A lot can happen between now and June, but the gladiator fight between the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets was giving NBA Finals vibes.
A quick start to the scoring confirmed that both teams knew the stakes going into Thursday’s matchup between the finals favorites of each respective conference.
Regardless of where your NBA fandom lies, you have to admit a 7-game series between these teams would be pure hoops and tremendous entertainment.
The star-studded affair featured 3 all-stars for the 2023-2024 season, including Jalen Brown, Jayson Tatum and reigning Finals MVP, Nikola Jokic.
Coming into the matchup, when Jokic is on the court, Denver’s EFG% was .582%, which would be the best in the league.
When he’s off the court, his team’s EFG% was .501%.
For context, the league average EFG% is .547%.
To say Jokic impacts the game is underselling it.
Perhaps the biggest beneficiary to Jokic’s extraordinary playmaking is the high-flying Aaron Gordon.
Gordon often hangs around the dunkers’ spot (for good reason) and has been able to find the most success he’s had in the league so far besides Jokic.
Gordon had this monstrous putback dunk that seemed to be the highlight of the night.
Until Jokic played his hand perfectly, finding Gordon for the clutch lob with less than 20 seconds left.
The Nuggets run plays similar to this one every single night. It might be the same exact play for all we know; after all, it usually ends in a Jokic-to-Gordon lob and dunk.
The Play
This classic Nuggets play starts with Jokic at the top of the key with the option to run a Spain pick & roll with Jamal Murray.
He instead holds the ball to attack Kristaps Porzingis, who struggled to guard him all night:
Jokic sees Porzingis on an island and knows he can take him to the rim with ease.
Porzingis stands at 7’2″, 240 pounds, give or take.
Jokic is listed at 6’11”, 285 pounds. Logically, there’s not much Porzingis can do to stop Jokic from forcing his way into the paint.
We can see all four other Nuggets on the right side of the court, guarded by respective Celtics while Jokic isolates Porzingis at the top of the key.
Jokic drives down the lane utilizing a few forceful spin moves. This demands attention from the defense, causing Jrue Holiday to step up to help on Jokic.
This leaves Jayson Tatum stuck to choose between guarding Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the corner and Aaron Gordon in the dunkers’ spot.
Gordon’s astounding leaping ability almost makes this play impossible to defend against.
The little intricacies of the Nuggets offense surrounding Jokic, such as the particular spacing and chemistry are why they’ve been able to find so much success in recent years.
Rundown
Celtics head coach, Joe Mazzulla, staggered some of his starters into the game while Jokic was on the bench, but the main story from a coaching standpoint would be how Tatum’s minutes were aligned with Jokic’s.
This strategy would’ve been more effective had Tatum played better.
While on the same stratosphere as far as superstardom goes, Tatum’s and Jokic’s playstyles are much different. Jokic’s game is much more multifaceted and seamless.
A popular critique of Tatum is that if he’s not scoring, he’s not doing much else. Tonight, that proved mostly true.
Tatum had a rough night all-around, only going for 14 points with 5 turnovers on 5-13 shooting.
His partner-in-crime, Jaylen Brown, picked up the slack by scoring a season-high 41 points.
Jokic finished the game with 32 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, making it his 20th triple-double of the season.
Denver was able to pull ahead in the second half of this one, not relinquishing the lead since taking it in the third quarter.
Jokic was tending to an injury on the bench in the fourth quarter, although he did play the final 8:04.
The Celtics found most of their success in the transition game, where they rank 10th in fastbreak PPG. When Jokic is on the floor for the Nuggets, they found themselves a bit slow in getting back on defense following long rebounds and loose balls.
Surprising game-changing minutes for the Nuggets emerged from 2nd-year forward, Peyton Watson, who played 17 minutes and made multiple impact plays throughout the night, including this rim-rocker in crunch-time:
The Celtics and Nuggets’ most previous matchup prior to Thursday night was on January 19th, where Denver took home a 2-point win: 102-100.
These juggernauts don’t play again during the regular season, but many experts are predicting a rematch in series form following the gauntlet that is the NBA playoffs.
The Nuggets are currently 3rd seed in the Western Conference, but there’s plenty of opportunity to rise to the top of the conference in the final 19 games of the season.
The Celtics have the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference in a chokehold, with little-to-no possibility of relinquishing it because of a 7.5 game lead over the 2nd seeded Bucks.
The pressure that comes with being the first seed is not to be taken lightly. The Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown-Celtics team is now in year seven, with little to show for it.
If the playoffs are anything like last night’s game, we’re in for some intense battles early this Summer.
-Dom