The LA Clippers cruised to a dominant victory in Game 1. How will the Denver Nuggets respond in Game 2
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00The LA Clippers were on a mission in Game 1, piling the Denver Nuggets in the second and
00:03third quarters to win 120-97. It was an excellent all-around effort from LA and arguably the best
00:09defensive game we've seen this team play since the postseason began last month. It's no coincidence
00:15either. Not only did the Clippers match up well with Denver, but LA finally got Patrick Beverly
00:19back for Game 1 of the series after he had missed five consecutive contests. In addition to being
00:24one of the team's best perimeter defenders, Beverly has established himself as a leader
00:28on this squad and is their best communicator on the floor. It also has a good bit to do with
00:32timing. The Nuggets came into Thursday's contest with just one full day of rest as the team had
00:37just closed out its first-round series of the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night. It was an extremely
00:41quick turnaround time and it's hard to fault the Nuggets for looking a little gassed at times in
00:45Game 1. Now as we enter Game 2, we should be prepared to get a much better sense of where
00:50each of these two teams are at right now in addition to how the rest of this series is
00:53going to go. Looking at some key storylines for tonight's game, for LA it's the fact that they're
00:58fully healthy and have all the momentum right now. Clippers have looked pretty much unpatchable in
01:03the last handful of contests. Since LA really turned things around in Game 5 of their first
01:08round series with Dallas, the team is averaging over 128 points per game while allowing just
01:13under 102, a difference of 26.6 points per contest. Part of the reason LA has played so well in that
01:20stretch has to do with urgency and energy. For the first time in a while, the Clippers look like
01:24they truly want to compete and when they do build up big leads as we've seen in each of the last
01:28three games, instead of giving them up, they're building upon them. Another factor though that
01:33plays into this is health. That includes both mental and physical. Paul George has looked like
01:37a much different player since he spoke to a psychiatrist. Montrezl Harrell, who was recently
01:41named this season's Sixth Man of the Year, is finally getting back in the swing of things after
01:45spending a month away from the bubble. And Patrick Beverley, who went 17 days between
01:51appearances due to a calf strain, is back on the floor once again. Momentum is on LA's side right
01:57now. It's going to be very difficult for any team to take that away from them. Looking at Denver's
02:01key storyline, we're just trying to figure out how the Nuggets respond in Game 2. They were
02:05thoroughly outplayed in Game 1 of this series and to a degree that was to be expected. As I mentioned
02:10earlier, the team hardly got any time to rest before Thursday's contest and looked absolutely
02:14gassed at times. That said, Denver's problems, I think, extend beyond exhaustion. Effort seems to
02:20be a major issue as well. There's only so much this team can do to stop the likes of George,
02:25Kawhi Leonard, and Marcus Morris from getting theirs in each of these games. That trio combined
02:30for 66 points on 25 of 39 shooting from the field in Game 1. And while that's a big enough problem
02:35as it is, it becomes even more so when you realize that Gary Harris, Jeremy Grant, and Paul Millsap
02:40are the primary defenders, who are the three best perimeter defenders on this team right now.
02:44Will Barton has been in that conversation as well, but he's made the bubble since August 17th.
02:49It'll be interesting to see how the Nuggets handle those three in Game 2.
02:53A prediction for tonight, you know, look for Game 2 to be a bit closer than the first.
02:57Both teams have now had an equal amount of rest and know more about one another than they did
03:01coming into the series. On top of that, the stakes feel a little bit higher right now. The last thing
03:05Denver wants to do is suffer two embarrassing losses in a row. But for the Clippers, this is
03:09the perfect opportunity to prove that the urgency and intensity aren't going anywhere. It might be
03:14a close first half, but I expect the Clippers to pull away the second and put the Nuggets away
03:18for good early in the fourth quarter. For that, we have the Clippers with 117, the Nuggets 105.
03:24You can watch the next game on TNT. The Clippers Nuggets will take the floor for Game 2 at 9 p.m.
03:30Eastern time.