05-06-24 Vinny Benedetto with Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Let's go out to the Kn't waitCommon Spirit off hotline and bring on Vinie
Benedetto from the Gazette the chance totalk about this series. First off,
is there a must win game forthe Denver Nuggets. If it's not,
it's about as close as you canget to being muscle win without it being
a muscle win. I mean,you know, obviously this Minnesota team is
present some problems for the Nugget andto go to Minnesota down oh two,

(00:23):
I think would be just about asclose of a death sentence for this Nugget
series. Yeah, it feels youknow, Michael Malone and you know we
heard from Jamal Murray and Reggie Jacksonyesterday. None of them use the phrase
must win, but it's got tobe about as close as you can get.
So, so the biggest thing cominginto this series was how do you

(00:44):
stop Anthony Edwards? Because coach Malonthrew a bevy of players at him and
still he was able to put upforty three points. So what's going to
be the game plan in game twoto slow down or even stop Anthony Edwards?
Yeah? I don't I don't knowif there's any stopping Anthony Edwards,
So I think we gotta we gottastick with a slowing him down or making

(01:06):
it tough, and I think,uh, a lot of that's, you
know, fall on Christian Brown toand I think he kind of fills the
gap where Intavius Caldwell Pope might bea little bit too small and Aaron Gordon
might not have the requisite lateral quicknessto stay in front of the guy like
Ant and I think Christian Brown kindof occupies that middle state. And you
know, Malone speaking pregame, wasreally encouraged with the uh with the few

(01:29):
possessions that he had Christian on onAnthony Edwards in game one. So I
think it I think it starts there, and then part of it, I
think you just got to hope thatsomeone of his shooting numbers come back down
to earth, because I think he'sshooting like forty four percent from three in
the postseason, and you know,he's a good shooter, but I don't
think he's quite that level of ashooter. And then mid range, you
know, for the course of theregular season, he was I think in

(01:52):
an average score from mid range.But he's just been been lethal in Minnesota's
first five playoff games. So Ithink there's some edge involved with getting Christian
Brown bore a minute and then justsome some praying and hoping that that Anthony
Edwards comes back down to earth abit, and and they do, they
do need to find a way to, if not contain Anthony Edwards, at

(02:12):
least slow him down. But Ithink the bigger thing for me watching that
that that game one was the reboundingwhere the Timberwolves just took him to the
woodshed. I mean, go,Bear's gonna get he is now, he's
not gonna be there tonight. Obviouslybirth of his child that that may help.
But Jayden McDaniels, who's a completenon factor on offense, pulled down
eight boards. Meanwhile Eric Gordon strugglingto pull three boards down, and you
need that help. What can theNuggets do to get back in there and

(02:34):
get themselves the rebounds and take awayand give themselves second chance opportunities. Yeah,
I think it just starts with increasedphysicality. That was one thing that
bothered Malone after game one, andit still bothered him yesterday when we heard
from him between games. So Ithink it's just increased physicality. You know,
that's certainly something that that Aaron Gordoncan bring to the table. You

(02:55):
know, Minnesota is still going tobe big if we assume that No.
Three jumps into the starting lineup,so they're still gonna have Theyre's still gonna
be one of those few teams thatwill have a size advantage over Denver.
But yeah, I think you justneed to Michael Porter, Junior, Aaron
Gordon, Nikolejokics to up the physicalitya little bit and then you know,
I think getting some help from JamalMarie can take this. Caldwell Pope would

(03:17):
go a long way too, becauseyou know you're looking at you know,
Anthony Edwards's tapable rebounder, but youknow, Mike Conley getting four rebounds while
Murray and KCP combined for three justdoesn't feel like it's a you know,
a sustainable route to success for theNuggets. Well, Vitty, clarify that

(03:38):
for me, because we've heard thisbefore from coach Malone and then previous years
talking about his team and the physicalitylevel. What can the Nuggets bring from
a physicality standpoint in Game two thatthey didn't bring in Game one? What
does that even look like? Yeah? I mean, well, Nicole guy

(04:00):
and we've seen him. You know, you think back to the first round
series and it was like Anthony Daviswould play really well for two and a
half three quarters, but uh,you know, having Yokis just lean on
him for for so much of thegame, uh feels like it kind of
death some of his energy by timethe fourth quarter started. And now tonight,
thinking about a Timberwolves team without RudyGobert, it's it's you know,

