Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
all right, everyone,
welcome back to fandom from afar
.
And oh man, we are recordingthe morning after game six with
a amazing nuggets victory.
And what, what can you say?
I, uh, I think the old sayinggoes that there's only a few
things that are certain in lifeDeath, taxes and Game 7.
(00:30):
For the Nuggets.
They always play Game 7.
I saw a stat that the Nuggetshave played 16 playoff series in
the Jokic and Murray era andseven of those series now have
gone to game seven, which isjust, it's just wild.
Uh, most teams maybe will haveone or two during that span, yet
(00:50):
the nuggets just find a way tokeep pushing game sevens on the
fans, and I kind of love it.
So I was originally going towait until either after the
series or until after game sevento record, but A, that game
last night was just so fun and B, my dad texted me saying that
(01:13):
my prediction was correct so far.
If you listened to my lastepisode, I did predict that the
Thunder would win game five andthen the nuggets would win game
six, and so I gotta take the,the win, when, when, I can get
it, because if you've beenlistening to this long enough,
you know, uh, it's fair to say,a majority of my predictions are
(01:37):
let's see how.
Do the french say wrong, so Imight as well take the win.
Uh, if my prediction continues,the Nuggets will win in game
seven.
But we will talk about thatlater.
Let's get right into game six.
And what a interesting gamewith a lot of ups and downs it
(02:01):
was.
I didn't know what to expectcoming into game six, just
because the Nuggets had blownfourth quarter leads in games
four and five.
And obviously that's been theirstrength not only this season
but also in the last couple ofplayoff runs.
They're just kind of thatveteran team that will wear you
down and out, execute you at theend team that will wear you
(02:25):
down and out, execute you at theend.
Yet in the last couple of gamesthey either have not executed
or my theory is that they'rejust so extremely exhausted that
they just didn't have the legsto execute.
And we won't get into thedetails of why.
That is necessarily CalvinBooth's not giving us a mention
that starters are extremelyexhausted, but it happened and I
(02:49):
didn't know what to expect.
Were the Nuggets going to fightfor their lives or have they
just reached a breaking pointwhere they are just too
exhausted to really play up totheir full potential.
Now, on top of that, news comesout right before the game that
Jamal Murray has the flu or somesort of sickness and has really
(03:13):
been either sick in bed or withthe team doctors, uh, for the
last 24 hours, and that was notnot a great sign.
Uh, unfortunately this is thesecond time Jamal's got sick
this playoff.
The DMVR guys made a joke thathe does have a young daughter at
home and if you have kids youknow they find any sickness and
(03:37):
bring it home and give it to theparents with love, of course.
But Jamal is sick again and sohe was questionable.
There were reports that hemight not Like, uh, there were
reports that he might not evenplay, although he laughed those
off after the game and saidthere was no chance that he
wasn't even going to give it ashot.
So, um, he, he is, uh, the typeof player that loves to kind of
(03:57):
battle through adversity,sometimes self-inflicted.
Sometimes, in this case, hejust has to, has to fight
through it because everybodygets sick.
But he did play.
He didn't do his normal warmuproutine or anything like that.
He didn't look that bad at thebeginning of the game.
In fact he kind of came out onfire.
I was maybe thinking, all right, let's get Jamal sick before
(04:22):
every game, but you could kindof see it wore on him as the
game went along and so he didn'tstay on fire, but he played
really well, especiallyconsidering the circumstances.
It was an uneven first halfoverall.
The Nuggets starters played, Ithought, really well.
Seems like they've kind offigured out a little bit of what
OKC is doing on defense andthey're scoring a little bit
(04:45):
better obviously better than thelast home game when they scored
seven or eight points in thefirst quarter.
But we had a bit of a lead andthen the bench, mainly Russ,
came in and I think Russ wasjust kind of too excited, like
too amped up.
He loves the big moments, whichis great, and he's not scared,
(05:07):
but some of that gets turnedinto turnovers or bad shots,
fouls.
