The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - How Nikola Jokic's ICONIC performance led Nuggets to Game 4 win vs. Wolves

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Jason Timpf reacts to Nikola Jokic's "iconic" performance in the Denver Nuggets' 115-107 Game 4 win over Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Jason discusses the massive nights from Jokic and Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray's clutch shot-making, and why Minnesota is in major trouble ahead of Game 5. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

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Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

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I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Cliver Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it.

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deep dive into game for wolves nuggets i also am gonna hit i think i have 18 clips 19 clips from that game as well also recording a mailbag today that's going to be uploaded during the day tomorrow and then we're going live tonight after the final buzzer of mavs thunder game four so lots of content coming out to start this week starting today with just a deep dive into wolves nuggets game four which is now two two headed back for game five in denver you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to a brand new youtube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos follow me on twitter at underscore jason lt so you guys don't miss show announcements don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight and then keep dropping mail bad

questions and those YouTube comments, we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So out the gates, wolves get off to a little bit of a lead. They go up 20 to 13 in the first quarter. Anthony Edwards specifically said after game three that he didn't like his energy level to start that game and that he was going to bring it in game four. He absolutely did. He was magnificent in this game. We'll get to him in a little bit. But Denver tightened the screws defensively on everybody else, just like they did in game three. And every other Timberwolf fell apart. There was a seven minute stretch. spanning the first and second quarter quarters where the wolves only scored four points in seven minutes.

And during that time, Denver methodically executed on the other end and they built a 15 point lead. That really when you look at the scoring for Minnesota, they just don't have any reliable offensive players beyond Anthony Edwards. When I say reliable, I mean with like real playoff resilience, meaning like when people tighten the screws defensively, can you still get your game off? And just none of those guys can. Anthony Edwards gets 44 points on 25 shots. that's 1.76 points per shot attempt. Every other Timberwolf, 63 points on 57 shots. It's 1.1 points per shot attempt. Carl Towns, McKeel Alexander Walker, Mike Conley, and Nas Reid.

They combined to go 16 for 43. And those are your other four offensive threats. Those are the guys that you need to get some pop from, and they just didn't. And Denver did a masterful job guarding those guys, which we'll get into the specifics here in a little bit. But it was an offensive master class from the Denver Nuggets. led by Nicole Yokic. I thought it was his best game of the postseason so far.

15 for 26 from the field, 35 points, 7 assists. His touch was just ridiculously dialed in from short range. All those little hooks in floaters and turnaround jump shots. He was 10 for 15 on shot attempts that are between 5 feet and 14 feet from the rim. Remember, I refer to basketball as like a four level scoring sport, not a three level scoring sport. It's not just, you know, mid-range threes in the rim. There's like a short range to me, which is like, it's like kind of like funky push shots, hook shots, floaters, all that kind of stuff, short jump shots.

Those are typically a lot higher percentage than long twos, where you have a lot of the variance that you get from three-point shooting without the extra shot value, right? And so to me it's important to kind of differentiate between those two. Yokic literally took 15 shots that would be considered mid-range. by a lot of people, but they were all inside of 14 feet. So he's able to hit them at an absurdly high percentage. He hits them at literally 66%. Goes 10 for 15.

That's 20 points on 15 shots. That's 1.33 points per shot attempt, which is outstanding. And so, again, that's where Yokic makes his money. And that's an excellent example of where, you know, from the analytical approach, we have to kind of differentiate between different types of twos that are layups because those are much higher percentage shots, especially for Nicole Yokic.

