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What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the Draymond Green Show.
We are live on Amazon AMP and we are going to break down Game three of the NBA Finals. The Nuggets went into Miami and got a one oh nine to ninety four win, and quite frankly kicking it with the homies now right now, and every single one of them yesterday's like I got Miami. I got Miami, and like every single one, it's maybe what five.
Six, six of them?
They all bet against me and the bet was three shots in under ten minutes, which was very nice, by the way, Like ten minutes, that's a long time. And I said, I asked him, I said, yo, like, when all y'all bet together and y'all bet against me and I got not one point, did y'all think like if all of us are betting this way and he's saying Nuggets are gonna win.
I let one of us flip to his side.
No, they didn't, and I watched all of them take three shots in under ten minutes and it was great.
So I said all of that to say.
I was heavy Nuggets last night, and going back to what I said to y'all before, which is they aren't playing with their breakfast. They had the slip up in game to where it just didn't seem like they had the energy. You probably saw coach Malone's press conference saying lack of sense of urgency, blah blah blah, all of those things, and I said, they have not had that game on I didn't. I said this to myself, they
haven't had a game like that. All playoffs, anything that they've had to do, they've they've taken care of their business when they needed to take care of their business. So I personally think they're going to go out there and win Game three. June is a championship month for sports. Pro basketball, hockey, college baseball, and softball championships all underway, and of course pro baseball is in full swing for last minute amazing deals on tickets to whatever your favorite
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N for twenty dollars off no matter where you live, get out and have some fun this week. Download game Time today last minute tickets lows price guaranteed. I also think they're going to win game four, and they did exactly that. You could see right from the beginning of the game. The focus, you can see the intensity level locked in. That's the Denver Nuggets team that we've seen all playoffs long. How did they get there? Was what
I thought was very interesting. Joker had thirty two twenty one and ten on twelve to twenty one, shooting great numbers, incredible numbers. The ten assists I thought was very very interesting because usually when when Joker is like Diamond, guys like it's like wow, like this guy getting everybody to me the tennis sists. He had seven assists in the first half, and to me, it didn't feel like he was dicing Miami up. It felt like he was cooking Miami.
But it didn't feel like your typical him dicing Miami up, And I thought that was interesting. But who it did feel like was dice in Miami up when it came to play making was Jamal Murray. Now, when I was watching that game, I had no idea that Jamal Murray had a triple double until I looked after the game and saw they had a triple double.
Now, that for me was very interesting because.
Everyone's been talking about, you know, taking Joker out out of his pass and making him a score, and I thought one of Denver's adjustment was to just go heavy, heavy, heavy pick and roll with Jamal Murray and Joker, and Miami was taking the pocket away. So if you if you notice, Miami was taking the pocket away and Joker was kind of doing like a not not quite a short roll.
It was kind of like a.
Little pop not popping far out though, like he was almost like popping behind the pocket, and so Jamal Murray couldn't get the ball to him in the pocket, but he just kept stringing it out and then it's almost like a little toss back and that's where Joker was getting those little touch shots in the middle of the paint, which is where he found his rhythm. Now, I thought, I thought, and I've been watching this, and I thought, the way Miami is guarding Joker like, yes, their their
mindset is to take the pocket away. I think we all know you want to take the pocket away, not let Joker catch the ball in the pocket with an advantage to hire to score and make plays because you a man down who's in the pick and roll coverage. And so I thought, and I still think, and this is a little more of an adjustment when Jokers setting
the screen unlike Bam, he's not a fast roller. Like if Bam gets one step behind his or even even with his guy, if Bam sets the screen Jokers in pick and roll coverage or whoever else, if Bam now starts to roll and he ends up even with the guy, like not even behind me, because he ends up rolling and you get behind your man, it's all best are off coverage is done. If Bam, Bam is such a good roller that if he gets even with a man with his man, you throw the lib up. You can
counted they converting that at an eighty five ninety percent clip. Bam, I'm saying, incredible lob threat. However, Joker is not He's not a fast roller. He's not a lot threat at all. And so something that I thought was very very interesting.