He had a rough stint and ourlead disappeared pretty quickly.
The starters came back in andwe built up a lead again, but
the Thunder fought back.
It's two evenly matched teams.
Both teams kind of have hadtheir moments of ups and downs,
(05:31):
and so the first half ended witha Lou Dort three.
So the Thunder were up justslightly.
But considering, consideringall the factors, I was pretty
happy with only being down three.
And in the second half theNuggets needed something.
They needed one guy to kind ofstep up and give the Nuggets
(05:54):
that little edge that theyobviously needed, and it turned
out that guy was Julian Strother.
He had what was obviously oneof the biggest moments of his
Nuggets career, hitting a couplethrees.
He had some layups inside aswell.
He was rebounding.
(06:14):
He had a steal, I think.
Julian Strother came to playand it just lit a fire in the
crowd.
It lit a fire in the Nuggets.
Everyone was loving the JulianStrother game.
It kind of helped us get thatlead.
The Nuggets were able to kindof hang on In the end.
(06:35):
It was very sloppy.
They were kind of playing tojust get the clock run down.
The Thunder just kept stealingit and scoring quickly it.
It was pretty ugly but JulianStrother gave us that lead and
it's always a bit demoralizingfor the other team when a role
player catches fire out ofnowhere and just kind of
(06:58):
provides that spark.
That was not expected.
The Nuggets experienced that injust the last game when Lou
Dort hit three threes right in arow and it impacted the Nuggets
and just like Julian Strotherimpacted the Thunder and it was
awesome like I loved seeing himinteracting with the Nuggets
(07:18):
bench and the crowd andeverything like you're just so
happy for these guys that he, uhhe's been in the rotation.
He's been out of the rotationLike he would get more playing
time if his defense was stronger.
He's, he's an offensive weapon,but even that he has his cold
streaks and so it's just fun tosee a young guy like that have a
big moment and I'm sure he'sgoing to remember that, uh,
(07:41):
pretty pretty much forever.
Like it was.
It was a big moment in a biggame and it was really fun to
watch.
Is the game going to beremembered as the Julian
Strother game, the Jamal Murrayflu game?
I think the correct answer isyes.
I think this should beremembered for both, because
(08:02):
both guys stepped up huge andit's okay to remember it in both
ways, because Nuggets neededevery bit of what both those
guys provided, and it wasn'tjust them.
Like I said, julian had 15points, jamal he started out on
fire, but he did so many otherthings throughout the game as
well.
(08:22):
He finished with 25 points,eight rebounds and seven assists
.
So he was providing all sortsof value.
I thought even his defense wasa bit stronger than it had been
in the past few games and, likeI said, with the flu, that's
pretty incredible.
Peyton Watson I think he's beenplaying well.
It's pretty funny.
He just cannot hit a layup or adunk to save his life.
(08:45):
Every game he seems to have onewhere he just totally blows it.
But he makes up for it.
On the defensive end he wasrebounding and he had a huge
block.
That, I think, was a bigmomentum change because the
thunder on a fast break andpeyton just kind of timed it
perfectly, blocked it and thenuggets ran down and scored a
layup on their ends.
That's a's a big four-pointswing right there.
(09:07):
And then I think the unsung herowas Christian Brown 23 points,
11 rebounds, five assists.
You don't think of Christian asan incredible scorer but he
always seems to get 17, 20, 23points.
You don't think of him as abig-time rebounder but he proved
(09:28):
it last night with 11 boardsand he's been doing it
throughout the playoffs that hecan use his athleticism and his
size to grab those rebounds.
And it's a huge help when Jokicis having to just fight those
two big guys inside, and so Ithought Christian was fantastic.
He he hit threes, which is whatwe really need from him, and so
(09:50):
kind of unsung hero.
He won't be remembered like theother guys I spoke about, but
he was a huge factor in the game.
And then, obviously, the bigguy, jokic 29, 14 and eight just
what for anyone else would be ahighlight of their career to do
that in an elimination game.
