Jamal Murray and Julian Strawther pitched in to push the Nuggets over the Thunder in game 6, and Dave DuFour, Zena Keita, and Kelly Iko are here to break it down. They discuss the impact of Julian Strawther, Nikola Jokić’s energy levels, and the disappearance of Jalen Williams. Then they preview game 7 and Knicks/Celtics and make their picks.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita & Kelly IkoExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and what is the episode about?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. Coming up, the Thunder are going back to OKC after a game six loss to the Nuggets. The Nuggets survived. We got Kelly Eco here to talk about it. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, guys. We got ourselves a game seven. How are you guys feeling? Feeling good. Zena Kata, Kelly Eco here. We just finished up Thunder Nuggets game six.
Chapter 2: How did the Nuggets manage to force a Game 7?
Obviously, the Nuggets had a huge win. We got a Jamal Murray game, a Jamal Murray flu game. We got a Julian Strother game. Kelly, you were in the building, man. What was your initial impression following game six? How did you feel about the game?
I think overall, the Thunder probably didn't realize the level of desperation that Denver was going to play with. And obviously, as the more experienced team, this is a group that's been in championship games before. They have the know-how. They have the personnel. It was going to come down to whether or not David Adelman was going to pull out the stops.
He had one more trick in his back pocket, obviously playing Julian Strother and the big miss he had. But I just think overall... they were more physical than Oklahoma City. I think they got to the line twice as much, they dominated on the glass, and they really imposed their will at both ends of the floor. And I think for the Thunder,
Yeah, you won 68 games during the regular season, but this series, you could argue that Denver has outplayed them. And on paper, they have more offensive firepower, so it's obviously going to come down to whether Coach Mark can be tactically astute and outclass David Alleman. But so far in these six games, you could argue that Denver should have already won this series by now.
Chapter 3: What was Kelly Iko's impression of Game 6?
And that's not a good sign heading into a game seven. Now, after the game, you know, talking to those guys in the locker room, there's a belief that, you know, the home crowd and the camaraderie that they've built is enough to see them through. But unless someone else steps up outside of Shea, it's kind of hard to see, you know, the Thunder winning a game seven, even at home.
That feels so crazy to say, considering how tired and gassed the Nuggets looked in Game 4 and Game 5 when they lost leads in the fourth quarter and the Thunder were able to kind of pull it out. And now you're seeing the Thunder, even with a gassed Nuggets, still allow the Nuggets to get back. I'm wondering if...
the Thunder can rely on the fact that they're a little bit younger, a lot of bit younger in some cases, but they have a little bit more depth, a little bit more athleticism to kind of push them over the edge into game seven because Denver just looks tired, even though they're more tactically sound in execution. Right.
So obviously, if you look at going back to what you said about their depth, those role players should play better at home. The problem is. And I think after postgame, Coach Mark talked about it in terms of he admitted that Denver had pretty much outplayed them. But in the fourth quarter, they were able to pull out two victories right out of the hat. The problem is how long does that last?
How long can you ride that look? And if you look at their offensive process, it was decent. That was a back-and-forth game. But it just felt like all of Denver's threes were just heavier, like the momentum was shifting in their favor. Even though MPJ shot, what, two for seven from the field, those two threes felt super heavy.
Aaron Gordon's physicality, you know, Christian Braun, you know, he's had a tremendous year just – On and off the ball, cutting, spacing, and just being that timely shooter. They have a lot of pieces that work. Now, going back to the thing about fatigue, yeah, the Thunder are younger, so you would assume that they have more energy in them.
But if you watch that game six, they just looked lethargic. They just looked tired. They looked out of it. They looked gassed. Looked a little defeated, honestly. Yeah, it was giving a lot of game seven, I want to play in front of my home crowd, game seven energy. Like, they just look like they're just throwing the towel early.
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Chapter 4: How did the Thunder perform and what challenges did they face?
And I think that's kind of dangerous against a team that has that much experience in Denver and who understands what the game's on the line. You know what they say, Kelly.
I mean, you definitely know what they say. Never underestimate the heart of a champion, right? Like, I don't want to get into cliches, but this is kind of like this Nuggets team, they're running on fumes and they're running on Jokic, and then they got...
You know, Jamal Murray, even though he was sick, like he comes in the game with like flu like symptoms, even though he was sick, gave him just a huge game. And then, like you said, every single shot that it seemed like they needed to hit, they did hit. Strother comes in and just fires them up and completely changed in the third quarter.
His stint there, what did he score, eight straight points or something? Eight straight, yeah. Yeah, and that allowed them to just, like, Jokic got some rest because Strother went off. You know, to start the fourth quarter, they got to let Jokic sit a little bit longer just because Strother was out there and being aggressive.
I mean, he had a nice drive to the basket where he, you know, drew a foul. It was just, there was an energy shift for them with Adelman going to Strother as the primary guy coming off the bench for some scoring punch. What do you expect to see, like, looking ahead to game seven?
Let's just go ahead and start previewing it because, I mean, look, we've kind of seen everything the Nuggets can do, right? They don't have a lot of guys. They just pulled one out of their hat tonight. I think it's the Thunder's turn to make an adjustment. Where do you think they need to go? I have an idea, but I want to see where you guys start.
Well, I think one big issue for the Thunder through these six games has been Denver's zone.
Yeah.
And during the regular season, the Thunder were probably – they were a top five, top six shooting team during the regular season. But the problem is now – Denver's doing so many different things with their zone. They're seeing one, three, one, two, three. They're pressing high to the line. They're dropping back. They're blitzing. They're throwing all sorts of coverages at Shea.
