Nuggets Will Win Game Two

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Episode Transcript

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Will the Nuggets go up two gamesto nothing tonight. I'll let you know.
This is for the love of sportson Fox Sports nine eighty ninety five
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for tuning in however you may betuning in on a beautiful Sunday. Hope
everybody enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend andremember all of those who gave the ultimate

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sacrifice for this country. I amZach Harris. If you want to get
in touch with the show today,you can on Twitter at WOFX nine eighty
at Zach FS nine eighty. Alsolike us on Facebook at Fox Sports nine
eighty ad Zach Harris Sports, orfeel free to call in. I'm gonna
open up the phone lines today.The phone line is five one eight six

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nine zero zero nine six zero nineeighty. So it feels like it's been
forever since Game one of the NBAFinals and I don't know about you,
but I am ready for tonight.So the Denver Nuggets walk away with a
one oh four ninety three win.They lead to series one game to zero.

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Obviously, they have home court advantageand that score was not as close
as it may look, because theNuggets really rolled past the Miami Heat.
That game was not at all indoubt in jeopardy. From wire to wire,

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the Nuggets owned that game. Now, some of the things going into
the series that I didn't get achance to talk to talk to you guys
about, but you know, textingsome buddies of mine and stuff, and
I was reminded that the Nuggets haven'tlost to the Miami Heat in quite some

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time. Seven or eight games inthe Bam Autobio Nicolio back and forth,
who's going to get the better ofwho? Bam Autobio has been uber aggressive
when it comes to going against NicoloJo. I'll be honest here, I

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never thought Bam was a superstar.I know the year in a bubble,
everybody wanted to elevate him to thatsuperstar status. I'm just not a big
Bam Autobio fan because too often hegets lackadaisical on the offensive side of the
ball and he just settles for jumpshots and turnaround said he shouldn't and he's

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a sieve on the offensive side ofthe ball sometimes. But when you're going
against a guy like Joki, whooffensively is one of the best centers in
the league. One of the mosttalented centers in the league. Such a
skill set on him that's reminiscent ofand I've just name a lot recently of

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Larry Bird. You know, hemight not be the most athletic, run
the fastest, jumped the highest,but he makes the right place. He
reads the game, he has ahigh IQ, and he makes the right
place. But when you go againstthe guy like Joki, whose defense is
severely lacking, I expect you tobe able to get twenty points. Now,

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here's one of the things that Ithought Miami did, and they didn't
really adjust until the fourth quarter.A little bit in the second half,
but mostly in the fourth quarter.I was texting a buddy of mine and
I said, listen, you lookat the way the playoffs played out.
Miami went against the Milwaukee Bucks,the New York Knicks, and the Boston

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Celtics. What guy have they facedthat bangs down low the way that Nicola
Jokis does. Julius Randall obviously dealingwith that ankle injury, and we'll get
into more of that later, hewasn't able to do some of the things
that it made him so successful duringthe regular season. Now we can talk

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about his postseason struggles the last twotimes the Knicks were in the postseason.
But then you take a look atthe Milwaukee Bucks. Obviously you have Yannis
there, but bam Adebayo wasn't playingstrictly on Jannis, more of a Brook
Lopez kind of guy guarding him up. And that's a stretch center who stretches

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the ball out to three point line. Then you take a look at the
Miami or the Boston Celtics that theyfaced. Jason Tatum's not banging the ball
down low. Al Hartford's not bangingthe ball down low. Robert Williams doesn't
have a low post game. Sogoing up into the series, that one

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of the question marks is how isbam going to be able to handle Nicolia
jok And we got the answer throughthe first three quarters is that they were
going to double and triple team Joki, which I told my buddy straight up,
if you want a chance to beatthis Nuggets team, you take on
Jokich one on one, and thenyou lock up Jamal Murray and keep up

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body as close as you can toMichael Porter Jr. And to Aaron Gordon.
That's how you compete with this Nuggetsteam. They must have not been
reading my text messages because they ultimatelydouble teamed Nicola joke triple team Nicola jok
for much of that game. Inten out of ten times, Jokich is

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going to make the right play now, whether that's making a slow, methodical
move to score the bucket or findingthe open man, finding the open cutter.
One of the things that I stillfeel gets underrated is Nicola joki Is

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passing ability, his ability to findopen teammates. And that's not always kicking
out to the top of the key. You know, when you're playing ball,
you throw down low, they throwit back up to the top of
the key. That's not always thecase. It's finding the cutter, it's
finding the man in the corner,it's finding the man on the wing.
It doesn't matter where you are,Nicola Joki finds you. And I know

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it's kind of funny to talk aboutthat being an underrated part of his game
because we talk so much about hispassing abilities, but I feel like it's
not talked about nearly enough to thepoint where he always makes the right play.
So if you want to beat aguy that the offense runs through then

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you control the offense around him.And you saw in that fourth quarter where
the Miami Heat were able to outscorethe Denver Nuggets by ten. They played
more of a zone coverage. NicolaJoki was able to score some buckets,
but really they held their own.Now, a lot of that was,

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you know, the Nuggets being ableto relax because the game was basically in
hand. But there was times wherethe game got within ten eight points in
that fourth quarter and the Nuggets respondedin every which way. But I think
coming out of the gate, forMiami to have a shot at winning this

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game, they got to go tothat zone more. They got to be
able to handle Jokich on a oneon one matchup. Let him eat.
That's fine. If Nicola Jokes isgonna burn you for thirty forty points,
that's fine. It's what they gotaround him that you can't let eat.
Also, you got to pick yourpoison. Either try to lock up one

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guy and four other guys are goingto score on you, or you lock
up four guys and let one guyeat. And I thought Miami doesn't get
talked about enough. In the fourthquarter, did a great job of adjusting
I think one of the reasons itdoesn't get talked about a lot because the
game was never in jeopardy and wewere not going to discuss the changes that

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were made by Eric Spoelstra. Butone of the things about the Nuggets that
they do so well is that they'renot just a three point shooting team.
They're not a high flying offense.They don't run up and down the court.
That's not the only thing that theydo. They're able to get into
paint and score. I think lastgame they had about forty five points in

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the paint. They missed some openthrees, it wasn't working, so they
got into paint and they scored abucket. Now, one of the things
Miami needs to get back to doingis grinding, getting those fifty fifty balls,
hustling. Now. I know CalebMartin didn't have a great game.

