How Denver's defense won the title | NBA Finals Game 5 analysis
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- How did Denver build a championship defense to pair with Nikola Jokic's historically great offense? This detailed film room study examines how the Nuggets season long defensive principles of shrinking the floor, overloading sides and recovering horizontally with speed and communication locked down the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals and helped them win their first NBA championship.
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Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.
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You were always my first choice when I wanted a true breakdown/analysis of the NBA reg and post season games/players, specifically the Nuggets. The clowns at ESPN and Fox Sports should spend some time watching your channels to educate themselves. Finally what a ride this year has been for us Nuggets fans...it's almost surreal that our team is FINALY the NBA Champions.
"WE WANT MORE!"
@@Peanutdenver ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤qq
no shipping to Europe?? :-(
@ThinkingBasketball please make a video on the top 10 players of 2022, like you did for 2021, 2020, 2019.
You should do mugs too!
People joke about Jokic being drafted during a taco bell commercial but just like Jokic, the Quesarito did not disappoint
i tried ordering a quesarito for Game 5 but alas they could not
Taco Bell should launch Jokerito now
there was also a giant pink unicorn with wings while he was being drafted (just after taco bell commercial), now if that doesn't perfectly encapsulate Jokic's game, I don't know what does. I love it when writers put these little easter eggs in
@@sergiorodriguez8976 spent all their marketing money on that bullshit LeTacoTuesday commercial
@@virgil.alonso because taco bell has been trying to lift the trademark on taco tuesday for decades and it was thanks to LeBron that they got what they wanted
that backstep by murray avoiding jimmys shoulder is wild
The Jokic brothers tossing Coach Malone at the end there is hilarious
Thanks for making these vidios man, i support you
Jokic the best Taco Bell commercial of all time
jokic deserved it! so happy for him
That last defensive possession - Murray and Jokic against Butler - was a thing of beauty. And I love how you pointed out Murray’s ability to avoid fouling.
that's the mark of a high IQ player. He experienced that same move from butler in the last game, and unlike most players, he learned from his previous defensive mistake and made adjustments so when jimmy tried it again, it totally backfired on jimmy. And the fact that it was in a critical moment of the game is even more epic
that was some anime shit
For real, and it had the second effect of baiting Jimmy into using the shoulder and finding no resistance, thereby getting him too deep in the paint, too close to Jokic's help D. After seeing so many casually effective Butler drives, it was amazing how they got him stuck with no good options right when it mattered most.
@@Praetoriusify Yes, it was almost a variation on the old trick of pulling the chair, except there was no body contact at all. But Jimmy was counting on contact.
Butler's selfish personality is too predictable to be read. If he is selfless, then it may be impossible to stop him. Jokic is an unstoppable monster due to selfless personality as a team player.
That challenge not succeeding was an embarrassing moment for the NBA. Remember when kicking out was an unnatural shooting motion for two weeks?
the most shameful call I've ever seen in my life
It's not when you are down 3-1 in the series
It was. Adam Silver called this game against the Nuggets, he didn’t want it to end in 5. But the Nuggets were too good.
That call was an obvious attempt to extend the series to 6, very shameful of the league and refs. Had it gone against the Nuggets, the outrage would have set this city on riot mode!
The consistency of the refs was bewildering. It seems that everything is so subjective that they can make whatever call they want. When players are getting mauled on one and end then on the other they call these tikky-tak fouls, its just hard to watch.
Jamal recognizing jimm'ys technique and using it against him is genius. and its insane that people can spot that. its such a small nuance that 99% will never be aware of that. jamal avoiding that foul was essentially the play that won them the championship.
It's not just Jamal, but the coaching staff too discussing that in watch sessions with the team.
@@JonMichaelDeShazer yes, the details make everything.
Jamal Murray sucked in the finals. He shot terribly, had massive turnover numbers, and dribbled away the shot clock, which ruined the nuggets offense. He had one game with no turnovers so people forget about the three shot clock violations he caused. And even then he had a turnover they just didn’t count it. Statistically Jamal hogs the ball more per a possession than nearly everyone else in the playoffs. People forget about how he shot us out of the game in the loss to the suns, and continued to hog the ball in close games instead of getting it to Jokic.