(04:21):
leaning on Carl Anthony Downs and makinghim making him feel you for for for
as much as he's on the courtand seeing if you can uh maybe wear
him down a bit that way.Or you know, Aaron Gordon dropping his
shoulder into somebody and like maybe youget called for a charge, but but
make them aware that you're bringing physicalityto the table tonight. So I think

(04:42):
it's you know, Jokis can leanon people, Gordon can can you know,
kind of be a bull in achina shop at times. So I
think those are are are just twotwo easy ways to nuggets cann of imfuse
a little more fascicality into the matchup. Not to get ahead of ourselves here,
but if the Denver Nuggets get upbig tonight early. Is this is
this the game where you've sort ofrest Nikola Jokic a little bit because with

(05:02):
you know, with with Wolves,without Gobert, you probably not gonna need
as much to be able to takethem down. You've been relying on the
big fellow there to carry you.You know, Murray has come through with
some game winning shots, but he'snot quite been himself. Is this something
where you maybe take your foot offthe gas with the kol Jokic a little
bit? I mean, I ideally, yeah, if you're a big you

(05:23):
can limit his minute and I wouldI would include Jamal in that as well
in terms of trying to get himas as much rest as possible. But
I don't think they're gonna get toocute with it, you know. I
think, you know, securing awin is going to be the number one
thing, especially when you factor inthere there are three days off between tonight's
game and game five Friday in Minneapolis, so I think, you know,

(05:46):
it'd be great if they're up comfortablyin the fourth quarter and they can get
those guys a few extra minutes.But I don't think Michael Malone is going
to be in the uh the moodto mess around or risk anything. If
it's you know, say a fifteenpoint game with six to eight minutes,
but that I'd expect the starters tobe out there. Well, let's talk
about the pace of the game becauseand in game one, it was a

(06:06):
little different watching the Kola Jokic executebecause idea was that no one could really
speed him up. But you lookat the defensive effort by the tim it
was that was something that they wereable to make him do when the ball
came in. They made a defensiveeffort from in the end from a court
standpoint, So is their moment inthe game where you feel that coach Malone

(06:28):
could sit in the Kola Yolks andif he does, who now is able
to get those types of points areyou talking about? Yeah? Like if
if yokis because he looked tired aftergame one, if Ylan has to sit
him, what does that mean?Does that mean DeAndre Jordan comes in and
then what kind of offensive a defensiveeffort do you get from him? Yeah?

(06:53):
I mean DeAndre would be the guythey go to if they need more
size than they don't want to gowith with Aaron Gordon as the backup center.
But you know, DJ offensively,I think a lot of that is
just gonna come down to what wewhat we saw over the course of the
regular season when he's with that secondunit and they they found their most success,
uh, you know, running theReggie Jackson DeAndre Jordan's pick and roll.

(07:14):
So uh, you know, DJhas been off his feet for a
while, so if you've got somejuice in those legs, you know,
they'll they'll certainly be relying on himto roll to the rim and be all
out threat and provide some production thatway. Talk with Vinie Bendedeo from the
Gazette, Uh, talk a littlenuggets here, vin he before the season,
before the series excuse me started,I said something that you kind of

(07:35):
circled around a little bit earlier,and that was that Anthony Edwards is just
such a poor matchup for normally agood defender in KCP. Uh. I
figured we're gonna have to do ChristianBrowns of additional minutes, you know,
in in an effort to try toslow him down a little bit. Is
this the game where you try tofigure out a way to get KCP going
on offense a little bit? Sincehe's I don't want to say a liability

(07:56):
on defense against Edwards, but certainlyhas a disadvantage there. Yeah, I
think one thing you can do withKCP if if Anthony Edwards is going to
be guarding him, and they couldmanipulate that some as well with some screening,
because in game one the Timberwolves worthswitching just about everything one through four.
So if I'm KCP and I've gotAnthony Edwards on me, or if