Like if you want to sit there and be like, oh, Yokic got hot last night. It's like, yeah, not really. He's been shooting 66 to 70% on those shots forever, like extending deep into the regular season multiple years now. So like that's kind of just what he does. Three back to back to back assist and the first half that helped grow the lead. You guys remember the one where he kind of turned over his right shoulder

and baited Gobert into coming over and help. And he flipped that little left, lefty flip of the wrist pass to Aaron Gordon for the. dunk. He, very next possession, had a skip pass out of a double team on the right post that, a post up on the right elbow area that got KCP a wide open three on the left wing that he knocked down. And then on the, the run of the push ahead dunk, the one that Michael Porter Jr. dunked before Jamal Murray hit the bomb. On that play, Yokich came up in a high drop coverage, got his hands dirty, disrupted the ball, forced a turnover, got down on the floor,

got the ball and somehow managed to gather it and get it up and throw a useful kick ahead pass that Michael Porter Jr. was able to get to and dunk. Michael Porter Jr. dunked that with about two seconds left. So like if he had not gained control of the ball as quickly as he did, one, maybe someone is able to get back for the Timberwolves and two, maybe the clock runs out. And then three, you certainly don't have time for the additional mistake that the Timberwolves made as Jaden McDaniels launched that full-court pass that Jamal Murray stole and made the half-cord shot. So, like, I thought, like, Nicole Yokic was unbelievable in this game, but that three-play sequence at the end of the first half, which again, all other guys made shots, but he made a big defensive

play and had three really nice passes that basically grew what was a close game into a 15-point game going into the half, completely changed the tone of the game. I had a lot of guys after game three a little bit last night as well on Twitter. they were like, oh, like you switched up on Yokic after the first two games. So I didn't. I just held him to the standard that he deserves to be held to. He's the best player in the league. He's not only is he the best player in the league.

He's a player that I have personally basically went out to say that I think he's a special player in the all time sense, right? Like, I think that he has a bigger chasm between him and the second best player of the league than anybody since LeBron James in the early 2010s, right? I think that he has the chance to literally rip off a dynasty here. I view him as an all-time great in the making. He's already got three MVPs, which only nine players have done in NBA history. And guess what?

Yokos didn't do enough in the first two games. He didn't do enough. And his team got themselves into a really bad hole, a hole that only five teams in NBA history have clawed their way out of. And especially in game two, when they were getting their ass kicked, Yokic was sloppy, had a lot of turnovers. he had, what, 11 turnovers in the first six quarters of the series, wasn't looking to score enough. He was passing out a single coverage in the post. Yokic wasn't playing well.

On the defensive end of the floor, the first six games of this postseason, Yokic was abysmal defensively. And in game three and four in Minnesota, he looked like the Yokic that we saw in the playoffs last year, active in his drop coverage, up at the level, getting deflections, using his hands, using his IQ to blow up plays.

Yokic was unbelievable in the last two games. And again, this is what I talked about after game three. This is what I love about NBA history. A lot of times it requires a star to make some sort of mistake or to play some bad basketball to end up in a predicament. That predicament brings real adversity to the table. That real adversity pushes that basketball player to reach a level that we haven't seen before. And like, again, Yokic's had monster statistical games. But in terms of like just overall two-way dominance, last night was a special Yokic performance. It's one of the ones where if you were trying to describe to somebody what made Yokic such a great basketball player in his prime, I'd be like, go watch game four against the Timberwolves in the

2012 NBA playoffs in the second round. That's a game that you can watch and get a really good feel for what made Yokic amazing. It's one of his iconic games. That's one of the games that you're going to tell the story of Nicole Yokic's career about. And so again, he ran into his first real test, you know, I shouldn't say real test because I thought last year was a test too, but I should say his first real significant adversity, and he's passed this test with flying colors. I thought he did an amazing job in game three of identifying that all of his teammates had it going and kind of functioning more as a cog in the system and not hijacking the offense. And then I thought in game four, he was read the room and looked to be more aggressive as a

a score, which is what the team needed in that particular game. I thought he just did a masterful job the last two games of captaining this ship and leading his team to tying the series. And again, like, you guys have to understand. I am not a stand. I think stand behavior is bad for basketball. I think when there are fans who only focus on the positives with players and turn a blind eye to everything they ever do wrong, it poisons basketball discourse. That like, I told you guys this before. LeBron fans don't like me because even though I love LeBron, I, I'm willing. willing to point out when he does things on the basketball court that hurt his team or when he makes mistakes. And again, I said this when I went on with Ethan Strauss, but like,

