that was an interesting

wrinkle it's not what they usually do they usually have Yoke at Shengoon and Aaron Gordon Garden KD that's how they have always played this particular matchup and like Kevin Durant in general because like that's that's what they usually do but instead of that they decided to use

Yoke as a as a Romer as a floater as somebody who could get involved in the game in the middle of the floor without having to guard Shengoon or Durant directly often and I think that that's a really great schematic thing that you have to credit Jared Dudley for you have to credit David Adam and for

also the players in terms of executing that is about a well as well as you possibly can okay it's time to give cam Johnson his flowers and Christian Brown his credit and talk about the game tomorrow versus the San Antonio Spurs will do that coming up online this is Jake from locked on when the games on the line the best no way to pass because the right

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right back on locked on nuggets back here on locked on nuggets final segment for you well well well you you guys should have been

there watching that I had I had a front row seats and to the absolute amazing experience that Matt Moore had watching this basketball game as as a staunch cam johnson believer as a staunch cam johnson

truth or who was very adamant about this throughout this entire process that like he there was that in him and everybody's being a little bit too hard on him.

Finally the damn breaks cam johnson has maybe his best game of the season 17.69 shooting 305 from 325 minutes for this by the way 2 rebounds for assists and I just this is such a big deal to me.

The shot making is great he made the bucket he did the shooting hoop and.

But cam one he was decision making was great and he continually.

Can there was there were three of his assists I believe are to Christian there was the corner feed which was a good shot to a great shot there was a three corner where he drove and then dish to the camera to Christian on the inside who scored good shot to great shot.

Over and over and over again and I understand that people like aggression and.

And I'm just going to shoot and I don't care who's in front of me in the playoffs and against good teams you need smart execution and that's what cam johnson brought to the table tonight I want to say this after the game as kind of an indication and I know that some some people will be like oh no like he's he needs to be like bullish and bro chuck it up I like the fact after the game cam's like it's process like one game like this is a process it's like yeah it.

You start to understand what you need to do he talked about how much everybody's in his ear to tell them to just be who he is but I do have a quote from a post game that I thought was really important which is he said.

You know one of the things that I kind of realize I need to do was just to go out there and hoop and have fun.

And man I will tell you whenever a player is struggling the best thing in the world for them to do is to go out and have fun.

This is a game that you learn as a kid you pick up that ball and it's fun to bounce it's fun to throw it at the hoop it's great it goes in the first time and feel that that's a magical feeling and.

To go out and connect with that is so important that doesn't mean that you have to play.

Hmm like certain players who may or may not be on other teams putting up some amount of stats in other places by just chucking up anything that comes your way you could still be a smart player and make everybody better which is what great players do yeah like I want to I want to make this point really quick like imagine the pressure that cam Johnson immediately felt after like being the bell of the ball in the trade market for.

Basically the better part of 12 to 18 months like he knew he was getting moved somewhere he knew he was valued he knew that he was a guy that.

Then needed to deliver in his next spot and you go to the nuggets and you play next to Nicole Yokech the best player in the world you play next to a team that has already won a championship and they are counting on you to deliver the next one you are the key missing piece you are the missing ingredients.

That's a lot of pressure and like look these are professional athletes they are paid to be a part of that pressure to be like to be comfortable in it to live in it to bask in it.

But from a human situation it is a very difficult thing and I don't think nuggets fans certainly have given him enough leeway in terms of this transition.

But like it is go time now obviously this is a part of the process obviously you want to like it's now time for him to figure it out I think he understands that and knows that too.

But in order like you're not going to do it by tightening up you're just not like that's not how you win that's not how you play you have to play loose you have to play free and you have to understand that not every mistake is going to kill your team like you just have to.

Like go out there and play basketball as Matt said.

And look he might start tomorrow because the ankle still not great and they're all back to back and maybe this is just a blip could be could be.

