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sport / alt.sports.basketball.nba.gs-warriors / BANG/DP: Column: Nuggets exposed by Warriors as clown show, too soft and splintered to contend for NBA title

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o BANG/DP: Column: Nuggets exposed by Warriors as clown show, too softAllen

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BANG/DP: Column: Nuggets exposed by Warriors as clown show, too soft and splintered to contend for NBA title

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From: ala...@yahoo.com (Allen)
Newsgroups: alt.sports.basketball.nba.gs-warriors
Subject: BANG/DP: Column: Nuggets exposed by Warriors as clown show, too soft
and splintered to contend for NBA title
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2022 18:20:10 -0700
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 by: Allen - Wed, 20 Apr 2022 01:20 UTC

Column: Nuggets exposed by Warriors as clown show, too soft and
splintered to contend for NBA title
Warriors' three-guard lineup causes Nuggets to lose much more than Game
2 and their cool
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 18: Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić
(15) reacts to being ejected during their game against the Golden State
Warriors in the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the team’s NBA basketball
first-round playoff series at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif.,
on Monday, April 18, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 18: Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić
(15) reacts to being ejected during their game against the Golden State
Warriors in the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the team’s NBA basketball
first-round playoff series at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif.,
on Monday, April 18, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
By MARK KISZLA |
PUBLISHED: April 19, 2022 at 1:16 p.m. | UPDATED: April 19, 2022 at 2:01
p.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/04/19/nuggets-exposed-golden-state-game-2/

Mark Kiszla is a columnist for The Denver Post, our partner publication.

SAN FRANCISCO — This has ceased to be a respectable NBA playoff series.
It’s a clown show, with the Nuggets wearing big red noses and tripping
over their floppy, oversized shoes. It might be outrageously funny if
not so depressingly sad.

Golden State, a first-class organization with a championship culture,
has done more than punk the Nuggets twice in a row, including a 126-106
shellacking in Game 2. The Warriors are clowning Denver, exposing a team
too mentally soft to hang together, much less win, when the going gets
tough.

“They’re out there laughing, dancing around. It’s just embarrassing,”
Nuggets guard Monte Morris said Monday, when the boxscore of a lopsided
loss to the Warriors read like an obituary for another lost season of
center Nikola Jokic’s MVP prime.

From Golden State guard Gary Payton II disrespectfully slapping Joker
on the butt during a timeout, to mopey Aaron Gordon being exposed to
teammates after signing a huge extension last offseason, to Will Barton
and DeMarcus Cousins fussing on the bench as Draymond Green exhorted the
crowd to run the overmatched visitors out of the building, the Warriors
made Denver look like Bozos banging each other on the head with rubber
mallets.

“We’ve got to iron things out … find a way to stay together, no matter
what’s going on, good or bad,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “Find
a way to stay the course, stay together, because that’s the only chance
we have to be competitive in this series. If we’re fragmented, if we’re
breaking off into groups or individuals, we have zero chance of winning
a game in this series.”

It’s bad enough the Nuggets have fallen behind 2-0 in a best-of-seven
playoff series without a fight, unless you count the bickering on the
Denver bench. Midway through the third period, with Golden State ahead
72-62, Cousins and Barton started a family feud worthy of a visit from
Dr. Phil during a timeout.

“If you feel like you’re getting under their skin, you press a little
more,” said Green, who pounced on the chance to turn up the heat on the
Nuggets’ simmering frustration.

What in the world could cause an impromptu exchange between two grown
men to become as juvenile as a food fight in the middle school cafeteria?

“Just some goofy (bleep) I can’t even entertain,” Barton said.

Goofy does not begin to describe this stench. And the worst might be yet
to come. Real embarrassment could await the Nuggets in Game 3, when they
return home and discover thousands of Golden State fans have invaded
Ball Arena to cheer for their demise.

I don’t have to tell vice president of basketball operations Tim
Connelly what he already knows. A splintered crowd, with a disconcerting
number of Warriors jerseys in the stands, could greet the fractured
Nuggets for tipoff on Thursday night. The fear is that as much as 25% of
the paying customers for what’s supposed to be a Denver home date could
be chanting “M-V-P!” when Warriors guard Steph Curry steps to the
free-throw line.

According to data on the secondary ticket market compiled by TickPick,
the average price for a seat to watch Jordan Poole make the Nuggets look
like fools during Game 2 in San Francisco was $186, while the current
average resale price for admission to Game 3 is $69 in Denver. Think Dub
Nation will be tempted to hop on planes, trains or automobiles to taunt
Joker by waving brooms?

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>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 18: Golden State Warriors’ Draymond
Green (23) and Golden State Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins (22) defend against
Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić (15) in the first quarter of Game 2 of the
team’s NBA basketball first-round playoff series at the Chase Center in
San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, April 18, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay
Area News Group)

A diminished or nonexistent home-court advantage with the Nuggets
threatening to get swept out of the playoffs, the same humiliating way
they were brushed aside by Phoenix a year ago, would be a shame.

“Being swept again is not a good look for nobody,” Morris said.

But sacrificing your home-court advantage is also what happens when a
franchise disrespects its fan base by rasslin’ in the mud with Comcast
for three years instead of finding a way to deliver Jokic to local
television viewers who can’t jump on the Nuggets bandwagon, when they’re
unable to catch so much as a glimpse of the MVP’s magic.

While his talents are a many-splendored thing, the hair-trigger temper
of Jokic makes him easy prey during the playoffs. The Warriors have
gotten under his skin the same way the Suns burned Joker last season.
From the moment Payton spanked his fanny during a break in the action,
Jokic was predisposed to lose his cool with the technical fouls that
ultimately got him ejected five minutes into the fourth quarter.

>RELATED ARTICLES
Warriors’ three-guard lineup proves to be too much for Nuggets
The Warriors’ best defense against Jokic: Draymond Green and a
demoralizing offense
Kurtenbach: The Warriors’ new small-ball lineup could break the NBA.
Andrew Wiggins holds it together
Steph Curry scores 34 points off the bench as Warriors take 2-0
series lead over Nuggets
Warriors halftime report: Curry heats up in second quarter

“Is what it is,” said Jokic, who scored 26 points before being banished
from the floor. “I’m not supposed to do that.”

If he has the nerve, what Malone needs to do is bench Gordon in favor of
JaMychal Green or Zeke Nnaji. I don’t know how Denver can dump his
massive contract extension, but Gordon is too wishy-washy to be a
starter on a championship contender.

In the absence of injured Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., what
we’ve discovered is the Nuggets have too many role players who can’t
handle adversity.

“Real men don’t fold,” Morris said.

So should we blame bad injury luck, flush this series and patiently wait
until next year?

Heck, no. This goofy stench has got to stop. Time alone won’t heal what
ails them.

The Nuggets need to grow some backbone.

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