criticism without praise is empty. But praise without criticism is empty as well. Like, I have to do both. I have to be objective and honest about what's happening or nothing I say carries any weight. If I just pretend every Yokic bad game never happened, then when I say Yokic is amazing for X, Y, Y, Z, it carries no wait. You guys can know when you come to this show, if I say, you know, Yokits did this well or Yokic did that well, I'm not just pandering. I'm not throwing propaganda out there. I'm saying it because I truly believe it. And yeah, like if, if Yokic had come into game three with another lack of dazical defensive effort and a lack of assertiveness on offense and it carried over into game four and they dropped one of those games and it was a three one series and they ended up losing the series

in five or six, he would have been deserving of the criticism that came from that. And so again, like, it's just this is, this to me is part of the journey of being an all-time great. As soon as you enter into that echelon, you're no longer being compared to your NBA peers right now because that's what you'll see is you'll be like, well, he had this many points. He had this many rebounds. He had this many assists. It's like, yeah, well, I'm not talking about how he stacks up against other guys in this league. We're talking about how he stacks up against other players all time. Nicole Yolkich has put himself into an entirely different stratosphere of NBA criticism. He has now being compared to the greats.

And that comes with a level of expectation. And he didn't live up to that in the first two games of the series. He's more than lived up to that in the second two games of this series and has completely redeemed himself. Now he needs to close the deal, but he's done what he's needed to do to this point to write the ship. And now they're in a position in game five of the series two, two, where he can give them a three two lead and regain control of the series.

Aaron Gordon, one of his best games of his career, early defense on Carl Anthony towns sliding his feet and absorbing contact, waiting for him to expose the ball. That was something he did not do very well in the first, especially in game one, he was given up driving lanes to Cat too easily. He's kind of dialed in his moves. He's absorbing that contact. He's too strong for Cat to bully. And the thing with Cat is after he makes his bully ball moves, he always exposes the

basketball. And that's where like smaller players can swipe down at it. That's where Aaron Gordon can swipe down at it. I thought he did a really good job early in the game of kind of sapping Cat of his confidence. There was that drive across the lane where he tried to go to a sweeping hook and Aaron Gordon swipe the ball out of his hands. Then he tried to post him up on the left block and he tried to get to bully him and Aaron Gordon just literally stood him up and he had to go to a left shoulder hook over the top. And it was just like a really low percentage shot that didn't have much of a chance to go in. He was just really, really, really good defensively at the start of this game.

They used him a lot with the ball in his hands in this game. Early on, just kind of using this is something that is part of the versatility that Denver has and it's an advantage. Like, okay, you've got these excellent perimeter defenders like Anthony Edwards and Jane McDaniels and to kill Alexander Walker who are going to pick all these guys up full court, right? Well, we have a four and a five that can dribble. Yokic can dribble and Aaron Gordon can dribble. We forget Aaron Gordon when he was in Orlando was more or less functioning as a wing. Now, it turns out he's not good enough at that to do that as like his primary thing, but he does have a lot of those wing skills. And like he's identified with Denver where his supreme strengths are,

as an athlete around the rim, but he also has the ability to go to that when they need it in small doses. And like early on in game three, they started doing this as well, but they just have Yokic and Gordon bring the ball up the floor. And that makes it so that Jamal Murray doesn't have to make six counter moves to get past Jaden McDaniels to get down the floor to run the offense. Jamal Murray can just run down the floor and then get into position and wait for whatever action they're going to run it and take off from there. But they also, you know, because we know, we know the second unit for Denver is typically a Jamal Murray led unit. Like it's usually Jamal Murray coming up the floor picking on a specific defender through a switch like a guard guard screen or some other screen

to get a defender that he likes on him and him going one on one. That's not what happened last night. Aaron Gordon ran that unit and just immediately started working like inverted ball screens on the right wing to try to get switches to bully ball to the basket, attacking out of the post and drawing double teams and making kickout passes. Aaron Gordon was magnificent in that early second quarter run offensively as Denver started to pull away. And then Aaron Gordon's jump shooting has been a revelation. He was five for five last night on jump shots that were at least 10 feet away from the basket.