@@SugmaDubNation the shot he made on 7:43 is absolutely risky. If Brown didn't make that offensive rebound, they could've lost that game.
@takikurobane exactly. 12 seconds on the shot clock, with the most efficient player in the game, Murray decides to take a fadeaway and completely miss. Also at 7:30 Murray didn’t even want to pass it to jokic. If you watch the full play he legit ignores him for a few seconds, tries to do a crossover and then settles for the pass. I’ve never seen anyone play like this. It would be like if ‘22 Jordan Poole, who was good in the payoffs that year, ignored Curry for every possession in the 4th.
That detail about Murray avoiding the Butler shoulder is interesting. I was irritated Butler got that call in game 4, but it looks like karma wins out in the end. Good job, Jamal
People blinded by his Playoff Himmy Buckets performances don't realize the dude is one of the biggest floppers and foul baiters in the league. I have zero respect for that ish
That shoulder bump should be changed as offensive foul just like the sudden stop pick and roll from CP3 /Trae and the front laying shooting from Harden
it was even more ridiculous because in game 5 AG got called for an offensive foul that was nearly identical to what jimmy did. there's no consistency in calls. nobody knows what's allowed and what's not.
@@mjvoce I was furious during the first half. Some because we couldn’t make any three though. But the whistle towards our bigs even force DAJ to play. Ridiculous.
@@三代-m6gtechnically, it already is, but usually they just let the calls go in the playoffs because it’s the playoffs. They’ve call it a few times, jokic got the O foul called twice on him in game 4 against the lakers, so it is on the books.
It is weird though that they let the dropped shoulder go, but then called the foul on the guy who got popped in the chest by the dropped shoulder, but the reffing has been weird this whole series.
Congratulations to the Denver Nuggets and horse aficionado Nikola Jokić on their first championship!
Still can’t get over the fact that they upheld that foul on Gordon. In the slowmo you can clearly see that Jimmy’s foot was falling and he went back in for another tap lol guess they wanted the final to be more dramatic
Talk about a manly, beast play, though. To foul a man from two feet away, with just your balls, takes something special.
@@evillordbeerus2455 takes balls. literally.
I might be wrong, but wasn't the foul called because MPJ interfered in Butler's landing?
@@filipe.sm31 no one else touched butler on that play
@@filipe.sm31its not crowding the landing zone if the shooter kicks their feet out in front of them
The best basketball channel, by a mile. Thank you for this season!
Used to be jxmy but he kinda trash now
best is atrocious cap
@@Mdksupreme1what the fuck does that mean
@@Mdksupreme1 be silent
@@Mreyna06218 meaning this is FAR from the best bball channel
Truly a great 4th quarter, nuggets even beat the refs. That Bruce Brown save happened due to the heat boxing out and grabbing Gordon more than focusing on grabbing the ball just to give enough space for that to happen
Never really thought the NBA was rigged. But the things the refs were letting Heat players get away with is making me a believer.
@@Joe-fd7qv they wanted a 7 game series just that
Yes, lowry and his dirty tricks... duperb player but just as the whole heat squad and the coach, using tricks outside of basketball, i hate it
@@bubasaba They were a very slimy team. To be fair they had to be in order to win.
@@Joe-fd7qv It's not rigged in that sense but refs prefer one team and sometimes nba tell them to secure win for one particular team because they want more games, fortunately they didn't succeed.
I get more insight from just one of your 10 minute videos than watching ESPN for years.
it's as if they still haven't realised that just because former players were good at basketball doesn't mean they're good at explaining it (breaking it down).
@@MasterAppels The problem is that ESPN and similar do like 1 or 2 play breakdowns at most. Even this channel and 10 minutes dedicated to breaking things down only whets my appetite. I'd watch an hour long show that broke down an entire game, almost play by play. It doesn't have to be perfectly scripted and everything like the videos for this channel does so well, but just a walkthrough of a couple people talking through the plays and pointing out the setups, what's taking place away from the ball, who's moving where and why, and how it develops to get the stop or the bucket or whatever. I love it when people recognize really easy to miss things like just how astounding it is when Jokic starts a turnaround, but saw AG take ONE STEP toward the basket from the corner before he turned his back and knew to throw the ball up in a lob for him.
