Breaking down the chaotic Nuggets-Celtics finish

The Celtics started 20-0 at home — can some funky Denver defenses stop them? This watch along reaction film breakdown details the Nuggets weird defensive approach in this game, how Boston attacked Nikola Jokic, an unreal fake lane violation in a nail-biter.

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It is watchalong time and a potential NBA Finals preview with the Celtics trying to stay undefeated at home against the defending Champion nuggets let’s pick it up with 8 minutes to play in the fourth right after a fan threw a ball onto the court uh the Celtics

Trying to post up Jason Tatum here they had a 12-point lead in the first half and now Denver is retaken the lead some really interesting things happened earlier in this game in terms of matchup and Zone Denver’s used joic as a RoR we’ve seen zones with

Drew holiday in the middle all kinds of different creative matchups in this game so it’s been a fun chess match and this is a small ball lineup from the Nuggets where Gordon’s their biggest player so that’s how porzingis is matched up with Reggie Jackson here at the free throw line I think the

Nuggets will take that that one rims out Murray comes back the other end Drew thinking about a double and that is just vintage Jamal Murray on the fade there so the nuggets with a four-point lead after trailing by double digits lot of space for Drew to attack that’s a great bank and they

Changed the matchup that time and the pristine Celtic spacing means that when this help comes from the top from pton Watson Drew can just be patient wait keep the dribble alive back down and he’s basically playing one-on-one with a ton of space there cuts it to two so here comes

Joker Horford will be on him porzingis on Gordon is a pet Nuggets play where Murray comes off a pick at his blue arrow time this is what we saw throughout the playoffs the two-man game Murray coming up through the middle of the Court just very difficult actions to

Defend and here you see these unique matchups where Murray is taking porzingis and yic is on Al Horford and Derek white pops open for three and this is a brilliant little play by white so it’s a screen away from Tatum and when white gets this back

Screen he can cut to the basket but as Michael Porter is diving underneath white adjusts the route and flares out for a three nice high IQ read and now it’s back to one Murray looking for those two screens Boston switches it and then on the switch back Murray has some space but he

Can’t quite hit that one this time they end up with Aaron Gordon on porzingis a little bit more traditional with the matchups they were looking for that same action with white on the other side of the Court the flare pass never came this time so Tatum gets a reset drives into the

Paint well defended and now the Celtics with the one-point lead as we come up on five minutes to play nice hands by Al Horford let’s see if Denver goes to the two-man actions more down the stretch with Murray and yic Murray goes right away here Works

Off a yic screen he’s doubled gets it to Joker who misses a shot he usually makes he’s like 70% from there but porzingis his length again is a [Applause] factor and no big men in the paint and Jaylen Brown just goes to work on Murray

And again if we back it up look at Boston’s spacing here Horford in the corner joic is really the only guy with three other players pulling the defense out up top hard powerful move move from Jaylen Brown and Mike Malone wants a timeout let’s see what we get out of the

Timeout both offensively and defensively Horford on jic he sets a screen down for kcp this is just to get a post up and a handoff action and now will they double late in the clock turns I mean that’s just too good cuts it to one so that was a very

Deliberate after timeout looking for your best player Boston comes back pick and roll Tatum and the Miss at The Rim Springs a five on four here which leaves kcp open in the corner he air mails it and it goes the other way let’s go all the way back on that

Sequence it starts with Al Horford acting like he’s going to screen in the corner really nice turn and changing the angle and all that work from Horford basically completely buck buckles yic gets him on the wrong side of the screen Tatum uses it to get into the paint that

Huge s side step of Murray and then I think he just gets hung by the rim and that Springs the fast break the other way kcp misses so another chance for Boston same pick and roll action going after joic this time Horford with the pop nice work by yic to come back and

Get that and this is the same thing they were looking for out out of the timeout just an empty side two-man game jic turn hook and basically the help never comes here and that’s why he goes by himself too good of a look I think he wanted maybe a

Call nuggets up one we’re back to Michael Porter on porzingis and they run that same elbow touch back screen to get the switch Murray’s size is underrated in these positions we saw it in the postseason last year where he’s able to guard big wings in the post like that and either

Make plays or just not be picked on I thought it was a huge part of Denver’s run to the title his defensive performance notably the strength and size inside of 12 feet inside 15 ft of the basket more Twan pick and pop a great Rotation by T oh Michael

Porter Jr huge rebound and the Nuggets go up three what happened there it starts with the defensive coverage from the Celtics they want to bring this next Defender over to help on the pick and roll that opens up the pass to kcp so white rotates so now no one’s on Michael

