The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - NBA Finals Game 1 Reaction: Nikola Jokic & Nuggets destroy Jimmy Butler & Heat

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets' 104-93 victory over Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Jason analyzes Jokic's exceptional 27-point triple-double performance and discusses how the Nuggets seem to dominate the Heat in every aspect of the game. #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're 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, unfiltered conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard,

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Happy Thursday, everybody. Coverage of the NBA Finals here at Hoops Tonight is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? We are also live on AMP. So if you're listening on the YouTube feed or on a podcast feed. Don't forget that AMP is the very first place

that you guys can get these shows. Well, game one of the NBA finals goes to the Denver Nuggets who are still undefeated at home. I thought that that was an especially concerning game for Miami Heat fans because I thought the Heat did a lot of things really well in that game.

They won a lot of battles against Denver that Denver has been winning against everybody else in this postseason run, and they still lost by double figure. So we're going to get into it. I'm not going to go too deep into the X's O's tonight because we're going to be doing our film sessions on the day after the finals. So keep an eye on the feeds tomorrow in the afternoon time for that full-length film breakdown.

But we are going to dive into a bunch of stuff that I noticed in the live show. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes 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 any show announcements. And if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these videos, you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. And last but not least, you guys have heard me talk about Game Time,

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I was watching that intro video that they always play right before tip off. It's not as long as it used to be. Some of you older fans will remember, it used to be a much more produced video that had a lot of history in it. You know, this is kind of an interesting series because there's not a ton of history in this particular series. Like Jimmy's been there before. A couple of these guys have been there before,

but a lot of these guys, especially the stars, are guys that have never won championships before. It kind of reminds me a little bit of the 2021. NBA finals, where it feels more like the beginning of history. You know, we look back, you look back at a guy like Steph Curry or LeBron James, and they have four championships each, right? But what happens? You go back and it's like, there was a time in 2015 when Steph looked like a baby on ABC

competing in the NBA finals. And at the time, like if I would have told you everything that was coming after and you would have looked at that for what it was, which was a little piece of history, you would have had a little bit more appreciation. for it. Same thing goes for LeBron James. Like in the 2012 finals, you know, they win a, a lot of those games were competitive, but they win in five games. And at the time, you're like, oh, you know, LeBron won a title, but it's like, it's kind of the beginning of history there. And that's kind of what this felt like to me, because not only for either of these guys, regardless of who wins,

it's a significant marker. If Jimmy Butler wins, it's this huge career-defining achievement. But Yokich winning, and I believe he's going to, and we're going to talk about all the reasons why, it just feels like the one step in what could be a magnificent career. I mean, the dude's 26 years old. I mean, he could win. He's going to be back on this stage. Every single one of these Denver Nuggets players that's in their core rotation is under contract for next year and likely will return. The only guy that they could end up losing is a guy like Bruce Brown. But like they're going to be right back on this stage in the future. And that's what kind of is cool about this. It feels a lot. like history in the making. I was a little concerned about this series going in.

You know, it's funny, there's a lot of narrative surrounding this series of it being boring from the standpoint of the drama or the or the interestingness of the players. I disagree with that to me. Drama takes away from the game of basketball anyway. And I actually find these teams to be very interesting from a basketball perspective. The heat being this team that squeezes everything out of their talent by virtue of brilliant coaching and excellent play from their stars and just a lot of guys that have chips on their shoulder. And then Denver truly achieving unguardability, like we talked about during the Western Conference Finals, which we're going to spend a lot of time talking about. It's very

interesting on that level. However, there's a reason why I was rooting for Boston in the last round, and it's because I have so much respect for how good this Denver Nuggets team is, even though I didn't like Boston, I knew it was going to require a great deal of talent and athleticism and size to even attempt to challenge Denver. And that's what's concerning. Because as I look at this particular game tonight, Miami won a lot of battles that Denver's been winning in earlier rounds. All of the things that can be squeezed out of talent, Miami won.