I love not only seeing good basketball and WHY it was good basketball (and not just impressive athleticism) and I actually really love being able to see someone intelligent and observant enough to *recognize* good basketball and explain why.
@@AntiNeoFascistbballbreakdown is another great basketball channel you’ll love since you enjoy this channel.
@@MasterAppels Kendrick Perkins was a Shaqtin a Fool hall of famer. Not sure if "good" is an accurate way of describing him as a NBA player.
I've learned more about basketball the last 3 of these episodes then my 10K games of my watching my brother growing up. As a kid all i wanted was for halftime to happen so I might be able to shoot some hoops.
Thanks for the fine analysis and video TB. I have never been prouder of my hometown team the Denver Nuggets. I was teary eyed after game 5, as was Nikola's brother sitting in Ball Arena and many other lifetime Nuggets fans. At 64 years old and with MS, I told my brother that "I wanted to see the Nuggets win the NBA Championship before I die", and this came true. I followed this team as the Denver Rockets then the Nuggets both not appreciated by the larger NBA cities. Nuggets Central, thanks for drafting this unknown giant for Serbia. Now, we live in California (ughhh) and am missing Denver, Colorado.
Thanks for sharing!
They won because while ALL the players from BOTH teams were playing badly and falling under pressure, Jokic drops a casual 12-16 fg. When everyone else fails, he doesn't.
And he had no "bad" game in the playoffs either. His worst game is still something like a 24-16-4 on above 50% shooting if my guess is correct.
@@kurosan0079his worst game was a 13 points easy going on game 1 against Minnesota
@@pedroaugustocosta2533 13 points, 14 rebounds and 6 assists for the worst game LMAO
Even old heads cant complain about Jokic not being a "traditional" center cause he can still bang in the post along with stretching the floor like a modern center oh and just so happen to have Magic and Lebron type of vision. And this video shows that despite physical shortcomings he has the IQ and awareness to always be in position and communicate effectively to his teamates on the defensive side of the floor
Very old heads like Jokic because he reminds them of Bill Walton before his injury. And little less old heads like Jokic because he reminds them of Arvydas Sabonis.
It's just that Jokic do that at an unprecedented level.
Jokic is the perfect fundamental big man. He has refined his traditional big man skills while also mastering his shooting, playmaking, and defensive IQ. The only thing holding him back from being the perfect big overall is his lack of athleticism, but I’ll take skill over athleticism any day.
Serbians in general are tremendous athletes, add to the fact you have this behemoth of a man at 6"11 270, Jokic would thrive in any era. His strength and endurance are elite. He didn't seem tired whatsoever playing 40+ min plus each and every game. As I was telling people who didn't watch Jokic, he's actually an excellent defender, he just tends to avoid foul trouble because his impact on the offensive end is significantly more important but if you saw his clutch defensive stats, they're elite.
Jokic plays like Kareem, Chamberlain and other old school centers, there is confusion going on with so many people in love with 90s 00s basket "foul however you want" ball thinking that was oldschool which could not be further away from truth
Jokic is a fusion of all the textbook old school big man stuff encompassed with having the touch and vision of Larry Bird. He may not the best 'on ball' defensive big but that vision on offense most definitely translates well on defense. Especially with how he sees the screening actions as he plays the drop and always being on time with rotations and not over helping.
Thanks for all the hard work and great content this season Ben and the whole Thinking Basketball team. Love what you do and made me proud to see your content featured on the NBA's official page despite me having nothing to do with it haha
That's so cool! I feel that way too about creators I follow.
I love how you pointed out how Jamal adapted to Butler's offense and had that clutch defensive possession. I remember how LeBron feasted on Jamal in game 1 in the Lakers series. However, it was Jamal who got the last laugh with that clutch defensive help defense on LeBron in the closeout game.
That's a great point--Murray ended up having the key defensive possession in the closeouts for both Lakers and Heat series.
@@jonathanlgillespecially how he made Lebron pump fake the ball
I love the small things you point out like Malone sliding and blocking at the end.