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Chapter 5: What role did Julian Strawther and Jamal Murray play in the Nuggets' win?
It was, I made a mistake and I'm retaliating trying to, you know, make up for it. So I think that's the number one thing, something that really shined tonight. I mean, case and Wallace was gorgeous for them in terms of just getting easy buckets, going coast to coast, you know, not having to battle against that zone, but literally turning defense to the offense or just getting out ahead.
I feel like maybe, you know, tapping into him sooner and more often in, in game seven will be an adjustment as well.
Look, there's another one that's sitting right there. And I think Alex Taruso has probably been the second best player for the Thunder in this series. I think he needs more minutes. I think maybe even getting him in the starting lineup for game seven is the button to push. You know, everything that he's done. I mean, it just he has been a positive contributor in every single way.
And it feels like. Mark Dagnall has just down the stretch when things start to, the rope starts to kind of slip away. He's a little bit too late to get Caruso back in there. And Caruso is the guy that comes in and puts the fires out for them. So guys stick around after the break, we'll be back. We're going to keep talking about game seven because it's a game seven, the two best words in sports.
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All right, now Kelly said he wanted to have fun and make some predictions, but what he doesn't know is I'm actually going to make him predict Nick Celtics, too. Because Kelly covers the NBA. Let's just be honest here. Kelly covers a lot of teams. We'll stick with Thunder Nuggets first. Kelly, you're the guest. You're staying up late for us. How do you see Game 7 going?
I mean, it feels like it's such a toss-up.
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Chapter 6: What tactical adjustments could the Thunder make for Game 7?
There's no way after everything we've seen, even if they have a terrible series, I know the resume. I know what they're walking into the series with in terms of their shooting capability, their depth, everything. And Denver has truly I don't even I don't I don't want to call expose them. But Denver's held up the light to just how deep this actually is in terms of talent and ability to execute.
Yeah. So I'm looking at what Denver did tonight in terms of, you know, Julian Strother's 15 off the bench. Cool. Great. I don't know if that's capable in a game seven on the road, but I know Russell Westbrook is capable of that. At least that. Now, the next person I'm looking at is Christian Brown. Christian Brown having 23 points. Double double with 11 rebounds. Oh, possible. But also.
Chapter 7: How did Denver's defensive strategies affect the Thunder's offense?
On the road, don't know if he's going to be able to step up on that, but I do know Michael Porter Jr. is capable of that on the road. So I just feel like Denver, again, we talked about the heart of the champion, like Denver with their back against the ropes could be capable of pulling this out and might be able to win this game. So I think I'm going to vote Denver might be able to pull this out.
Look, the Thunder had... A clean season outside of injuries, right? Like a clean season as a basketball team. They could have easily won 70 games this year. If they had just had a season, full health, absolutely. 70 wins, easy. The Denver Nuggets like to play in the mud. And they drag every team into the mud. And you know who the king of slinging mud is? Nikola Jokic.
Game seven, if this game is close, the Thunder have the ability to just blow them out. The Nuggets can't blow out the Thunder. If this game is close, I'm taking Jokic, I'm taking the Thunder, and I just can't bet against that guy at all. Swing it east, okay? The Celtics, they're back. They were down 3-1, now it's 3-2. Feels like they've got some momentum.
Jalen Brown had his best game of the series. Everyone stepped up. Luke Cornett is a revelation.
Filling in for...
Kristaps Porzingis makes that sort of absence not feel as harsh. Kelly, I know you've been keeping an eye on that. Are the Celtics going to do this thing? Are they going to take it to seven?
I think so. I think it's going seven. It's such a New York thing to do. It's such a New York thing to be up 3-1 and look up, and they're going to game seven. But if you watch that game, what was it, five? And you just saw –
The level of attention to detail that the Celtics had, which is kind of what we saw all year long, even without Jason Tatum, you understand why realistically they should have never been down 3-1 to New York in the first place. I feel like there was a level of... Not apprehension, but it might have been a level of a lack of respect that they had for New York that put them in this predicament.
Because in all facets of the game, Boston is the superior team. But the good thing about playoff basketball is that going back to the mud thing, sometimes it can get... a little ugly. So yeah, New York, New York show that they can hang in the mud that they're Grammy.
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Chapter 8: What impact did fouls have on the Thunder's performance in Game 6?
Yeah, yeah. We'll save the Game 7 prediction because who knows? But I also believe it's going 7. The Knicks don't know how to do things easy. They just don't. Every single shot they take feels like an epic journey. I mean, literally returning the ring to Mordor just to get – A layup sometimes for Jalen Brunson.
So, you know, I think the Celtics, look, things are cleaner for them now with no Jason Tatum as far as like, hey, we know what we have to do. There's one, you know, if If you're going to exactly if you're going to say something, he has a ball in his hands a lot and there's a lot of dribbling there. And now there's one less guy doing that. And so your game plan becomes so much more simple.
And they executed it to a tee the other day. And Cornette being able to step up for Porzingis makes it so they're not so small inside when Mitch Robinson is out there and when Kat's out there. So, yeah, I think it's going to go seven. It has to. The Knicks just, again, they refuse to lose or win in six. So here we go. All right. Well, that's going to do it for the show, folks.
Thank you guys for listening. Thanks to Kelly Eco for hanging out. Thanks for Zena Kata, as always. I'm Dave DeFord. This has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us.