Was that Miami.
I think Miami needs to move Bam up to the level of the screen, like all the way up to the level, almost in like a contained blitz, Like not that he's necessarily blitzing Jamal Murray, but it's almost like a contained blitz that then allows Ay. If he's up at the level, it doesn't allow Jamal Murray to turn
the corner. And if you don't allow Jamal Murray to turn the corner, Ay, that naturally takes the pocket away because you can't turn the corner to create the separation b it doesn't allow Joker to continue to catch the ball in the middle of the paint and where he's automatic from. And if you make one false movement off
a guy, he's making a play. So I think Miami really needs to like move BAM all the way up to the level of the screen and there's Jamal Murray, Joker pick and rolls and stop Jamal Murray from turning to the corner, because what's happening is you're allowing Joker to get into a great rhythm with those little push shots right in the middle of the paint that if he gets the ball on the rim, he has such
incredible touch and it's going in. But even more importantly, what you're allowing is Jamal Murray to find a rhythm, and Jamal Murray finding the rhythm has proven to be very problematic, not only for this team, Miami Heat with the a couple of games he's found a rhythm, but everyone in the playoffs. And if you look, Jamal Murray had a pretty tough goal in Game two. They put Jimmy on and we discussed that and he had a
tough goal. I think he had seventeen points on eighteen shots or eighteen points on seventeen shots, something like that. So what's proven to really be a big issue is Jamal Murray four the Miami Heat, and he got it going last night. As I said, he had thirty four ten to ten on twelve for twenty two shooting.
They're going to have to do a better. Jamal Murray had said.
Something earlier in the playoffs, and I thought it was very interesting. I want to say, I want to say it was against Phoenix. I'm almost positive it was against Phoenix and he had a great game, maybe like great game one, and he's and in his interview after he was like how much do I have to do to get respect or something like that or that nature that he said, and like y'all.
Gonna respect me? Yet to respect me now?
And when I saw that, I was like, that is very interesting because Jamal Murray is a very good player. But quite frankly, when he said that, he didn't proceeded the next two games I.
Think to play like have pretty rough go.
At it, next two maybe three games, pretty rough go at it. And when I saw that, I was like, you can't come out and say that, like where's my respect and all of that.
And then not follow up on the next.
Game, because the reason you're not getting to respect is because people don't think that you're consistently doing it. Like you may have a game and then you know two three games, you don't have to well. I said all of that to say, Jamal Murray has completely changed that in these playoffs, completely changed that ain't no one or two games. It's now like he have one game and then two three bad ones or mediocre game. It's now great game, great game, great game, maybe one mediocre in
there right back to it. And so I think the growth of Jamal Murray in these playoffs has actually been a incredible but b as much of a key as Denver being as dominant as they've been in the playoffs as Joker has been as much of a key for the Denver Nuggets.
And so.
To me, it was very evident that Okay, y'all want to make Nicola score, not allow others to get involved.
This is what we're doing. We're going heavy.
Jamal Murray, allowed Jamal Murray to get Na Coola involved, allowed Jamal Murray to get everyone else involved, and then start rolling from there. So that's actually why I think it didn't feel like some old like like Joker just dicing you up like you normally get the feel, you get the sense when they're playing. I thought that was very interesting. I thought that was to me, again, I'm not in their locker room. I don't know what's being said.
I'm not in their shoot arounds, I'm not in their practices, I'm not in their team meetings. But to me, that looked like a point of emphasis and making adjustments. That looked like something that coach Mo said, this is what we're doing. This is how we're going to come back them. Just trying to make Nicole scored the ball over and over and over again and not get anyone else involved. In turn, like I said, you got two guys ending
up with a triple double. Another adjustment that I saw that I thought was very interesting and even from the first half to the second half, is remember Miami zone.
That's been a talk of the series. First couple of games.