He's locked in for sure
Coach Malone and his staff deserve a lot of credit for this title run. Jokic game is unbelievable, Murray stepped it up to prove he's a true star, Gordon and MPJ played their role to perfection being able to become the focal point of their offense at any given time if needed, and the role players brought a lot of talent and effort for this team. Yet, beyond their individual talenst, this team is a tactical masterpiece.
being a nuggets fan since i was 7 a championship means the absolute world to me. Kenneth faried starting minutes, ai starting, melo, nurkic, facu, gallo, mudiay, and yet i still think that they deserve a ring bc they got us here. thinking basketball is the goat of basketball essays and i appreciate the way i can relive the moment with the channel
@@tysonchacon4117 Dude, just go the extra mile and write 'ife' with that L. 😅
This way it looks like you wrote Nuggs 4 Ls
Congrats, man. Happy you got to see it. So many people never get to see it. Cherish this.
To mention the name Melo in the context of this team's accomplishment is like a loud fart during an aria by a diva.
Anyone else see Jokic absolutely hammered at the parade today. Also riding around in a SWAT Truck. Bro deserves it
Top knotch analysis as always. But great catch with Murray backing away at the last second. Love the game within the game.
Jokic legit had like 10+ missed assists that game. So many wide open looks he passed to that got bricked or fumbled it was infuriating.
Still they won despite atrocious shooting and I’m glad, the better team won.
17 potential assists according to tracking (passes leading to a shot)
both teams is pressured
@@ThinkingBasketball How many expected assists from those 17 potential assists?
kcp, brown, braun were amazing on defense this entire series. their uncanny ability to switch and close out on defenders along with stripping the ball and frustrating miami was huge.
Do you still make a top 10 players list at the end of each season? Not sure if you stopped, or if it's just in your patreon, but I always looked forward to seeing your list each off season
I’m curious about that as well.
He didn’t last year, he could get number 10 figured out along with other projects he was working on. He ended up posting an article for patreon
Excellent review. Shout out to Jamal Murray for learning enough of Jimmy's bag to beat him. I'd like to see a vid of Jokic re-uniting with his horses after this long stretch. 🤣 These Nuggets earned a relaxing off-season. If they don't win 2 more rings at least with this core team, I'll be shocked. Grats Denver! 🏀🏆🎇
Ive been so tired of the worn out yok is a horrible defender narrative im so glad they won the chip. As a bulls fan though i hope miami gets a star and gets a chip for jimmy
I wish they would have played some better teams it wasn't too thrilling watching them plow through 3 play in teams and a hobbled Suns. Bucks/Celtics really choked.
@@Fuphy I think this is pretty disrespectful to the Lakers, they had the 3rd best record after the trade deadline and gelled on the fly. And the Suns were still the Vegas favorites regardless, as were the Lakers. A lot of that is dumb bettors, but still.
@@hb-robo hey it's all opinion but i knew it would be a very easy series for the nuggets. I don't pay attention to media or vegas I just know ball. I'm a huge jokic fan btw but this was a huge snooze fest to me. Gimme a run like the 2011 Mavs!
I feel regardless of how good or bad Jokic defense is, his defensive rebounding is so good that it doesn’t matter because the opposing team really only ever gets one chance to score
I'm not tired because those casuals just slurp up regular season games. I think Jokic has been slowly putting it together as a drop coverage big and as great off ball defender. The playoffs was a testament of that and especially when he has strong wing defenders to help him make those decisions easier.
Aaron Gordon was the ultimate x factor in this series. That strength and mobility was just brutal against Jimmy Buckets
Thank you for recognizing the dominant force that Denver's defense can be when it's needed most. Since the All-Star break, the Nuggets had the sixth-ranked defense in the league. And in the 2023 playoffs, Denver ranked third in defense (and first amongst playoff teams that played at least 12 games).
Thank you for posting about Nuggets defense because Jokers defense has been fantastic
one of the things i loved about this series was that there was barely any off-court controversies.
no loud mouths, barely any trash talking & bringing it up on social media. just basketball.
it was beautiful. thank you Miami, thank you Denver -- all playoffs-long, it was simply entertaining basketball.
man you always find the most interesting details that sliding backwards by murray was incredible
That Taco Bell ad was the best thing Taco Bell could’ve asked for
Paying dividends
Thank you. The narrative of this game 5 is just "both teams played bad" because everyone wants to act like offense is the only part of the game. No one wants to talk about the defense Denver played. Denver was missing wide open shots while Miami was getting hounded all game long.