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I know Gabe Vincent didn't have agreat game. And you can say playing
a seven game series against the Celticshad an effect. Playing in a mile
high the altitude had an effect.But really, what I think it comes
down to is that the Nuggets wereable to comfortably play their game because the
heat went on attack of a twoto three man against Nicola Jokich. That's

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not the right way to play.Now. You saw against the New York
Knicks in that series where Jalen Brunsonwas able to eat, but the rest
of the New York Knicks weren't ableto eat. And one of the ways
that they did that was being ableto rotate on the ball and then crashing
in the middle, so kind ofcreating a wall up across the file line

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where there was no dribble penetration forany of these guys. They weren't getting
those great open looks as much inknocking them down. That's the difference is
the Nuggets will be able to knockthose down. Now. The Nuggets didn't
play great Game one either, Andthat's funny to say because they easily cruised

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past Miami in Game one, butthere was so many missed opportunities on open
shots in the corners by Aaron Gordon, by Michael Porter Jr. And they
recognize that and they rise to thechallenge. And I told you before this
series, before the Nuggets even madethe championship, is that the difference between
this year and other years won theWestern Conferences a little less. But I'm

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not going to take away anything fromthe Nuggets, but another thing is their
defense hasn't much improved over the lasthandful of years. They're the deepest roster
that they've been in quite some time. One of the guys that I absolutely
love, and I think he's goingto be a burner on the market come

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this offseason because he's on a oneyear deal with the Nuggets and the Nuggets
would be crazy to let him walkaway is Bruce Bruce Brown. I cannot
get enough of this kid now.Bruce Brown played a couple of years with
the Brooklyn Nets, where you knowKyrie was out in a playoff series and

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James Harden was dealing with an ankleinjury. Bruce Brown's not gonna get you
twenty twenty five points. I meanhe can, but not on a consistent
basis. What Bruce Brown does ishe's able to pass the ball around,
He's able to score, he's ableto defend, he's able to rebound.
For such a shorter guy, he'sable to control and manipulate the game and

(12:03):
play to his strengths so well.And you've seen him rise up in the
playoffs so many times with the BrooklynNets when it seemed like all else has
failed. And now he brings thatmentality to the Denver Nuggets, where they
got a trustworthy defender, rebounder,and scorer off the bench. Now,

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Game one, he played twenty oneminutes, four of seven, two or
three from deep, five rebounds toassist. That doesn't even show his ability
to pass the ball around. Andthat's how this Nuggets team is going to
beat you is they're going to useall five six dudes. They're gonna pass
the ball around and they're gonna findthe open man. They're gonna make you

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pay if you double triple team NicoleiaJoko. So that's the adjustment that the
Heat have to make. They goto the that zone, or they take
on Jokich on them one on one, let him eat, but shut down
the rest of their teammates. Now, ultimately, I do think, even
though I expect the Heat to playmore of a Heat type of game of

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great defense and grinding it out,this Nuggets team has too much power.
They can beat you in so manyways. They can get into paint,
they can shoot the three, theycan get out and run on long rebounds.
This team can beat you on fastbreakpoints, second chance points. They
can beat you on the three,they can get into paint. And I

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think the Nuggets being in Denver hasnot gotten as much attention as they did
or should have. You know,I talked about him a handful of times
on the show, but even Icould have done a better job of talking
about him. But now in theNBA Finals were able to see this firsthand
that Jokich is This aren't coming offof handoffs at the top of the key.

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He's making smart reads, the rightplays. He's like a quarterback out
there. He's distributing the ball toeverybody. Everybody's eating So Nicola jok only
needs to shoot four shots and ahalf doesn't matter. He's finding the right
guy making a right read. He'sgonna make you pay. So if the

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Miami Heat want a chance to winthis game, they'll go back to that
zone defense that they had much successwith Laton through the fourth quarter, or
play joke on him more one onone. Bam wants to be the defensive
player of the year, Well proveit you versus Joki. What do you

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got now? You're not gonna beable to stop him, but you can
slow him down and then it's upto the rest of the guys, Jimmy
Butler and Klip and gave Vincent,who did such a great job grinding and
hustling and making you work for everything. That's what they have to get back

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to. They have to make theadjustments. And I'm telling you right now,
when you have Spo as your coach, Eric Sposter, they're going to
go to the game, They're gonnawatch the tape, They're gonna make the
adjustments. I'm just hoping that they'rethe right adjustments, whether it's playing more
zone throughout the course of the gameand trickling in man on man there you

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cannot double or triple team jokes.It's not gonna work out in your favor.
Nine out at ten times, nineout at ten times. And I
think that's why so many people areoverreacting saying that the Nuggets team is going
to win in five and very wellcould be the case because they can beat

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you in so many ways because theyhave so much on their roster and so
many different players. That can bethe key to win the game is you
slow down the other four guys andlet joke at cheat. Let's see if

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you can win that game. Andin Miami heat, they have to hit
their shots. They have to getinto paint, they have to get to
the free throw line. They seta NBA Playoff record with two free throws
attempted. That cannot happen again.That cannot happen again. Nuggets are going

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to go up two. Oh.There's just too much for them to handle.