Porter Jr and that is a scheme and coverage offensive rebound all he has to do is cut into space the ball bounces the right way and the nuggets are up three 240 left now they’re thinking about the elbow touch they end up with joic out in the pick

And roll again but this time they end up switching it so he’s on porzingis Porters on Brown and he does a decent job trying to stay with him until the end and this is yet another possession we’ve seen where the Celtics spacing porzingis goes to the perimeter

And brown can attack that space Gordon comes down to help but a good mismatch for Jaylen Brown in space and it’s free throws Brown actually missed the first free throw and he rims out the second but KP gets the rebound back to Brown to tie the game that’s just drew holiday making a

Play Celtics cannot buy a bucket these are all great looks but the Nuggets just clinging to this three-point lead so Denver patiently just gets a touch for joic at the free throw line again no doubles coming so he’s going to going to attack to score gets Tatum on

The help that frees up mpj more great shots nobody can buy a basket down the stretch in this game more one-on-one into space Jason Tatum it’s the theme of the last few minutes Boston’s five out spacing creating alleys for their players to go at jic not there on the

Shop block and we have a one-point game with 90 seconds to play Murray with a lot of dribbling there nothing really materialized on the screens porzingis gets out and blocks yic and I think Tatum’s out of bounds there but the shot clock is basically done and this is one of those

Possessions where when you run it back you say what happened to the clock the original down screen was handled very well by Tatum when Murray goes Brown handles that so then you have 7 Seconds jic just coming there as a as an outlet valve great defensive possession from

Boston so Boston has played a mismatch hunting kind of game down the stretch they bring yage up into the pick and roll again still no switches now they get Porter maybe this is what Tatum wanted the whole time gets white an open look and another offensive

Rebound but I think that’s going to be a foul coming over the top of yic the Celtics had 12 offensive rebounds in this game which isn’t a ton they actually had like three or four on one possession in the first half but a couple key ones here Denver goes Twan

Nice chase by Jaylen Brown ends up with the floater and another offensive rebound this time for the Nuggets Drew holiday leaves Gordon to show help so you end up with four players around muray as he shoots that gets Gordon the rebound so it’s another one of those the offensive

Player with the ball is drawing attention the defensive help is the thing creating the rebound jic almost went for the lob there Gordon to ice it airballs it oh my goodness that was just a a kamakazi drive by Tatum and Tatum bobbled that on the way in I think the

Ball was deflected which means he actually could have gathered a little bit cleaner still had a great look at it and just missed almost went through the entire team in just a frenetic sequence so now Gordon just with the air ball he made the first free throw he he misses

The second was that a lane violation what what was going on there let’s go back oh yeah there there are a lot of people in the lane did yic did joic fake going in the lane am I seeing this correctly it looks like jic starts to go

Into the paint makes this big movement and then stops his right toe is kind of on the line but that’s what leads the Celtics I I I don’t know if that was deliberate I also don’t know if that’s allowed this is this is just chaos we

Need to call in Steve Javy so there is something in the rule book on free throws about axe of disconcertion meaning the the players on the lane line can’t raise their arms or wave their arms or make a sudden movement in the visual field of the shooter but we need

To call Monty McCutchen to know if you can have an act of disconcertion on your own teammate because I don’t remember seeing somebody fake out two other players on a lane violation and they’re just going to jump it at midcourt maybe that’s the ethical decision here of

Course maybe he caused Gordon to miss the free throw with all those Shenanigans Tatum gets the tip and a timeout so we’re going to have 13 seconds to set up a play here at the end oh it’s brown with a ton of space Tatum did cut but porzingis missed him I

Think and it’s a timeout from the Celtics and I think this is actually a really well drawn up play where Brown can first attack into a ton of space yic has to make a decision to help he stunts and recovers incredibly well so Brown gives it to porzingis but there’s no

Shot then they run the pick and roll he switches perfectly on the holiday and I think he might have been in trouble looking to foul there they had a foul to give but it was a timeout for the Celtics anyway 5 seconds left we do it again everybody on the near side no

Switch for the Nuggets so Casey P stays with Tatum ISO catch and that is it nobody could score down the stretch of this game but Jamal Murray and Nicole AIC finish was 69 points combined in a 10200 Old School defensive battle in a game with just a ton of wild weird

Matchups and crazy plays down the stretch and the Celtics lose their first game at home to the defending champs in what maybe could be an NBA Finals preview if you want to support us patreon.com slinking basketball that’s the best way to do it otherwise thanks for watching this one hope you enjoyed

It and as always I hope you are having a great day