![]() “… Our mentality coming in, we might be viewed as underdogs, but we have confidence in ourselves and belief in ourselves that we can get it done.” “We understand what people are saying and where they have us at,” Conley said. Of course, the Jazz are also anticipating that with Bojan Bogdanovic out, and now Conley as well, that no one figures the Jazz will have much of a chance. I think they’ll be all right come playoff time, and that’s what we’re anticipating.” And I don’t know if they get Will and Gary back - I anticipate that they do - and I think they’ll be fine from there. “… Guys will lock it in at a different level and a higher level. “I don’t anticipate them having those struggles come playoff time,” said Donovan Mitchell. The Jazz said they can’t count on Denver’s defensive issues continuing, and they must prepare as though the Nuggets will have everything sorted out - in terms of both schemes and personnel. I just think we gotta talk more and that’ll sort out a lot of issues.” “… If we keep having lapses on defense like that, then something’s gotta give. There’s no crowd, there’s no fans, so we gotta be more vocal to each other and just talk things out,” he said. Star guard Jamal Murray noted that the Nuggets simply are not communicating enough. That is a losing formula.”ĭenver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone talks with Jamal Murray during the third quarter against the Utah Jazz in an NBA basketball game Saturday, Aug. “We cannot have a mindset going forward that we’re going to outscore teams in the playoffs. “We just can’t stop anybody,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone told reporters losing to the Clippers in their seeding game finale. In all, the Nuggets slogged their way to a 121.7 defensive rating, which is - you guessed it - worst among all bubble teams. And Denver’s ball-handling miscues led to opponents averaging 22.5 points off their turnovers, which was also the worst among the 22 teams in Florida. Of course, it’s not all been good news for the Nuggets - as evidenced by them dropping their final three games in the bubble, and five of their eight seeding games overall.Īmong their key woes: Opposing teams shot better than 44% on 3-pointers against them, the worst rate in the bubble. We know that if we want to beat this team, we have to do this at the highest level.” “And we know that that’s our defensive DNA - protecting the paint and protecting the rim. They have a lot of guys that can finish around the rim,” said Rudy Gobert. ![]() Though he’s averaging just 9.3 points per game for the season, in Orlando, he’s averaging 22.0 points and 8.6 rebounds while shooting 55.1% from the field and 42.2% from 3-point range.Īs a result of missing Harris and Barton and giving more minutes to the likes of Porter Jr., Torrey Craig, and Jerami Grant, and playing them alongside the likes of Nikola Jokic, former Jazz forward Paul Millsap, and Mason Plumlee, the Nuggets have become an extremely big team, one that feasts on offensive rebounds, second-chance points, and points in the paint. Porter Jr., in particular, has been one of the bubble’s breakout stars. ![]() “You see Bol Bol, guys like that, really stepping up for them.” Playing the season, it didn’t happen that often but he’s come in here and having a great restart in the bubble games,” noted Jordan Clarkson. “Michael Porter Jr., he’s made some big strides. Then again, the flip side to that has been additional opportunity for some younger guys - a premise the Jazz themselves are familiar with.īut while Utah has been testing the waters to see if Miye Oni or Jarrell Brantley can fill some small roles, the Nuggets have had some guys put forth legitimate breakout performances. “But, I think from what everyone knew, they were obviously a little bit disrupted.” So whoever’s out there, if they end up bringing one of them back, two of them back, none of them back, we’ll play whoever’s out there,” said Joe Ingles. “Obviously, the first thing is we’re going to play who’s in front of us. Not that the Jazz are closely monitoring Denver’s daily injury report. Notably, the Nuggets have been without two of their top wing players for the entirety of their seeding games, as Gary Harris (hip) and Will Barton (knee) have both been dealing with injuries.
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