They went zone, especially laid in the fourth quarter, and they were really able to stifle Denver's offense. And in turn, Game one they almost came back. Game two, they did come back and take the game. Another key in them coming back and taking game two was Duncan Robinson's ten
points to start the fourth quarter. After if you remember me telling or you know, what I saw was Duncan Robinson couldn't get a shot off before the fourth quarter, and then he come out, he gets it going in the fourth quarter, and I mean it proved to be too much for Denver, and Denver couldn't hit a shot. Miami took control of the game, took control of the series, headed back to Miami. I noticed Denver do something at the beginning of the game or not the beginning of
the game. When Duncan Robinson first came in the game, I noticed Denver do something that I've seen in the playoffs before, which is when I saw that it was, you know, going back to the Cleveland Golden State Warriors Finals days and what that was. If you remember Cleveland had Kyle Korver, and you give the bron James a guy like Kyle Korver, He's going to find him, He's going to get him involved, and getting him involved it
just changes it changes everything. It changes the team. And so what we ended up doing was we ended up calling it Corver. We ended up anytime Kyle Korver came off of a anytime Kyle Korver came off a pin down, anytime he came off a handoff, anytime Kyle Korver came into any action, we just switched it. So, if I'm on the big I'm garding Trisian Thompson, they handed off to Kyle Korver, I'm jumping out and almost like a blitz without the second guy pursuing is just switching.
But I'm like heavy jumping.
Out to Kyle Korver, making Kyle Korver have a panic attack and cost the ball up. You take the ball from Kyle Korver, or Kyle Korver had to make a pass, and it took Kyle and turned. It took Kyle Korver out of the series, which made it very I mean, I wouldn't say easy. It's never easy to win, but it made our defense a lot more a predictable. It made it a lot easier for us to contain the
Cavaliers offense. If I'm not mistaken, I think that's the year that we swept him, which would be twenty eighteen. Interestingly enough, Kyle Korver could not get a shot, He couldn't get a shot off. And then Kyle Korver got a three pointer in the left corner in front of our bench the fourth quarter, very meaningful three, and he threw that mud over the rim airball because the rhythm just wasn't there, so you're jumping out every time. He never gets into a rhythm. He get that wide open
corner three and throw it over the rim. It doesn't feel so open because guys have been draped all over Kyle Korver whenever he's in the game, and so now you take Kyle Kova shooting away, not the strongest defender, that allowed us to really roll, really really rolled, taking
that shooting away. That's what Denver did last night to Duncan Robinson, especially early in the game Duncan Robinson came into an action, they just switched it Duncan Robinson not getting off, and it really really really neutralized Duncan Robinson.
If you can continue to neutralize Duncan Robinson, Gay Vincent, if you can Neutra Max Strus, if you can neutralize all of those guys and not you know, even if it's one of them that get off, you can't have two and all three getting up of them getting off at the same time. And so I thought that was a very interesting thing for them to kind of just take Duncan Robinson right back out of the series and not allow him to have the impact that he had
in Game two. Denver, on the other side, has someone that's playing similar to Duncan Robinson, Michael Porter Jr. Shooting a lot of jump shots threes and he can't get it going. And Michael Porter Jr. Is going to He's putting Coach Moe in a very tough spot now, you go out there and you win Game three, so you know, you never hit the panic button off off a win. But Michael Porter Jr. Is going to have to play better.
We spoke about it earlier in this series, or at the beginning of the series, or leading up to or maybe a couple of series ago.
Whatever.
Michael Porter defensively and not the strongest defender. I will say I've noticed him given more effort on the defensive end, and you can appreciate that.
You know, he had one interesting thing. I saw.
Denver really doing this when they were they're sending the ball screens to the middle.
They're sitting there not icing it.
They're sending all the ball screens to the middle, the guards chasing over the top of the ball screen. Miami's taking a lot of mid range jump shots to pursuit and contest that they're getting off those ball screens. It looks to me as if that's a point of emphasis because everybody was doing it, even Michael Porter was doing it.
