Mares: “Last year Bruce Brown in transition and halfcourt attacked DLo specifically, its why I think it was Bruce’s best series last year. This year, I dont know if Denver has enough players to attack and exploit DLo defensively to play him off the court like last year—bench is more Braun, Reggie”

21 comments

1. Something that seems to be forgotten about last year’s series is that our transition defense was AWFUL.

   AD would crash the offensive glass, fall down, and Joker would sprint down as fast as he could and the they would score in transition almost every single time.

   I don’t know if AD and Bron ever ran back in transition for a single possession the entire series. It was part of how you could tell they were both completely out of gas at that point.

   Our guards were basically the only line of defense in transition and they (particularly DLo) basically just stepped aside and let them score because they didn’t want to deal with the physicality.

2. We lost every game without Bruce brown too lol what

3. I like that we have Gabe Vincent and Spencer D in case DLO can’t defend anyone and isn’t hitting his 3D

   Also I like Prince in this matchup

4. Bruce brown isn’t a good basketball player he’s just a random role player the nuggets made look good

   And they’ll do it again with someone else against us

5. Can we stop acting like Bruce brown was the second coming of arrest or something? Sure Bruce was physical with dlo but he also just couldn’t shoot out of a paper bag..he was in his head all series.

   We’ve lost every game with or without dlo this year against them too. And they have KCP who is a better defender than Bruce imo.

6. Braun will body DLo.

7. Praying Gabe is able to slow down Murray a little bjt

8. The only enemy of DLO is DLO himself

9. I also think MPJ might have major downtime considering his brother was banned from the nba lmao

10. This year we have Gabe, Dinwiddie, Prince and Hayes in the rotation. Plus, A HEALTHY LEBRON. Last year our rotation was Troy Brown, Walker and Tristan Thompson and a one foot king. We miss Vando.

    We have some odds.

11. Lakers have regressed from last year. I think that’s evident when Lebron and AD were healthy for most of the year and they were still shit and had to go in the play in.

12. Gabe went from afterthought to X factor in this series. He’s stronger than Dennis and is a far better screen navigator. He should be on Murray, and it may warrant a start for him and to bring dlo of the bench. At least that’s worth a look.

13. Can we also put last year in perspective: that group made an amazing WCF run that had only played together post-all star break. Denver’s certainly more refined, but our group has gotten better – even though we’ve absolutely had our share of injuries (still do with Vando out and Wood – who was supposed to be our body to bang against Joker).

    It’s not an entirely new series, but the matchup is different with our guys getting an entire year together (which Ham desperately tried to break up the chemistry for whatever reason smh)

14. I would like to add that MPJ’s bro has been banned from the NBA. Lets see how good MPJ plays with this news.

15. The real reason for optimism is almost every game comes down to the wire. We aren’t as overmatched as some people think. It comes down to making less mistakes and executing better down the stretch

16. Hayes is gonna be underrated in this matchup. Quick and mobile. Can out speed Jokic on rolls. But the problem is his IQ.

17. You can tell dlo is uncomfortable playing against the taller players. The nuggets lineup is his kryptonite. It won’t be any different this time. We need someone else to step up.

18. LOL we got swept because of scrub ass Bruce Brown? The copium needed right now is shameful

19. Dlo and Austin have to play off ball against Denver. Let Bron or AD bring it up and set up the offense. KCP gets up on Dlo and he’s bad against athletic defenders, same with AR. They can’t come in with their normal game plan and expect to win cause without Dlo and AR playing well we have no chance. We already know Joker is going to win the Ad matchup.

20. We specifically have Dinwiddie, Gabe, to take have options if Dlo isn’t working.

21. KCP?