He's at 1.17 points per jump shot in this postseason so far. That's amazing and like found money for this Denver Nuggets team. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal. but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all,

embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill,

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Jamal Murray, he only had 19 points, but I felt like every shot he hit was a massive momentum shot. That pullback dribble on Jaden McDaniels when he was pressuring in full court and the crowd was getting into it, hit that shot, kind of silenced the crowd. The half court shot, that was a huge momentum play going into the half. And then right out of the third quarter locker and he comes in and hits three jumpers, pull up two, and then I think he hit two pull-up twos, actually.

But then he also hit two threes in that run. that really helped kind of stiff-armed Minnesota because Minnesota came out and hit three early threes in that third quarter. If you don't get those shots from Jamal, very different game, right? So like only 19 points, but I thought he was deeply impactful. He had eight assists in the game as well. Then the bench guys, Reggie Jackson comes in and hits two early threes again. It's funny. He hit those two shots. And I'm watching the game and I'm like, this is classic Reggie. Like, no one's expecting him to continue to score. Like he had zero in the second half. That was not a surprise. but like he's pretty routinely come in for Denver in that in that first half and just hit a couple of big shots and he hit two big threes early in this game that kind of provided a little bit of buffer and then and then Justin Holliday came in hit a couple of big ones.

Christian Brown some cuts to the basket a big three above the break as well in the second half. It was just an absolute master class of offense from the Denver Nuggets against the best defense in the NBA. And the reality is if they can score against these guys, they're going to, it's only going to get easier from here. Boston has similar perimeter defense personnel, but they don't have nearly the front court a size and strength that Denver has. So like it's going to be like this was the big challenge for Denver and they're passing it with flying colors right now. Again, I said this to call them last night. It's not just that they're winning these games against Minnesota. They're winning handily and they're scoring easily.

And that's really, really scary considering what we thought about this Minnesota defense. On the Timberwell's front, really to me, last night was the strongest indicator. These two games are the strongest indicator of scoring resiliency. It's a concept that I talk about a lot on this show. Like, can you score is one thing. Can you score against an elite defense that is locked in, engaged, and desperate? That's an entirely different level. Do you have resiliency to score when things really get tight?

And like Anthony Edwards has passed that test with flying colors. I'm going to show you guys his efficiency chart from this postseason here in a minute because he's just been absolutely amazing. But let's go to Carl Anthony Towns first. He's an example like many players. And by the way, when I say scoring resiliency, there's only a handful of guys in the league that really have that. Like there might be, I'd have to really sit down and think about it. But there's like maybe seven or eight guys in the entire league that like when things really get tight, maintain their effectiveness offensively. It's like the, it's a, it is a really, really rare skill.

And it's a testament to Anthony Edwards that he's kind of entered into that echelon of players. So with Carl Anthony Towns, the main issue with him, and I talked about this a little bit with Colin Coward last night, he represents an archetype of player. It's like a hybrid big where it's like they're like a center, but they're not big enough or athletic enough to like really anchor a defense the way that, you know, some of the better defensive centers can. But they're like offensive minded.

they've got a little bit of off the dribble ability, a little bit of passing ability, and they usually can shoot the ball really well, right? Like Carl Anthony Towns falls into this category. The guy that I thought of and pointed out last night is like Kevin Love. He's a guy that, like, would put up big numbers in the regular season, big strong forward, who could attack mismatches in the post

and could operate out beyond the three point line. It was kind of an iffy defensive anchor, right? Well, what ends up happening with those guys is they eventually run into a front court athlete in the postseason, was big and strong enough to avoid their bully ball tactics, fast enough to beat them to spots, and it'll basically turn them into over-the-top shot makers. And it's just difficult to rely on that if you don't have another part to your game. And that's the thing. Like, I'm going to show you guys a couple of clips. It's just like KCP and Aaron Gordon in the, in the opening quarter,