But it was good to see him play like I for at least a night like I thought he was he was capable of when they trade for him this summer Christian Brown was phenomenal night phenomenal.

The biggest thing to me is just that Christians getting his timing back on his drives and he's finishing like he finished tonight like he finished last year.

And we were kind of diagnosing like on one one of his dunks it's like oh I dunked the ball but it's also like yeah he's not.

And even Adelman kind of said this the explosiveness is not quite there yet, but his speed is his conditioning is back like Adam has been very complimentary of how good a shape Christian has gotten himself into coming off that injury when you can't do anything.

And he's kept himself in great shape and has gotten better shapes since he's come back he's doing all the work to be in great condition.

The explosiveness not back, but he had several tough buckets making the layup tonight.

And some of this Ryan is just like it's not like it's just finally the thing stop going wrong that's how I filled with a lot of this is like there were times this year where I feel like we've seen glimpses of this.

And it's just like oh they would do everything right and they missed the open three.

Murphy's lobby entire year right.

Holy year where it's like just one thing after another all there's a loose ball and they almost get it. Oh no it's loose it's really girls applaud it like.

And it bounces off Rocky's head and goes into the opponent's basket like that's how it's felt this year and instead tonight.

Things kind of went their way yeah.

Really great game from Christian Brown not came as I called him post game in deeply embarrassing moment.

You're that story because I had to leave looked over at Nick over here. I was like did I call him now they was home cam and he's like mm-hmm and I was like oh no so the next time he came back around to me and I was like so Christian Brown.

And Christian no soul that is that's what Christian is with me.

I mean yeah he's he's been he's been a little bit of a hard ass with the media at that various points here, but I will say how about the half court three.

I called it was a crossover because I was like you shook him a little bit and he's like it wasn't a crossover and I was like okay the pull up three but yeah great moment phenomenal I mean I was a great moment for you.

I mean hey I had some point he's got to hit him so like it's it was important to see like sometimes you just got to have a moment and and maybe this is the moment like you mentioned that the Lakers game could have been their moments and you felt you felt strongly about that I think they needed another kind of.

Clearly they needed another like horrible performance or heartbreaking performance in order to kind of turn that around but like this this one felt like more of a turn around certainly then the Lakers game.

Oh by the way Jamal Murray went for 30 points. Oh yeah by the way he was pretty good.

Tough buckets.

He salivates every time he sees Reed Shepherd across from him.

Yeah he haunted him mercilessly.

My god like rocket fans have been have been like are you sure like how do we know he's going to get hunted and like sequences like this with yes he is going to get a hundred.

I love it.

1121 for Jamal from the field and three or four from three probably taking more a few more threes honestly if he'd but the rockets were also that was one action they were defending.

The rockets don't allow a lot of three so that's kind of the battle you have to wage with them is they don't take a lot they took a lot tonight and miss them and

they don't want one really good screen one really good screen from Jonas found Tunis to free up Murray going to his right and so that's the best way to get those kinds of looks in these situations so whether it's yoked and that's another way that yoked can be on selfish in these situations too is just free up your guy for for those threes.

I do I deal with a lot of box score watchers.

Special Jones had zero points and I three rebounds to assist special Jones was incredible he played amazing defensively incredible that wrap around pass also to Bruce in transition to them insane so good all like it was a to quote our friends from DMVR all the know gets your good like this that's what this was I I think that there is a non zero chance that Spencer Jones plays more minutes than anybody off the bench.

But like Peyton Watson and Tim Hardaway in the playoffs.

I think I'm zero chance by the way Adam and I'll shout out Julian Strother he was like I told Julian he's not going to be in the rotation and when time is called he came out and played great.

I love that coaches pay more attention to garbage time than anybody else is one of my favorite things because like they they still want to coach like those are the still the moments they want to coach.

Wester conference playoff update minutes of timber walls lose the Los Angeles clippers so they slip that was that was an embarrassing performance by the wolves by the way.