(08:18):
I'm Michael Malone and I see Edwardsguarding KCP, I think one thing you
can do is just start running himoff a bunch of off ball screens and
making Anthony Edwards work on the defensiveend, you know, chase KTP,
you know, sideline to sideline,make him fight through screens and see if
you can get to him a littlebit that way. But you know,
Anthony Edwards is still twenty two,so it might take a little bit more

(08:41):
than that to get him a littlefatigued. But yeah, I think it
is important, especially you know,given the tough matchup on the defensive end
for KCP, that that he is, that he's still involved offensively and not
just allowing Anthony Edwards to stand around. You know, if KCP is just
you know, being a four Sfacer in the corner. Coach Malone has

(09:03):
been known for being a coach whodoesn't really like to go deep into his
bench in the playoffs. Based onwhat we've seen in Game one, is
he going to have to throw thataway and now try to get guys like
Zeke Nausee more time to actually expelsome of these guys on the offense,
especially knowing as it's been an upand down pace for the Timberwolves in the

(09:26):
Denver Nuggets, Yeah, I'd besurprised that if we if we see much
of Zeke Nasee in a close game, just given that you know, Minnesota
is still going to have a bitmore size, but one guy who might
be in for a bit more runfor me would be just in a holiday.
We may not see it as muchtonight without Rudy Gobert, but when

(09:50):
in Game one, when Minnesota wasthe few times they would have Towns on
Joker and let Rudy Gobert, youknow, kind of float around, something
We've seen a handful of teams do. Again, the Nuggets in the last
year or so, you know,Michael Malone went to the four shooters surrounding
Jokic, so so Gobert couldn't justhang around the rim. And I'm not

(10:11):
sure if Minnesota would would try toutilize that same strategy tonight without Gobert,
but if they do, I wouldexpect Michael Malone to surround Nicole Yokics with
shooters and Justin Holliday would be Uthe first bench player on my list to
get a little more run tonight.Well sort of sort of dovetails where I
was going next here with this,She said, you know, the Nuggets
have to even this up that Idon't know, it's trite to UH to

(10:33):
talk about must win, which Iobviously opened with, but uh, in
a sense they do, and ifthey do get the equalizer, and they
do, they do even this thingup. At that point, you're going
to have to You're gonna get Gobertbacks, You're gonna have to figure out
a way to deal with this,uh, with this triumvirate of Gobert,
Towns, Uh and Edwards going forward. And I'm looking at this and I
just don't see a scenario where you'renot putting yourself well outside your comfort zone.

(10:58):
If you're the Denver nugget. Theylooked uncomfortable in Game one, you
know, with Alcobert, I expectthem to win tonight. But you're going
on the road, You're going backto Minnesota. How in the world are
you going to find a way toI don't want to say change or overhaul
what it is that you've done,but at least modify it enough that you're
going to be competitive on their court. Yeah, that's interesting, just because

(11:24):
you know, these teams are sofamiliar with each other, so I'm not
sure how much kind of new stuffthere's going to be displayed. I think
what it's going to be interesting isthat it's just going to be changing styles.
It feels like, you know,in the five games against the Lakers
in the first round, Nikole Jokigot very comfortable with the fact that the

(11:46):
Lakers were double teaming just about thesame way at the same time, you
know, pretty consistently, and hecould get into a rhythm there. Game
one, you know, it feltlike Minnesota's lack of a double team kind
of caught Yo gets a little offguard and it resulted into seven turnovers.
And then tonight, I'm expecting somethingdifferent without go Beart and then you get

(12:07):
Go Beart back in Game three.So I think the Nuggets are just gonna
have to kind of come up withwith different game plans and be ready to,
you know, put the switch ata moment's notice, given what the
Timberwolves are doing defensively. But ifthere is, you know, something working
in the Nuggets papers that you know, they saw this team, albeit a

(12:31):
slightly different version, last year inthe playoffs, and they played three times
since the All Star Break, andat least the last one of those matchups
was pretty meaningful. So I don'tknow how much kind of new stuff there's
gonna be unveiled here tonight or inGame three, but the Nuggets are certainly
gonna have to be a little moreversatile in terms of their approach. Well,
I'll looking forward to this one expectingand Nuggets win, hoping and Nuggets

(12:52):
wins. Any benedetto from the Gazette, we appreciate you joined us tonight.
Awesome. Appreciate you guys halping meon cat. Always love having at one