For instance, they held up on the glass. Remember, the nuggets obliterated the Lakers on the glass when they came in laxidaisical in game They were a 20 to 3 at rebounding advantage at one of the first TV timeouts, which is insane. Miami had 43 rebounds in this game. Denver had 44. They held up really well. As a matter of fact, Miami got 11 offensive rebounds in this game. The heat only had eight turnovers. They had fewer turnovers than Denver, and in general, at a very low amount of turnovers. Their transition defense was incredible. They kept Denver out of transition for the most part in this game. All those Bruce Brown semi-transition attacks.

You know, Duncan Robinson's putting his body on the line, sliding his feet and getting in front of guys. They were sprinting back in general and building a wall and making guys playing a crowd. They did a ton of things extremely well, and it just didn't matter. They lost by double figures. Miami even made one of their patented fourth quarter runs, right? Where they just keep competing while you kind of let your foot off the gas a little bit. I think they got it to nine at one point during that stretch when Nicola Yochitz was off the floor. They were running a lot of zone.

they were getting out in transition, and then Yokic checks back into the game and immediately scores twice in a row. There was that against their zone. They stayed in the zone, and we're going to talk a little bit about the zone because I actually think that might be Miami's best chance to get stops in the series,

as crazy as that sounds, which we'll get to in a little bit. But first possession, they come back in, and they ran a really interesting double screen. So, like, there's two guys in the top guys in the zone in the two three. And Contavius Kobopopopopo and Yokich come up and set screens on the two guys,

and Yokich is the last guy. Gabe Vincent is that top left guy, his own. He has to show as Jamal Murray is coming out, right? Because if he doesn't, Jamal is just going to turn the corner and get into the lane or get a wide open jump shot, right? Right as Vincent shows, Yokic slips. And right when he slips, that's when Jamal Murray throws the pass. He catches and makes an easy floater in a lane. A shot he's going to make every single time. Because again, that's what causes so many problems for teams with Denver. They are completely fundamentally unguardable. Then he came back on the very next

possession. They switched back to man. He gets bam at a bio in the middle of the lane and makes a short little fadeaway jump shot in the lane. Another shot he's been making well over 50% of the time this entire season. And just like that, bam, it's back up to 13 points. And the game feels like it's over. Miami did a lot of things right and still lost. Now, you're going to say things like Miami didn't shoot the ball particularly well. These things are connected.

They always are. Like, the Lakers physically mauled the Warriors. And so then the Warriors couldn't make shots. Because guess what? When you're battling bigger players all over the floor, when you're boxing out, sprinting in transition, fronting the post. Miami did a ton of fronting the post tonight. When you do those sorts of things, it wears your legs out.

And then when you trigger your muscle memory in a wide open shot situation, the energy's off because you don't quite have the same amount of lift as you normally do. So you start compensating at the top part of your shot, your muscle memory's off. Now you're missing shots. The Lakers bullied the Warriors. The Warriors missed a ton of shots. Then the Lakers went into a bigger matchup against Denver.

Denver bullied the Lakers. A bunch of guys shot poorly. LeBron had been working on his jump shot like crazy, shot 39% from three over the finals five games of the Warriors series and literally couldn't make a jumper in the Denver series. And DeAngelo Russell completely crumbled and couldn't make a jumper. That's what happens. Everyone wants to attribute shot result to luck.