Nuggets were shooting bad from three and they didn't make their FT but overall they played great! Miami on the other hand were atrocious on offense, they were really terrible especially the pick n roll..
@@elmehdinafia1237 They are an 8 seed at the end of the day they had to regress to the mean of a .500 team especially without Herro.
I mean both teams did play bad. *BUT* in the playoffs you gotta be able to win ugly games. The Heat themselves when they aren't on shooting streaks muck up games and force their opponents to win ugly. Thats how they bested teams like the Bucks and Celtics and make their way to the Finals. For the Nuggets that was a question if they can do the same thing since on their way to the Finals, they can easily hang in shoot outs. Then they finally gave the answer in the Finals and earned themselves a chip.
@@Fuphy More excuses to the number one hater 😅
@@t4d0W yeah but nuggets just didn't make the shots they usually make, they run their offense the same way..if you see the game miami were bad cuz they were doing some dumb stuff on offense, they did what the Celtics do..they didn't stop chucking up 3s even though nothing was falling.
Jokic's stripping and kicking the ball in this series were so effective.
You don't have to be a shot blocker to protect the paint. Why waste energy jumping when a simple swipe or sticking your foot out is just as effective? Much lower risk for injury as well, no chance of landing on someone's foot when you don't jump
To stop denver from threepeating and ensure that the Jokic is bad defender narrative sticks, silver will introduce some rule that cracks down on kickballs 100%
@@BoxCarBoy12 Yes, "landing on someone's foot" - that is indeed the first curse of basketballers. Non-leaping players like Jokic have that advantage, and he seems to have wrapped that into his game. Have you ever seen Jokic make a wild and crazy leap at the ball? Me neither. Now Embiid, on the other hand: all that flailing and falling and flopping ... And then there he is in street clothes, or floating like a zombie through a game 7 of a playoff series.
I just love that we have the reincarnation of Larry Bird and Bill Walton all in one guy
And Tim Duncan and Dirk and Divac and Sabonis ...etc lol
Advanced stats don't lie, and Jokic proved it on the biggest stage. Should've been all-defensive this year and last year.
Three good games and people want to act like he's Bill Russell. Stop it. You're as bad as the people who said he was terrible on defense. He is a very solid defender who is in the right places and does the right things but he isn't remotely close to the impact defender that guys like Mobley, JJJ and Draymond are.
Jokic isn't even the best defensive player on his own team. AG and KCP are both better defenders. Beyond that, Denver had a middling defense all season. It's not an accident that 7 of the 10 all-defense guys are from top 5 defenses. And the other three were Bam from the #9 defense, OG from #10 and Draymond. GS only had the #1 defense in the NBA when he was on the court. And that list doesn't include AD, Giannis, Walker Kessler, Gobert, Herb Jones, Marcus Smart, Jimmy Butler, Mikal Bridges.
Stop over correcting. He is a dependable defender who does is job and on the short list of best offensive player of all-time. That's plenty good. We don't need to pretend he's KG on defense too.
@@michaelahurtperfect comment
Wait for the next season to see how Jokic and Denver beat play in teams. Not real teams (whatever that means). He played every possible superstar and center that was "going" to stop him. What a run from Denver. They mastered the game. I hope they stay in the same team rotation, cause this team is unstoppable.
The taco bell meme will never be forgotten 😂
They should bring back the Quesarito for a limited time
@@doktarr fr
I get annoyed when NBA fans try to claim that perimeter defense isn't more important than interior defense, but In the playoffs it sure is.
If you watched the success of great defensive teams in the playoffs, it goes both ways especially in the modern game. The point of attack defenders (at the perimeter) have to fight over screens so the other teammates don't have to over help. Or keep the ball handler in front of them to the point they pick up their dribble. The nail defenders are also helpful providing resistance to the ball handler via switches or showing to the ball handler so the rim protector also doesn't have to over help. So if you can have your big stay at home at the post to take advantage of their size/length, that is truly where the interior defense shines.
