LA Clippers Denver Nuggets Game 1 Preview
The LA Clippers and Denver Nuggets will begin their second-round series on Thursday night. Here's what to expect.
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00:00 The LA Clippers will finally return to action and begin their second round series against the Debra Nuggets on Thursday night.
00:06 It's bound to be an entertaining matchup, and one that will decide whether LA can continue to make history within the franchise this season.
00:12 The Clippers last qualified for the Conference Semifinals in 2015, when Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were leading the team.
00:18 There they went to battle with the Houston Rockets to the commanding 3-1 lead in that series, before collapsing down the stretch and losing in Game 7.
00:26 As a franchise, that's the deepest the Clippers have ever gone into the postseason.
00:30 Because of that, this series will take on some additional meaning for long-time fans of the team.
00:36 Fortunately, this year's squad is quite different from the ones we saw for the Lob City era.
00:41 Kawhi Leonard is here for one thing, and he looked terrific against the Dallas Mavericks in the first round.
00:45 But this Nuggets team isn't merely a roadblock for LA.
00:49 Between Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, there's some upset potential here, and the Clippers need to be at the top of their game
00:54 to move on to the Lesser Commons Finals in a hurry.
00:57 As a key matchup in this series, especially in Game 1, the first one to look out for LA is Kawhi Leonard and Paul George against Denver's Wings.
01:04 Kawhi Leonard is going to be a thorn in the side of teams, no matter who they throw at him.
01:08 The same is true of Paul George, especially lately with how he's looked since the second half of that first-round series.
01:13 They've already done major damage to Denver's Wings this season, and that should only continue into the playoffs.
01:19 On the year, Leonard and George have played some of their best basketball against Denver.
01:24 The two have combined to average 50.5 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists per game in this series,
01:29 and both have converted over 50% of their looks from the field in those games.
01:33 Denver's perimeter defense has improved with the return of Gary Harris, but the Nuggets are still without Will Barton,
01:38 who's arguably Denver's best two-way player.
01:41 The 6'5" forward left the bubble on August 19th, so he had his right knee and hasn't returned since then.
01:46 So it seems unlikely he'll be available to play in this series.
01:51 Denver's best remaining option then is Jeremy Grant.
01:54 He's a very physical defender, a great shot blocker.
01:57 He could wind up being the X-factor in this series if he can handle Leonard and George
02:01 and provide some buckets on offense as well.
02:03 But that's a big "if," and it's never wise to bet against playoff Kawhi.
02:08 For Denver, the main matchup to look here is Nikola Jokic against LA's Biggs.
02:12 Denver's success in this series will come down to how effectively LA's Biggs can defend Nikola Jokic.
02:18 The 7-footer is one of the league's best playmakers.
02:20 He's a terrific shooter from the midrange.
02:22 He can step back and hit a three-pointer when need be.
02:25 Where he's most effective, though, is the paint.
02:27 According to Queen and Nicolas, Jokic ranks in the 96th percentile of all centers in the short and midrange,
02:33 making him one of the toughest Biggs to defend in the NBA.
02:36 There's only one player on LA's roster that really makes sense to guard Jokic, and that's Ivica Zubac.
02:41 The 23-year-old has the size and defensive ability to keep up with Jokic, especially in the paint.
02:46 He'll still knock down his perjury of jumpers and get three-pointers to go.
02:49 There's no stopping that.
02:51 But Zubac will do a far better job of containing him in the paint than either Montrezl Harrell or Jamel Green could do.
02:57 Take this nugget from the athletics of Jovan Buha as evidence of what Zubac can do against Jokic.
03:02 On this season, Denver logged a -14.3 net rating when Zubac and Jokic were on the floor together in 61 minutes.
03:10 On the other hand, in 24 minutes with Jokic on and Zubac off, Denver logged a +30.5 net rating.
03:18 So if that trend continues into the playoffs, Denver may need to find some additional means of production in a hurry.
03:25 Looking at the injury report for tonight's game, Patrick Beverley has become a familiar face in this section of the previews,
03:30 but fortunately that may be a change coming soon.
03:33 On Wednesday, Clippers coach Doc Rivers said he was pretty sure that Beverley would be good to go for game one,
03:38 but couldn't guarantee that at the time.
03:40 We didn't receive an update since then on Beverley's status, but the indication seems to be that he will play in this game.
03:45 Otherwise, he'll probably make his series debut in game two on Saturday.
03:50 If Beverley does remain out, look for Landry Shamit to continue to start in his place.
03:54 For Denver, there are no injuries to report besides Barton's.
03:57 However, star guard Jamal Murray suffered a thigh injury in game seven against the Jazz on Tuesday
04:03 that may slow him down in the first few games of this series.
04:06 Prediction for tonight's game, last we saw the Clippers, they closed out their first round series to the Dallas Mavericks
04:11 in comfortable fashion on Sunday evening, that was four days ago.
04:14 The Nuggets, on the other hand, took game seven from the Jazz on Tuesday night by a two-point margin.
04:19 For that alone, it seems safe to assume that LA has a significant, at least rest advantage in game one.
04:24 But more importantly, the Clippers are the better team in this series and should be favored in each game as it goes on.
04:30 Because of that, we've got LA winning big tonight with the Clippers with 128, Nuggets 109.
04:35 You can watch tonight's game as the Clippers and Nuggets hit the floor at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.
04:40 That game will air on TNT.