Uh, it's pretty much what Jokicaverages.
(10:10):
He always comes through when weneed him most and he may have
had a couple of rough gamesearlier on in the series, but he
is just such a good player andhas done nothing to lose the
title of best player in theworld.
So, uh, we're going into gameseven, and part of the reason
(10:33):
why I wanted to record today wasI just want to encourage all
Nuggets fans.
If you're listening to this, wehave to appreciate what this
team has done over the lastcouple of weeks.
And just a quick side note, mynumbers look like we've gained a
few new listeners over theselast couple of weeks.
I've been having fun makingthese episodes and hopefully
(10:54):
you've been having fun listening, so I appreciate y'all.
If you have joined up here inthe playoffs.
Please tell a friend.
And we'll keep making episodesand having fun talking about the
Nuggets, but I wanted toencourage all Nuggets fans to
appreciate the last few weeks.
The reason I say this beforegame seven is because it's going
to be tough.
Like, oklahoma city is a greatteam, they're playing at home
(11:16):
and we are definitely beat up.
One of the negatives that cameout of game six is right at the
very end, aaron Gordon seemed tostrain his hamstring or do
something.
He was kind of grabbing at itand he even said that he had to
get treatment after the game.
So we're beat up.
Michael Porter Jr can't lifthis arm, ag with his calf and
his hamstring, jamal with hisflu.
(11:40):
So it's an uphill battle and Istill think we have a great
chance to win.
But I wanted to take a step backand just appreciate this team
right now, because this seasonwas heading towards a disaster
and the ownership made the bigchange right at the end of the
(12:02):
season and this team has reallycome together.
They've been incredibly fun towatch and I just think there's
hope now for next season where,if they would have continued the
path that they were on withMalone, with Booth, I don't
(12:23):
think there would have been muchhope for next year just because
it was so obvious that the teamwas in a bad spot.
But I have to say I loveAdelman.
I hope he gets the job.
The starters have proved thatthey are elite level.
We just need some bench guys togive them some rest.
And to take the Clippers, who insome people's eyes were the
(12:46):
dark horse to win thechampionship and we beat them.
And then to take the OklahomaCity Thunder, who many thought
were the favorite to win thechampionship, and we are now
taking them to a game seven witha chance to eliminate them on
their home court.
It's impressive.
It's it's impressive what theyhave been able to do, big
(13:08):
picture wise, being the underdogtaking on a 68 win team.
It's impressive what they'vedone, considering the injuries.
It's impressive what they'vedone considering how Oklahoma
City has 10 guys that theyhappily play and are high-level
contributors, whereas theNuggets maybe have six Most
(13:30):
nights, it's five or even fourand a half with Michael's arm,
six most nights, it's five oreven four and a half with
michael's arm.
And so, no matter what happensin game seven, I just want to
appreciate what this team hasdone and the hope that we have
for next year and we have plentyof time to talk about the
offseason, if it does happen toend on sunday after game seven.
But just the fact that we'rehere and there's been so many
(13:54):
memorable moments with AG's gamewinners the Jokic just
masterclass that he's beenputting on as far as the
incredible numbers that he putsup even though he's double,
triple teamed every single game,the Julian Strother game, the
Jamal flu game there's been somany memorable moments that I
think we would have missed outon if we did not make that
(14:15):
change.
And I just appreciate wherewe're at right now, no matter
what happens on Sunday.
But Sunday is going to happenand I do think we have a shot.
I don't think we need a miracleto happen.
If we keep doing what we'redoing and find that energy at
the end of the game, I think wecan pull it out Now.
(14:38):
Okay, see is amazing at home,and when they get rolling they
blow teams out.
So that it's it.
It could happen, but myofficial prediction is it will
be a close game.
The young thunder will crackunder the pressure and Jokic
Murray, ag one of our guysthey're going to hit a big shot
(15:00):
and we're going to advance tothe next round.
All right, have fun watchingthe game on Sunday.
Everyone, thank you so much forlistening.