How will the LA Clippers respond after dropping Game 2 to the Denver Nuggets?
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00:00The LA Clippers suffered their first loss of the second-round series to the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night,
00:04falling 1-10 to 1-0-1 in a game that really wasn't as close as the final score reflects.
00:09The Nuggets led wire-to-wire, went up by as many as 23 points early in the second quarter.
00:14They were the first team to land a punch in this game, building a
00:1644-25 lead at the end of the first quarter that LA never managed to recover from.
00:21Nikolaj Jokic and Jamal Murray broke the Clippers down, combining 53 points,
00:2521 rebounds, 10 assists, 4 blocks, and 2 steals on 20 of 38 shooting from the field, while key role players like Gary Harris and Paul Millsap
00:33are productive as well, coming in for 26 points on 6 of 12 shooting from beyond the arc.
00:37Now that the series is tied at one game apiece, Game 3 is a pivotal contest.
00:42Clippers have yet to lose consecutive games in the playoffs so far, and a loss tonight would give Denver a 2-1 lead in the series.
00:49If LA is going to win, they'll need to be a team that throws a punch out of the gate and maintains intensity throughout.
00:54Not Denver. So looking at the key storylines of tonight's game, for LA,
00:58we're trying to figure out how Kawhi, Marcus Morris, and Paul George are going to respond.
01:03Those three dominated the Nuggets in Game 1, and in Game 2, they looked a little bit lost and really struggled to get things going.
01:10Looking at how each player performed from the first contest to the next,
01:13Kawhi Leonard scored 29 points in Game 1 and 13 in Game 2.
01:18Marcus Morris scored 18 points in Game 1 and 11 in Game 2,
01:21while Paul George scored 19 in Game 1 and 22 in Game 2.
01:26There's more that goes into that. Obviously, the shooting numbers weren't great in Game 2.
01:30Kawhi went from making 12 of the 16 shots in Game 1 to 4 of 17 in Game 2,
01:35while Morris went from 7 of 10 in Game 1 to 3 of 9 in Game 2,
01:40and George's numbers took a dip a little bit as well.
01:43So you'll notice, obviously, that George's numbers, I think for the scoring at least, were pretty consistent.
01:48While Leonard and Morris struggled there.
01:50Those two, Leonard and Morris, combined for 47 points on 73% shooting in Game 1, and in 2, they scored just 24 on 27% shooting.
02:00For the most part, each player took the same shots they did in Game 1. A lot of them just rimmed out.
02:05But Denver also made an effort to play much better defense on all three players, and it paid off in a major way, as you can tell.
02:11The Nuggets swarmed and doubled Leonard whenever possible,
02:15doing their best to make other players on the team beat them.
02:18The game plan was most effective in the second half, as Leonard failed to record a made field goal in the final two quarters,
02:24and scored just four points at the stripe in the second half of the play.
02:27All three players must succeed if LA is going to make it out of this series,
02:32and Leonard has proven he's more than capable of leading this team.
02:35Ultimately, it's just going to take better ball movement, better shot selection, and more physicality to get LA out of this rut.
02:41I would expect a screen-heavy offense and more shots in the paint and the clippers in Game 3,
02:45and if Denver effectively shuts down the lane and keeps the clippers away from the rim,
02:49it might be best to throw Jermichael Green at center instead of Iggy Zubas to help space the floor.
02:53He was one of LA's best players in Game 2.
02:56For Denver, the key storyline is Nikola Jokic's health.
02:59He was a surprising addition to Denver's injury report on Sunday afternoon,
03:02and it was a bit more of a shock to see him stay there listed on Monday morning.
03:07The seven-footer is officially listed as questionable for Game 3 with a right wrist sprain,
03:11and it seems we might not know his playing status to be a closer tip-off.
03:15If he is able to play, which I would expect at this point,
03:18nothing really changes for Denver, right? They'll still have their best on the floor.
03:21He'll probably still have another terrific game as he did in Game 2 as well.
03:24If he isn't able to play, the Nuggets could be in trouble.
03:27Jokic appeared in all 73 of Denver's games this season and has missed just 20 games throughout his five-year career.
03:33The Nuggets' next best big is Mason Plumlee.
03:37Clippers always seem to have his number. That goes for both Jokic's Zubas and Mantra's Harrell,
03:42who has, you know, gives up a few inches to Plumlee, but is still a very effective option to throw at him,
03:48at least on offense.
03:50His status, you know, could change the course of this series.
03:53So it's certainly worth monitoring as the series progresses,
03:56and we'll have an update here as soon as we do get an official status for Jokic ahead of tonight's game.
04:01Prediction for the next game, you know, the Clippers haven't lost back-to-back playoff games yet this postseason,
04:06and it's hard to see that happening right now
04:09with an opponent, you know, that is at Denver's quality, right?
04:13The team has shown plenty of backbone in situations like these all season long,
04:17and with a roster full of consistent playoff performers, you have to assume they return to the norm tonight.
04:22I would assume that Game 2 is a bit of an outlier for both teams.
04:25Denver is not going to get up easily or the Clippers have their way in this game though,
04:29but they did struggle to handle L.A.'s pace and intensity in Game 1,
04:32so returning to that level of play should tilt the contest in L.A.'s direction. For that, we have the Clippers winning this one 1-16 to 1-10.
04:40Clippers now take the floor for Game 3 on Monday night at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. This game will air on TNT.