had like three possessions or Kat tried to bully them and he just couldn't. And then he just would eventually expose the basketball and then they'd swipe down and knock it out of his hands. And it's like unless he's just hitting threes at a high clip. And again, like you can pressure that. You can close out and take him off the line, right? But like as soon as you kind of up the defensive intensity and tighten the screws and take away some of the easy stuff for a guy like Carl Anthony Towns, all of a sudden, he really, really struggles to score. And that's the thing. Like Minnesota has five offensive players and it's like Conley kind of lacks aggression and isn't a great athlete, right? Kiel Alexander Walker, Streaky.

Reed, Streaky. And then Carl Anthony Towns is like a second star that like really needs favorable conditions for him to be a good score. And Aaron Gordon is just a matchup that can really, really cause some problems for him. But they're, they're not going to win another game in this series unless they get offensive support for Anthony Edwards. And like, and also in addition to that, ants hitting a lot of jump shots in this series, which I think is real. I mean, we're what, seven games into this, eight games into this and he's still hitting. But at the same time, like, if he has a cold jump shooting game, you could be really screwed. So like they desperately need someone to step up and help.

Before we get to the film, I wanted to show you guys the Anthony Edwards shot making chart. So this is from Synergy. This is Anthony Edwards shot making chart from this postseason run. So as you can see, it breaks down to jump shooting and it breaks down to catch and shoot, guarded, unguarded, dribble jump shots. Early jumpers are like jabs. So like when you catch and you don't put the ball on the floor,

but you like face up, it's like, think of them as like a face-up jump shot, right? runners are floaters, hooks are self-explanatory, and then at the rim, you can't see it because of my, my little window here, but it's layups and then dunks. So he's shooting 48% on jump shots in total, amounting to 1.23 points per jump shot because he's shooting 62% when you wait it for threes. He's shooting 56% on catch-and-shoot jump shots, 84% waited for threes. He's shooting on dribble jump shots, so pull-up jump shots off the dribble, 46% over. overall, 57% weighted for threes, 1.1, 4 points per shot. That's amazing. He's 4 for 8 on face-up jumpers, 4-for-8 on floaters. And then he's 33 for 48 in layups. That's 69%. That's awesome for a guard.

And then he's seven for eight on dunk. So, like, he's just at every single phase of offense right now, putting together some really, really impressive shot making. And again, like, no matter what happens the rest of the series. And, you know, I, again, I said after game two that the series wasn't over, but that I expected Minnesota to win. That's just based on statistics. NBA history tells us that when you're the home team and you drop the first two games at home, you're most likely going to lose. I want to say that I can't remember the exact number, but Minnesota turned into a heavy favorite in Vegas after winning the first two games. As a matter of fact, after game three, when Denver dominated them and it was two to one, Minnesota was still like a minus two 10 favorite on draft

kings, if I remember correctly. So like it's just statistics. really, really hard to do it. But the hardest part was winning those two games in Minnesota. Now they have. And so now I do believe Denver is going to win the series. I believe they'll go home and get game five. And then I think they'll go into Minnesota and get game six. I think they've solved Minnesota's offense. I think Minnesota can't score with these guys. I think they've also solved their defense. They figured out how to get comfortable against them. That's a death sentence. It's a big problem that A&K can go for 44 on your home court in a far more intense defensive effort on your part. and you still never really threatened to win that game.

You didn't just lose to, you lost too convincingly, and it looked ugly at times. And it's trending in the wrong direction for you in a lot of ways. And so I do think Denver is going to pull this one out. All right, guys, that's all I have for this particular video. Like I said, I'm recording a mailbag that's going to go up tomorrow morning. I'm also going live tonight after the final buzzer of Mavs Thunder. I will see you guys then.

The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not. not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan,

so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith Rule of Two. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever,

you get your podcast. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey,

or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

So let's get to it. Listen to The Clivert Show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok.

This is an IHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.