But he's going to have to play better.
And I think, you know, even like, Okay, that's great, that's better. But this is the NBA Finals. I think Michael Porter Junior Is going to have to give even even more effort. There was one Max Shrews three in the first half where Max Shrews slipped out, KCP ran to help. When he ran to help, Max Shruce was open. He was at the ran to the top of the key to help Max Shruce is open. They kicked the Max Strus. You have Michael Porter Jr. In the corner,
like you gotta make that next rotation. Michael Porter Jr. Doesn't make the next rotation. KCP comes running back from helping to get back to Max Shrus when you should get the next rotation from Michael Porter Jr. He comes running back. Max Shrews lines it up now. Doesn't cost you yesterday. But all of a sudden Max Shrews see that one go in which he did, but then he catch a rhythm off that, and those are the type of plays that can cost you.
So I think they're going to need a little more from Michael Porter Junior.
Miami's making a very conscious effort to not leave him, to not give him open looks. And then once he does get the open looks like Kyle Korver, it doesn't feel so open and he's and he's not knocking him down. So for Denver to continue to dominate the series or they've took taken control of the series.
They're going to need more from Michael Porter Jr. And Bruce Brown.
Bruce Brown, to me, I view Bruce Brown as one of the guys that has to play well, that you're expecting to play well. Not quite your typical role player who's like if they do play well, that's a bonus for you know. I view Bruce Brown as like he has to play well, he needs to. They need him to play well in order to win, in which they
would have last night. But the rookie came in. Christian Brown comes in fifteen points, all back door cuts, all hustle plays, still transition dump play this role extremely well. And so I yesterday Christian bron covered for Bruce Brown in turn, you know, and helped him win the game. But can you are we going to expect the rookie to play like that again?
Now I'll give him kudos. I take my hat off to the rookie.
You go get fifteen points in nineteen minutes for rebounds, couple steals, affecting the game on your first NBA Finals role game.
That was very impressive.
That's a that's a that's a kid who got taken out of the starting lineup, I mean out of the star lineup. Excuse me, out of the rotation, was taken out of the rotation last series. Stays ready and is ready for his moment. Professional rookie going to have a long career in this league. That very thing right there is so valuable. And for him to do that on this stage in the NBA Finals as a rookie, I take my hat off to him because he helped he
He won Denver that game last night. His hustle, plays, his back door cuts, timely buckets finishes, he won Denver that game last night. So I take my hat off to the rookie. I thought that was the job well done for him. And you know, shout out to his vets for I'm sure they're giving him that message stay ready, and he did that and he helped them take control of the series again. And like I said, be interesting to see what happens in game four. But I got
Denverer in Game four. Another couple of things that I witnessed. Listen, So Steph Curry is like he made me aware of this, like over through the years, it's guys holding on to the ball at the end of a quarter, like so they don't lessen their shooting percentage. And I saw a couple of guys do that yesterday, Like this is the NBA playoffs, man, it's the NBA Finals. Who cares if
your shooting percentage drop a little bit? You see that a lot in the regular season where guys don't want to like throw that he they hold it till after the shot, after the buzzer go off, and then shoot it because they don't want to drop their shooting percentage. That that very things drives Steph Curry nuts. Now, quite frankly, if Steph shoots, he's Travis Walton, my trainer, my brother. He gets very mad at me for shooting. I'm like, bro, I played with Steph Curry, Like, Steph gonna get very
upset if you're just holding the ball and not shooting. Now, quite frankly, Steph is the best shooter we've ever seen, the greatest shooter we've ever seen.
So his numbers are going.
To even out anyway, and he's going to get to attempts to even out when you don't quite get the attempts is a tough thing. It's saying that I'm watching guys do that in the playoffs, and it's so unacceptable to do that during the playoffs. Because Jordan Poole actually helped us win the NBA Championship by hitting two shots last year before the buzzer, and one of them was he came across, he crossed cross right in front half court line.