153 yeah collie was on one tonight again they're scary but never's not going to have to worry about them this year because they're not going to face them at least in the first round maybe.

So rockets fall to 25 losses tied with the Lakers nuggets one back at 26 minutes out of moves to six they're both one game up on Phoenix here is this tie breaker scenario.

Denver now now after tonight owns tie breaker over the Minnesota timber wolves the Houston rockets and the Phoenix Suns they own tie breaker and all of those.

If you want to know especially guys why this is important so they are now so this was the third meeting between them in Houston is that right or fourth was a three fourth meeting there three and one.

So three one so between them and the wolves they are six and two in those that matters when you get to three way tie breaker unless it's a division winner in which case that causes a problem that's the.

Issue with the Los Angeles Lakers if the Lakers win the division that supersedes all tie breakers separate of that though if the nuggets win on Saturday night versus Los Angeles Lakers on a three and four travel they will also clinch tie breaker over the Los Angeles Lakers they will have tie breaker over all of the opponents that they are battling with in this in this group.

So for that reason probably going to rest guys on Thursday probably going to rest guys tomorrow we'll see we'll see a few or minutes tonight.

I don't know how you justify risking it with a G I don't know what they're going to have to do to get him to not play.

Tell him hey this can't happen to third time we are not letting this happen to third done and Joker's going to Joker's going to play yeah I mean he'll let's be honest when he's also questionable in this one.

It's possible that the spurs are drastically different from what you would expect but the nuggets that I'm going to go ahead and guess that they want to capitalize on this momentum that they just achieved.

So you're going to get your coach to play but you have to prevent a G from playing I actually think the Tim Hardaway Jr is a good candidate to rest in this game.

I'm not sure if he will I'm not sure if that's that's what he wants obviously but you got to protect your guys you absolutely have to protect them and we'll see what they can.

I do think you got to really gear up for that Lakers game cam Johnson should not play with that ankle yeah that's true I don't think he should play.

Jamal's the other one like I'd be okay if joker wants to play send yoke out with Spencer Jones and Bruce and I think Tim Tim let's see 21 minutes tonight maybe maybe Tim could use a knife off he just hasn't had that many throughout the year.

And Julian and trying and try and sneak one out when it's just like yoke it's in friends yeah and I would be okay with that.

I'm not rolling out that they're going to that they're going to lose tomorrow night I'm not I am not marking this down as a schedule loss yet if they lose I will mark it down as a schedule loss.

Yeah we've already seen it this year that Denver can win a very impromptial improbable game in these situations I just think that they're like yes they should try to win it they should try to win every single game obviously.

But like the Saturday one is extremely extremely important we're getting a lot of questions about Peyton Watson adamance that before the game that you can expect Peyton Watson back next week yeah so do not expect him back for this game correct pops up on the report could happen he would have lied to us at that point so like it's okay I do want to know.

Uh no good for all business post game locker room was like deadly serious.

Now it was the last time we're out of joking yeah they were and a lot of it's like you know somebody was like let me know they should it's like yeah they let everybody know hey we have to be we have to play another game here in 20 hours so don't mess around get on the bus and they did.

So but I just think it's I just kind of wonder what the mindset is okay great win great one good night we'll enjoy it for 24 hours and they have to talk about how they're doomed and going to be in the play in tournament again tomorrow night but got tonight make sure to sign up for the everydayers club make sure to follow Ryan's work over at mile high sports tomorrow you get swiping gripe with me and swipe at 2 p.m. mountain and then you get post game with the San Antonio

Spurs game solo I'll I'll do that one solo you have Ryan tomorrow night for the post game on the San Antonio Spurs game um I hope you guys have a great night enjoy your Thursday and we'll see you guys again next time I'm locked on nuggets I know they could do this I know it's good you're supposed to be good hey everyone this is Ross Jackson one of the hosts of the locked on podcast network thank you for being here because your support means everything and if you're looking for another way to support the show that you love

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