The Athletic NBA Daily
Nuggets shock Warriors without Jokić + Knicks surviving without Brunson
18 Mar 2025
Aaron Gordon had 38 points and Russell Westbrook had a triple double to lead the Denver Nuggets to an improbable, shorthanded win over the Golden State Warriors. Dave DuFour and Law Murray breakdown the overtime finish between the Pacers and Timberwolves, the Rockets scrappy win, and the Warriors loss to the Nuggets without Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray. Then, the Athletic’s Fred Katz and Dave discuss Fred’s latest article on the Knicks’ approach without Jalen Brunson, how it prepares them for the playoffs, and the disorganization of the Phoenix Suns.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Law Murray & Fred KatzExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodyRead Fred Katz on the Knicks: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6207882/2025/03/17/knicks-offense-jalen-brunson-injury-nba/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Full Episode
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. Coming up, we got Law Murray here filling in for us. We're going to talk a little bit about the games last night. Warriors blow it, even though Nikola Jokic wasn't out there. So did the Wolves, even though the Pacers were missing four starters. And we got Fred Katz to talk about how the Knicks are surviving without Jalen Brunson. Good morning, everybody.
Good morning, Law. Appreciate you staying up with me and filling in for us here on this Tuesday morning. Weird night last night, Law. Weird night. You go into the night and you say, oh, OK, the Nuggets don't have Jokic. They don't have Jamal Murray. They're playing the Warriors. The Warriors are hot right now. Surely, Warriors going to pick up another win with Jimmy Butler.
We've got all these things we can say about how, wow, they haven't been tested yet because no one was out there. Out the window because the Warriors lose that game. The Wolves, they're at home. They've got the Pacers. Pacers missing four starters. Talk about how the Wolves, you know, they've been on this hot streak. They're getting business done. They come out flat, Law.
They blow the game to the Pacers. Let's dig in a little bit because I think this is – they're bad losses for both teams, but both teams were hot coming in. And I want to start with the Warriors side of this. I think that you can say – For the Nuggets, they got incredible performances from Russell Westbrook and Aaron Gordon. Aaron Gordon puts up 38 points. Russ gets a triple-double.
And this is the sort of stuff that you have come to expect from Russell Westbrook especially, right?
That's right. when Russell Westbrook was with the Clippers his first season and they go into the playoffs, Paul George is already out for the season, which, you know, we might talk about that later. And Kawhi Leonard didn't play after game two because he tore his meniscus.
Remember that year in the middle of the year, there are people saying Russell Westbrook's time in the NBA was coming to an end because of his toxic time with the Los Angeles Lakers. And what they didn't realize was that put Russell Westbrook in position to succeed and he's going to do something.
He might not win you the game, but he's going to produce and put other people in position to produce as well. And we saw that in 2023 playoffs against the Suns. We went to Phoenix last year towards the end of the season when they needed to clinch a playoff spot. And Russell Westbrook put up a big time triple double, a historic triple double for him in Phoenix.
That was a late season performance quite like this one. Guy's not playing, right? And everyone has this thing where it's like, I'm going to watch a game because the star is playing. And if the star doesn't play, you think it's not worth watching that game. If you miss the game because of that... on Monday night, then shame on you.
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