And don't get me wrong. a little bit of luck at play there. But what is it that causes a good shooting night versus a bad shooting night? It's all of those other factors that lead into it. And so Denver bullied the Lakers into missing a bunch of shots. And look at this. This is a Miami team that has been lights out from three in two of the three series in this postseason run. They finally run into a team that truly makes them work to another level

that then they've had to work in any of their previous rounds. and suddenly guys like Max Trucer hitting the front rim on a lot of these shots. All of a sudden, Gay Vincent's hitting the front rim. Kyle Lowry was really the only guy on the team that was confidently rising into shots and knocking them down. That stuff is all connected. Denver, one of their best forms of defense is the way they wear on you on the offensive end of the floor. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

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A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clipper Taylor, the podcast. forth. 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,

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Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. 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,

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Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's A.N.g.i.com. When I look at this series, I was talking to my friend Mark Titus over at Barstall Sports yesterday. And we were just kind of talking about, you know, he goes to me and says, is there any way, like, he's like, rather than me asking you how Miami can win, let's just fast forward and pretend Miami wins. tell me how. How would it be, like, what would be the story if Miami had won?

And I immediately went to the offensive end of the floor. Because I cannot see a scenario where Miami can consistently get stops against this team. You know, it's funny because everyone's obsessed in sports media with predictions. Like, tell us what's going to happen. And I've always thought that's stupid. You know, I do it because it's part of the job. But what do I always tell you guys? Even when I get predictions right, I'm just lucky, right?

because this is sports. Sports is chaos. Sports is completely unpredictable. How many of you guys in your Eastern Conference finals predictions had the heat going up 3-0, then the Celtics getting back-to-back blowouts, and then the Celtics going up big on the road in game 6, toasting away a double-digit lead in the final minutes,

only to steal it at the buzzer, then go home and get their ass kicked? How many of you guys had that? None of you, because it's sports and it's chaos. I've always been more interested in the post-mortem, in the briefing, in the diagnosis, of what happened after the fact. That to me is what's interesting. Where are these basketball games won and lost?

And what's funny is when you look at the defense dynamic that every coach is trying to figure out from a game plan perspective, there's a trade-off, right? If you leave a guy on an island and you stay home on shooters, you're going to force that guy to take a lot of isolation shots, but you're going to disrupt their rhythm and keep them home off ball. and chances are, like, you're going to be able to get a certain amount of stops or fatigue that star

to the point where he starts to miss later in the game. You're going to have some success. Or the opposite, right? You're double teaming the star. And now you're getting these offball shots, but like you're forcing them to the right shooters. And so they're converting them at a lower rate. And so you're starting to have some success because the right guys are shooting and they're missing shots, right? That is that concept right there. Denver broke that. They've destroyed that concept. If you leave Yokic on an island, he is going to score almost every single time. If you double-team him, it's not a average shooter on the backline.

It is a dead-eye knock-down shooter. And so they are fundamentally unguardable. Man-to-man situations, we saw this in all the film from this regular season. We talked about it. In man-to-man situations this year, when Miami ran drop coverage against Nicol Yochich and Jamal Murray, they did it four times. Jamal Murray scored on all four possessions. So are you stunned that tonight when they ran their drop coverage,

Jamal Murray got going and scored a bunch? I mean, they can't be guarded that way. Okay, so let's try switching. Well, we started switching these actions and Yokic is scoring in the post. Oh, we're switching off ball actions with Aaron Gordon. Let's just pound the ball inside to Aaron Gordon. He scores, what, 12 points by the second TV? timeout? Like, that's, that's crazy. During the regular season, Denver posted up Miami 30 times and

scored 47 points. So we saw a ton of examples of that switching, and it just didn't work. Okay, you go zone. And Miami actually had a little bit of success with Zones. And I haven't seen the numbers yet, because it hadn't been updated by the time I went live, but we will go over those numbers in the film session tomorrow. They had some success, but when it really came down to it at the end of the game and they needed buckets, they got buckets in the zone every single time. Getting the ball to Yokic in the middle of the floor, him either scoring or hitting cutters along the baseline or hitting shooters on the wing. It's just too difficult.