Some people definitely oversimplify and lose the nuance. Yes, interior defenders have more impact (usually) but that doesn't mean perimeter defenders aren't critically important.
I think the third element that really gets lost is how important scheme/execution is on defense.
I feel a huge reason why so many people couldn't fathom Denver doing this on defense with Jokic is because they just couldn't wrap their head around the scheme part of it. It really clicked for me watching Dallas last year. People get so enamored with switching and these great rim protectors because it's easy to see, when the reality is, defense is about keeping players out of bad positions, everyone doing their job, and size. That's it. Whether you have 5 all-defense level guys like Boston or none like that Dallas team. You can build a scheme around one limited defender to insulate him, especially if he's 7 feet tall, executes the scheme, and single-handedly generates a 118 offensive rating. Yes, it's nice to have the AD or Draymond or Giannis who can just fix 50% of the mistakes on the fly, and it certainly makes things easier, but it's not a requirement.
Watching Game 5 was such a treat as a basketball fan. Everyone from the 12th man on the bench and all of the coaches wanted to win that game on both sides and it showed. Like an all-time heavyweight fight in boxing. It was a slug fest to the very end. And eventually came down to which team could no longer hold on. Loved every minute of it. It's the type of game that's the definition of being proud even in defeat if you're Miami. And as for Denver, they made them earn it down to the last possession. Overall, a great finale to the 22/23 NBA season.
murray weaving the butler shoulder bump is amazing. at the time I could tell jimmy wanted a foul on the drive but wasnt paying enough attention to notice murray knew that too. just wow
People talk about Joker and Jamal makes Denver deadly on offense, but they forgot that Denver have KCP and Aaron Gordon on defense to lockdown their opposing stars
Gotta love how the one thing criticized by Nuggets and Jokić haters this season is what helped them clinch the championship!
They won mainly because Jokic, and consequently, the Nuggets got better on defense. The criticism or skepticism was valid.
Kinda hard to say they have great defense when they played 3 play in teams and a hobbled suns. Maybe next year they will be actually tested.
@@FuphyYet the Suns and Lakers were heavily favored against them before their respective series????????????? Why do you change your tune when it's convenient???
@@Fuphy Always an excuse, right?
@@lymphomasurvive I didn't excuse anything. I'm just saying you can't beat a bunch of mid teams and claim you have an elite defense. I called them as champs since November, I just wanted some actual good matchups to watch. I love jokic.
Miami was supremely lucky that game 5 wasnt a blowout.
There is a lovely irony of how the Nuggets were able to win an NBA championship off the backs of their defense when everyone considered it their greatest weakness
I thought Jokic showed truly elite defense in games 3 and 4 and was quite good in 5 too. Really nice to see.
it is still their greatest weakness by far. something can be your weakness and still good enough to get the job done, which is exactly what we saw.
@@Masoch1stit’s not their greatest weakness at all. Jamal Murray, KCP, Bruce Brown, and Aaron Gordon are all very good defenders. Jokic’s defensive IQ could debatably put him in that category as well. MPJ is the only player you could truly call a bad defender. Their actual greatest weakness is consistency outside of Jokic. Everyone else is streaky from beyond the arc.
@@Watermelon_Man maybe we will see next year. This year was a HORRIBLE litmus test. They played 3 play-in teams and a hobbled suns w/o Ayton.
@@Watermelon_Man dude you're an idiot. Just because they have a few good defenders (Jamal isn't one of them) does not change the fact it's their greatest weakness. They have a very middle of the pack defense. Everything else they do is elite, thus its their greatest weakness. This isn't up for debate lmao
I think NBA is gonna look different next season. Teams are gonna look to go back to classic bigman league to stop jokic
Jokic is a top 5 center already, Fight Me.
Yeah top 5 fattest
Of all time ? Yeah you can make that argument. Not really a hot take
Also you really got Jokic over Duncan, Shaq, Hakeem, Russell, Kareem, and Wilt already? Let alone Moses, Robinson, Dirk?
@@machoboys8884 Duncan and dirk aren’t centers and he’s at the level of Moses and above Robinson
@@agooddrawingofme2639 Duncan was listed at center for 63% of his career in the regular season and 71% for the playoff. Dirk was more of a PF but played 30% if his entire seasons as a center
Don’t let Gilbert Arenas see this 😂💀
A relentless offense and an above average defense. Positioning, deflection, rebounding, and blocks.