He shoot it and he make it.
Another one, if I'm not mistaken, he banked it and he was like going up the left side of the court. And the shots were so important because one of them that he made it gave us the lead going into the going into the fourth quarter, and Boston had made this crazy run, and so to go on this crazy run, I think it ended up putting us up one or two points going into the fourth quarter. And the run that they were on, it's like if they go in tied up or with the league, they're feeling good going
into that fourth quarter. But when you go on a run like they went on in that third quarter, to have to claw and fight your way back into the game, and then you look up and even if it's one point or two points, you look up and you down. It's just a gut punch and so Jordan not being that way due to Steph Currys tu the lich.
Actually helped us win in NBA Finals, like.
Two very important shots, just like and you may not think like, oh that was a good shot, Oh that's exciting, but what it did to the momentum of the game was huge. So I just want to say, guys, stop holding the ball at the end of the quarter, like, like, shoot the ball like you if I can make go in and they can win you in NBA Finals, Like who cares about your shooting percentage?
Another thing that I saw.
From the Denver Nuggets coach Malone, Like coach Malone adjustments were on point last night. Another thing that I saw was in the first half, first quarter or ish maybe top of the second quarter, late first top of the second Joker goes to the bench. When Joker went to the bench, they went that zone and Denver struggled again. They couldn't get into any offense, couldn't get any good looks. Struggled they had. That was the lineup with Jeff Green
at the fire. I think it was Jeff Green and Aaron Gordon and at the same time, but I'm certain Jeff Green was in and it really hurt Denver. If you see at the end of the third, top of the fourth, Joker was in and Miami wasn't able to
go zone, which hurt them. There's another adjustment, y'all, zoning us every fourth quarter as soon as because Joker is starting on the bench, killing our rhythm and now it's downhill, Mike Malone goes to Joker at the top of the fourth not to allow Denver, not allow Miami to get in that zone. In Denver Road, the chess match. Got to enjoy the chess match, got to pay attention to the chess match. So I thought Mike Malone's adjustments were great.
I'm looking forward to seeing Miami's adjustments. I already kind of hinted at one of them, which I think is a very important one, which is getting Bam up to the level of the screen almost in a trap, not quite a trap, because you're not just trapping and selling out and then giving the cola pass and allow him to go make plays with numbers. But you're up at the level. Now you're up at the level. You got
Jimmy on. You need to get Jimmy on. Jamal Murray BAM's up at the level doesn't allow Jamal Murray to turn the corner. If Jokers start rolling, you're up at the level, then you just start to drop with Joker as he dropped. Pocket never opens up, Jamal never quite turns the corner. You got your athletic defensive stopper, Jimmy Butler pursuing making it tough getting the review contests if he needs to, but you're keeping the ball contained so it won't be too much review contesting and saying that
Jimmy Butler's capable more than capable. So I think that's something that the Miami Heat needs to do. I also think Miami has to find a way to get those shooters going again. Gave Vincent getting in foul trouble. I thought it really hurt them last night, threw off their rhythm. Gay Vince has been playing incredibly well. Miami has to find a way to get those guys involved. And if they're going to switch like they were doing on the shooters coming into action, maybe you need to get some keeps.
Bam is really good at the keeps. Bam actually gave me a couple of pointers on the keeps when we were playing in the Olympics, so may need to mix in some of that to loosen the defense up. But I got Denver taking game three. In Game four, Denver got outscored from the three. I think Miami had maybe six or seven more threes than Denver. Denver also turned the ball over more than their usually turn the ball over. I think they had ten more turnovers, and yet they
won by fifteen points. They did outscore Miami sixty to thirty four in the paint, so that's good. But ten more turnovers and six less threes and lose by fifteen points. That is not very promising from Miami. But Miami is Miami. They're never quitting and going away spostra great. Sure you got some adjustments coming, looking forward to checking those out. They gonna need them because you can't go down three to one headed back to the Mile High City.
So we shall see.
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