Mark Daigneault | Nuggets Post-Game | Dec. 21, 2021
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00:00Yeah, intersect of the athletic mark. The Nuggets have the, I think the six
00:05best off. It's the last 10 games. You held up the 94 points. What was like in
00:10your game plan that that really worked tonight? I thought, um, you know, with
00:17Yokich is passing, you know, some of the shot making and the individual plays
00:22that he can make. We really tried to limit his ability to ignite everybody
00:26else because it doesn't stop him from scoring either. So it's once you once
00:29it's him and then it's everyone else, it becomes tough. Um, and I thought
00:33our guys did a great job with the game plan there of not giving up cuts. And
00:39when we posted, we doubled them or when they posted, we doubled them on.
00:43They did a great job in the help because there's a lot of weak side
00:45movement and it requires a lot of awareness and communication among the
00:49team. And I thought our guys really did a nice job of that carried that over
00:52from shoot around and executed that well, made him throw it to the weak
00:56side and then you turn their other players into playmakers. So I thought,
01:00you know, tip our hat, tip my hat to our guys in terms of the execution of
01:04that. Were you surprised that you didn't see Yokich like the last like
01:08six minutes of the game at all? Um, I get what he was doing. Um, you know,
01:14he was, he was upset with those guys. I think, um, everybody's kind of running
01:18their own race, you know, and we all just kind of cross cross paths in the
01:21season. Um, and so we can't get overly concerned with what, you know, what
01:25they do. But, um, you know, he's coaching Denver, you know, we're
01:30coaching. Okay, so you were just kind of going to stay focused on our stuff
01:33and, you know, they play who they play and we're going to go out there, play
01:35the games.
01:38Here's Lawson. Okay, defender dot com. Wanted to ask you about shades
01:41performance, obviously triple double for him, but it seemed like all night
01:44long is his game flow and his way on the floor was really hard to guard. What
01:49stood out to you the most in terms of just his floor game tonight? Um, I
01:53thought, you know, they're pretty aggressive in their coverage generally
01:58and even more aggressive with a player like him. And I thought his pace of
02:02play, you know, especially in the first half was pretty impressive against
02:07pressure. You know what I mean? Like it's one thing when you aren't facing
02:11pressure and the bigs back in a drop and you can just kind of play at your
02:13own pace. But it's quite another when teams are trying to heat you up and
02:16they're aggressive in their help, it's hard to maintain a certain steady pace.
02:20And I thought he just kind of cruised at his own pace there, especially early
02:24in the game. Um, and did a nice job finding his teammates obviously as well
02:28spraying out there for shots and cuts. And, you know, guys did a good job of
02:32moving, which is critical against the defense like that. In that regard, he
02:35found fave on a couple of those, like a little short roll pass. I think all of
02:39faves points were assisted by Shea. Just what was working so well with that
02:42dynamic tonight? Yeah, they bring their big all the way up and they try to take
02:45it out of the guards hands and they use a lot of hand pressure to do that.
02:49They're hard to not turn the ball over against. So I thought our point of
02:52attack decisions were really good. We only had, I don't know how many
02:54turnovers we had, but it was a low number tonight. And then how many do we
02:57have? Am I lying? Yeah, it's good. Good turnover night. Um, and then because
03:03they're big is so high, you have the opportunity to kind of play through.
