The Nuggets made two crucial adjustments that allowed them to stave off elimination against the Warriors in Game 4, Kyle Frederickson of the Denver Post writes. Denver got key Warriors players into foul trouble and matched Golden State’s physicality. That gave the team a boost of confidence as it tries to win four straight. “We see they’re beatable,” point guard Monte Morris said.
We have more from the Northwest Division:
- The relationship between Jazz stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert has improved, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported on his podcast (hat tip to HoopsHype). “I have been told that Donovan and Rudy are in a better place now than they were earlier this year. And that there is a spirit of working together,” Windhorst said. “I know everybody’s counting passes, and that’s not irrelevant. But I have heard going into the playoffs that there was an attempt being made to, ‘Let’s all focus on one goal.'”
- Not only did Mitchell and Gobert combine for the decisive basket on a lob pass in Game 4, the Jazz also displayed a much improved defensive mindset, Tony Jones of The Athletic writes. “This is who we want to say that we are,” Gobert said. “The challenge for us is to do this every night, every minute. We have to do this with whoever is on the court. We have to play with this kind of intensity.”
- Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns erupted for 33 points in Game 4 against Memphis and he vows to stay “locked in,” he told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. “I was just determined to force their hand,” Towns said. “I was going to be aggressive and do whatever it took to get the ball. I went about different ways of attacking, different points of attack and different ways of getting the ball in my hands. We all watched tape and we all had to get the job done.”
A little overzealous comment by Morris.. yes, every team is beatable. But Denver needed just about everything to go their way to beat the Warriors yesterday and they still won by the skin of their teeth
Yeah Morris should calm down. Warriors will steam roll Denver in game 5
Well, the Warriors won by “the skin of their teeth” in game 3, a game the Nuggets controlled for most of. If it had gone the other way this would be a 2-2 series.
Betcha game 5 is very close. If the refs are as willing to call fouls on the W’s physical play as they were yesterday, bet we see 7 games.
KAT is unstoppable by MEM, they have no one to challenge him, that makes MIN the favorites in the series, the other players must step up to the challenge so the team wins, KAT can’t do it all alone, right?
Is it me or maybe Jokic should not be handling the ball past the 3pt line and instead post up and work inside out? The offense seems to take longer to get into and aside from driving to the basket after relinquishing the ball, he usually finds himself outside the post where he has an obvious advantage over Draymond. Draymond is the head of the snake both on offense and defense. He has an OBVIOUS height advantage. Let someone else handle the ball during transition, get your butt into Draymond’s chest down low and either take it to the basket or pass out to a shooter but CHALLENGE DRAYMOND!!!! Get him into foul trouble and make others handle the play making instead of picking their spots on the perimeter. Make them play defense. Jokic has as advantage over Dray and Looney. Make them pay!!!!
Good plan, but the claim is he gets the treatment inside by GSW.