There is no defensive answer for this Denver team. Again, guys, last round, it was LeBron James and Rui Hachamura, two guys that were six nine and just chiseled with muscle, bang in with Nicola Yokic, with Anthony freaking Davis on the back line, and they were helpless. They had nothing, there was nothing they could do. They lit them up for 122 points per 100 possessions. They destroyed that Lakers defense. This Miami defense is more fundamentally sound, especially in transition,

and they're a little bit better in the half court as well. The rotations are a little sharper. They compete more on a possession by possession basis. But you're downsizing. Damn at a bio is giving up, what, 30, 40 pounds and several inches to Nicolioch. Jimmy Butler is giving up three, four inches to Aaron Gordon and 20, 30 pounds. You know, Max Truce is giving up a bunch of weight to Michael. Like, they're just completely overmatched physically down the line.

And there's no amount of coaching or schematic approach or just give a shit, chip on your shoulder, competitiveness that can make up for that. That's the problem. again, against the three teams that came before, Miami played Boston, New York, and Milwaukee, they had crippling weaknesses in their half-court offense that Miami was able to exploit. And Boston's defense wasn't as sharp, and so they were able to capitalize with relocating shooters. This Denver team is excellent at all of the things Miami has been capitalizing on during this postseason. That makes it extremely difficult to counter.

All of the things that we saw in the regular season came. to fruition. They dominated the heat in the post. They killed them in pick and roll with Murray's scoring. Michael Porter Jr. was excellent. I actually thought Denver in general defended a hell of a lot better than they've been given credit for throughout this entire playoff run. Bruce Brown came in off the bench and was hitting shots. You know, it's crazy. I was looking it up today. Bruce Brown shot below 40% on floaters during the regular season. 64% on floaters during the playoffs. He was nine for 14, made two more of them tonight, just getting downhill and pick and roll, pinning the defender on that other side, just kind of bumping him off a little bit and making

that little floater in the lane. This team is so damn good. I think they're great, even juxtaposed against recent champions. And like, look, Miami could shoot better. They have some adjustments they can make. I put down a few of them. They can go bigger. Like, they can go with, they can go with Kevin Love. And Kevin Love, obviously, he's not as quick as he used to be, but he's an expert at body position and leverage, so you can ask him to front the post a little bit or bang with Yokic on different spots and put Bam at a bio into a help situation. They can play a lot more zone. Again, I don't have the numbers yet, but they did have some success with zone. It seemed to actually disrupt Denver's flow a little bit. But like the reality is, is the nuggets are kind of adjustment

proof on that end of the floor. And like praying that everything is connected. Like Phoenix, game one, mails it in, right? Then in game two, they bring all this defensive effort. They turn it into a slug fest, but then they can't hit any shots. Why? Because their bodies are beat to shit from battling with everybody all game long. Like again, when you're fronting the post or you're banging with a dude in a box out,

that's literally like you're on a leg press machine. machine. Like watch footage of Bam at a bio fronting the post. He's down in a squat. He's got his back. Yoko just pushing on his back. And he's like pressing him up. You're in the gym. Like like pressing 250 pounds and then going down and trying to take a floating jump shot in Elaine. Like it's, I don't see a scenario where they just suddenly are knocking down all these shots. Maybe when they get back to Miami and they have a little bit of adrenaline rush. But I said this before the series and I mean it. I struggle to find basketball. reasons for how Miami can win games in this series. And I hope I'm wrong because I would love to

have a more competitive NBA finals, but I think I think we could be in some trouble here. I think Denver has an opportunity to get this thing over with relatively quickly. All right, guys, that is all I have for tonight. Like I said, I'm not going to do too much of a deep dive into the X's and O's. I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning. I'm going to watch all the film over and over again, get some numbers. Follow me on Twitter because I usually tweet out video links as well as some of the stats that I find for my analytical platforms. And then I'll be recording that film session. It'll be on the feeds sometime tomorrow afternoon. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys, and I will see you 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, SNL'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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're 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 Clifers Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford 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 Podcast Network on TikTok. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84's big to me. I'm Sam Jay. 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. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors.

Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.