03:06They're trying to make, you know, your five men, the playmaker. And so I
03:10thought fave did a good job. Roby found a good week side play. Um, J. Rob did a
03:14good job in there. I thought Bayes did a good job at the five there a little
03:16bit. So, um, you know, Shea did a good job trusting it. Josh did a good job
03:20trusting it. And then those guys made plays
03:24mcgallow, Casey Thunder dot com. You guys built the biggest lead that
03:28they've had all season. This is an opportunity to fight for that. Hold on
03:32to that. Uh, what did you think about that? And just overall having this type
03:37of experience when you've had a million comebacks so far this year? Yeah, we
03:40haven't been in this situation a ton, obviously, and it's part of the 48
03:44minute mentality. You know, you've got to be able to keep playing when things
03:48aren't going well and you're down and you've got to be able to keep playing
03:50when things are going well and you're up and they, you know, they switched
03:54lineups tonight, they switched defenses, they switched one through five against
03:57our second unit. They played a lot of zone, uh, in the second half and they
04:01were just trying, I think a lot of different things to try to throw us out
04:04of rhythm. And it was effective there at the beginning of the fourth quarter
04:07and certainly a lesson we can learn. But with that being said, I thought the
04:11starting group did a good job of going back in there and stabilizing the game
04:14late. And I give our team credit for building that kind of lead. You know,
04:19there's a reason we were up by, you know, 12 14 16 points. Uh, and it's
04:23because we executed on both ends of the floor, you know, really well for the
04:27first three quarters of that game.
04:29Joe Masato, the Oklahoman. Mark, you guys outscored them 62 36 in the paint.
04:34I know she got that started early. Um, with this, they couldn't keep them out
04:38of there. But what do you like most about that number? Uh, we like both
04:42numbers, you know, especially for them. I mean, they're kind of a bruising
04:46team right now. They're playing green at the four at the three. They're
04:49playing Gordon. They try to crash him in there. Obviously, Yokich is a load
04:52at the rim. So defensively, I thought we did a really good job of playing
04:56inside out. Um, and, you know, they banged in some shots there in the first
05:00half to Morse made a couple pull ups. Barton made a couple like contested
05:03wing threes, which are shots were willing to give up against them. Um,
05:07and we kind of just stay the course with the game plan on that end. And
05:09then offensively, we certainly want to play through the paint, drive the ball.
05:13Um, tonight we did it with the past a little bit because obviously their
05:15coverage was high. Um, and like I said, it was really good execution for much
05:20of the game for our team. What would you think of areas off the bench? Um, I
05:26thought he played well. You know, he played. We talked about, you know, him
05:30playing to his capability and consistency. Um, and look, it's a
05:34different, you know, developmental experience for him. Just like all of
05:37our other guys, you know, we're, you know, Shea, you know, closing a game.
05:41Josh Giddy closing a game with a 14 point lead is like a different context
05:46for them. And that's where you grow. Um, you know, our second unit tonight
05:50having to hand the game back off, um, with a pretty significant lead,
05:54different developmental context. That's a good thing. You know, in Bay's part
05:58of being a pro is, you know, being able to adapt to different roles in
06:01different situations where your number gets called. Um, and he's had a pretty
06:05steady role for a while now, and this is a good growth opportunity for him.
06:10Thanks.
06:14Got one question.
06:17Yeah, Coach. Um, you guys started big, but you gave extended minutes to a
06:21small lineup with either, uh, Kenridge or Bay's at the five. Don't know which
06:26one was technically playing five. But what do you like about that lineup?
06:32Um, you know, it's one of the opportunities, you know, that we're
06:36exploring right now is, you know, we've we've because of our center play,
06:41we've had pretty traditional lineups. I guess you could say J. Rob's more of a
06:44hybrid center, but we've been pretty traditional up until this point. And,
06:49you know, taking a look at smaller lineups, you know, basically, basically
06:52makes you very switchable defensively and can still put pressure on the
06:56basket as a roller. Um, so that's a good opportunity. And like I've said
07:00before, you know, J. Rob tonight, um, Jeremiah, you know, we talked about him
07:05being a guy that can play kind of two positions, and he had a nice his
07:08portfolio was diverse tonight. You know, he played the four to start the game
07:12and guarded Gordon. Uh, then he had some minutes against Yokich at the five,
07:16both offensively and defensively, and then closed the game at the five
07:20against a small switching lineup. And so he had to adapt to a lot of stuff in
07:24the game tonight. And so, you know, like I said before, you know, the more we
07:28can put our players in diverse experiences and try to help them, you
07:33know, plow through those, the more we're gonna grow. You know, you don't
07:37grow in a test tube. And so, um, you know, our players are doing a good job
07:40of embracing that.
07:43Yep. Thanks, guys.