It is really nice to see this Denver team playing. And, let's be honest, since the bubble Jokic has been evolving a lot, but he needed Jamal in order to be a true contender. It paid off waiting for Jamal's recovery. And the GM not only had this patience, but they also surrounded these two with pretty good role players. Jokic will be a generational talent and will be an all-time great, Murray has all-star talent and can become an HoF certainly. I would like to see these two getting more two rings in the next 4 years...
They should play a Taco Bell commercial during Jokić's Hall of Fame speech. Keep the tradition going.
at 8:35
that defense bit you talked about here is the same as the one with Scottie Pippen in this clip ua-cam.com/video/eOoWZNp0AlA/v-deo.html
Kobe analyzed it perfectly. Murray did the same thing like what Scottie did here.
I guess it's just textbook defense move by great players then
Quesarito advertisement using the NBA superstar free from $$$🤑 talent fees for 8 years now and counting ♥️👏
3:57 when he made that dribble move to spilt the double I was like “oh that’s high school mixtape MPJ right there”. Then a few plays later he got a rebound and dribbled into a pull up three. And I was like “Dang MPJ feeling good tonight”. I don’t known if he did anything else after that, but those felt like big plays in the moment.
1/6 from 3pt lol he was pretty ass all series
Mike malone being lifted by the jokic brothers was honestly pretty funny
They lifted Jokic too and rocked him, LOL
@@kennethward4985 I will never get on the bad side of guys like that. They can ragdoll a 6'11 270lbs monster.
I died laughing at that too lmao
It's traditional in Srbia(at least it used to be) for champions to be carried by fans.
The Miami floppers couldn’t win after Denver had 3/5 bad games 🤣
Taco bell need to make a sponsorship deal with jokic or at least offer him free quesarito for life. It's only right
Celtics take notes.
Denver Nuggets? You mean the 04 Pistons? LMAO and here people were thinking that Jokic is a bad defender
Nikola Jokic and Ben Wallace are polar opposites at the center position.
its actually a thing of beauty how many deflections and strips denver gets with kcp brown and jokic. Can't remember any other team that strips the ball that much
Bulls probably do, thanks to Caruso.
The last possession where Butler tried to initiate contact was so funny to me. When I saw that, I was saying repeatedly to my workmates, "He dodge Butler". lol
I hate it when Butler does that and get free throws.
Christian Braun is one to watch for the future. Imagine, in your rookie season winning a championship. It's not that he did everything himself or is an amazing player. He's really solid and he helped the team a lot no doubt. But what will really help him in the future is the fact that in his rookie season he was exposed to the culture of a winning team on the practice court, the weight room, the locker room etc. He's had exposure to Michael Malone as a Coach and has not only had a chance to watch, listen to and converse with stars like Murray and Jokic, but also veterans like Ish Smith, Deandre Jordan, Jeff Green and KCP.
He's seen behind the scenes of what it takes to win a championship at every stage of the year through to the point where they are crowned champions. That's at least as valuable as all the playing time that he had throughout the year.
Other players that made it to the finals in their rookie seasons were people like Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan. I'm not suggesting Braun will end up being as good as them, but all the knowledge that he will absorbed will definitely help him. It's more playoff experience than any other rookie got this year.
I've really enjoyed the playoffs this year, but thanks so much for all the thoughtful commentary which has enhanced that enjoyment for me and so many viewers! Thinking Basketball for regular season and finals MVP!!🏅
Love the Kitchener shoutout 🇨🇦🇨🇦
Jokic also mentioned in his post-game reaction that it was an "ugly" game and that their shots weren't falling. The Joker himself went 12/16 from the field. Always leading from the front.
consistency
The funnest stat from this game is that 15 guys took more than 2 shots and not one shot over 50%. Except Jokic. Who shot 75%. Ridiculous.
