Game Thread Postmortem Game Thread: Denver Game 7 -- 5/9/2018

[mook]

https://watch.nba.com/game/20190509/DENPOR

We're all bored of the off-season. So I thought maybe we'd do a series of "greatest hits from 2018-19" threads. I'll post one every Sunday until I get bored of it.

These threads assume you have NBA league pass and have time to re-live the games. .

We're starting off with the last real high note of the year--our win that got Portland to the Western Conference Finals.

If you want to participate in this thread, re-watch the game. Then ask yourself--how does this game reflect what our team is doing going forward? Will we miss guys like Harkless, Aminu, Kanter, and Curry? How do you see Simons or Collins change the game with a year under their belts? What's Dame or CJ shown you that maybe you forgot when last you saw this game?

Also, I'm choosing what I feel are really special games. Do you agree? What makes them special? Are there others we should pick apart?

 

[mook]

I watched this game earlier today, and I have to say I completely forgot Dame's steal in the fourth quarter. He nabs the ball, goes up for a layup, realizes he's got nothing mid-air, dishes to Turner, and fucking SPRINTS to the corner! Turner delivers the ball right on the money and Dame fucking NAILS the tree. Just ice cold. Nuggets call a timeout and watch the camera zoom in on Dame. Just completely stoic. Such a badass.

If Dame doesn't make that play, Portland doesn't pull ahead and maybe home court advantage takes over, and our guys go home congratulating themselves for a valiant effort. I mean I think he broke Denver with that play. He opened up the possiblity that these young Nuggets just don't have what it takes to win a game 7, even on their home court. They were kind of coasting (Portland was some god awful number from three) and it had a feel of inevitability until Dame just fucking stamped that play into their psyche. That's the play that won the series.

CJ was nuts in this game too. His game is such a sugar rush--it feels so good when it's on, and then an hour later you kind of forget a lot of it. But Christ was he crafty in this game. So mature, so decisive, just a god damned baller.

Did anybody notice that CJ signed for a lot less this summer than the guard he VASTLY outplayed in game 7? Re-watch this game and try to argue CJ's contract isn't a goddmamned bargain compaired to Murray.

 

[tlongII]

Bored yet?

 

[Dougnsalem]

WHERE THE FUCK IS THE SALTY THREAD WE SHOULDA BEAT THEM BY 100 POINTS

OH WAIT WE WILL THIS YEAR

 

[tlongII]

And the link doesn’t work....

 

[mook]

Another little thing I forgot--Stotts went with Collins and Hood to start the third quarter. It's a little thing that's easy to overlook, but I think right there is when the torch gets passed. Aminu and Harkless get minutes in the second half, and Harkless looks pretty good, but I think it's kind of a signal that this era is over and Portland is moving on. Especially the way Stotts stuck with Collins even after he picked up his 5th foul.

He really showed a lot more faith in Zach. And re-watching it, I thought the refs came to realize that some of the fouls they'd been calling on him were kind of bullshit, and they weren't going to decide the game by fouling Zach out. Watch him in the third quarter and it's a perfect example of why you have to play young defensive bigs through foul trouble. Refs are happy to call a questionable block on a youngster when it's his 3rd foul, but are you really going to kick him out of the game when it was really kind of a 50:50 deal? The refs let some questionable plays slide, and suddenly a guy who was a foul magnet becomes a guy who "plays smart, hard defense at the rim". After re-watching this game I see good things in Zach's future.

Also, while re-watching this game I saw so many times where Kanter just kind of didn't do shit on defense. I overlooked it before, but he just kind of stood there. Jokic is insanely skilled, and I don't expect Whiteside to stop him, but I have to believe he'd do a better job. Christ Kanter is slow.

 

[mook]

And the link doesn’t work....

It works for me, but I have nba league pass in the UK.

YMMV.

Go re-watch the game however you normally would do it.

 

[tlongII]

It works for me, but I have nba league pass in the UK.

YMMV.

Go re-watch the game however you normally would do it.

Well I was hoping to use the link buuuut...

 

[TorturedBlazerFan]

That CJ Block still, just nasty, he sized him up.

 

[mook]

That CJ Block still, just nasty, he sized him up.

Ah that shit was crazy. He had an awesome dunk in that game too, but the chase down block was straight up LeBron-esque.