I was really impressed by the Nuggets defense, particularly from Jamal and Jokic. AG and KCP are the backbone of the defense (and Bruce) but Mal and Jok have improved soooo much over the years. Jamal has always had the size to be a solid player on D, but his instincts weren't always the greatest. Jok figured out how to use his insane touch to become a great ball swiper/deflector, and has also figured out the positioning side of things. I'm not sure they can ever be an elite D, and still think smaller quick guards like Steph can burn them. But they faced very different teams throughout these playoffs and held their own against each
This isn't the first year I was rooting for the Nuggets, and honestly can say I bandwagoned, but I watched them for a bit earlier, as Denver has all my favorite Sports teams, and it's amazing to see them do so well.
Game 5 is why they say defense wins championships. I was exhausted just watching Denver play team defense. Every Miami shot was well contested, every Denver switch and rotation was seamless. In a season full of unprecedented offensive stats it was odd watching a grind it out match to decide it all. It wasn't a pretty game but when the final horn sounded it was obvious the better team won. Congrats to the Nuggets and their fans. They definitely deserve this ring.
Defense still wins championships!! Congrats Denver! Great effort Miami.
First time I've ever bought merch from a UA-camr. Well deserved, nice design, proud to wear.
Hope you like it!
Amazing content this year. Thanks so much for all your efforts Ben!
been waiting for a drop here not gonna lie
Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr, and Aaron Gordon also KCP has great spiritual connection with each other there chemistry is match made in heaven 🪄.
Amazing, amazing breakdown once again. That Jamal Murray callback was superb. Excited for more of your content!
Murray with that backward defense at 30 sec, what a genius; it was really confusing for Jimmy who gifted the ball to KCP ... I really love these finals, a continuous chess game... So much fair play from both teams, no flex, no thrash talk, just apex beautiful basketball... I'm also thinking this season nobody stood a chance reaching game 7, the whole league need a step up to avoid the back to back
Who said playing defense was boring? The whole 4th quarter was filled with great defensive moments and it was fun!
Ball don't lie friends. Remember that the next time u playing pick-up and u bail urself out with a dumb call. That foul was bogus and it was called so Jimmy could win.
In the end, same same Jimmy is the one who turned the ball over to LOSE the game.
What is being graphed on the y-axis at 3:30?
You're making a mountain out of a molehill here. Miami has always been inconsistent offensively, with a solid but undersized defense. They simply had no answer for the Joker, who led in Points, Rebounds, & Assists. That's not to say that he could have won without contributions from the rest of his team, but Bam and KLove cannot handle Nikola. What were the odds that the Nuggets were going to stay cold for four games?
I wish the same quality content gets translated into many languages to guide the massive casual fans of the world. Big respect to @thinkingbasketball 💯
Love from Manali, India.
It should be a requirement for all nba fans to watch thinking basketball. We've had too many uninformed opinions being thrown out there for too long and no one is better at educating on the intricacies of the game than Ben Taylor.
That foul call on Aaron Gordon when he gets kicked in the nuts by Butler has to be one of the worst in an entire season of bad referring. Luckily it didn't cost Denver the game.
As usual, beautiful video. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes, but this mediocre-to-bad defense in the reg. season was remarkably improved in the playoffs.
Such a well-deserved Championship.
championship level defense in the fourth quarter miami shot 5-21 in the fourth quarter
Really a shame that a third MVP did not go along with this finals win this season for Jokic. I know he doesn’t care about it himself personally, but I think it smears the MVP award when voters vote based on narrative and suffer from recency bias/voters fatigue.
Remember when people said Nikola Jokic was terrible at defense? Lool.
Even with the refs help, heats aren’t able to beat the nuggets.😅
I will now patiently wait for a “best players of 2022-2023 list” now…
Despite it being true I am tired of hearing everyone talk about Jokics offense, it is nice to see some analysis about the other side of the ball.
Can we get a breakdown of how Paul Pierce violently soiled himself and left the game in a wheelchair in a fit of shame?
Always
As a Denver Fan, when Jimmy got that foul at the end of the game I was beyond angered
Will you be making a top players of 2022/2023 soon?
The shot of the Jokic brothers hoisting Malone at the end is ao amazing
This is one of the best basketball channels on UA-cam. Thanks for teaching us to love the game
2011 Mavs, dynasty Warriors. Put a stingy, versatile defense that can contribute on offense around your "bad defender" and you can win.