Rollercoaster

[00:00:00] The Nuggets are screwed. The Nuggets are so good. The Nuggets are also screwed. The Nuggets are so good. It's been a rollercoaster week for the Nuggets, but we're bringing it all down and more here. Dan, play that funky music.

[00:00:19] Welcome in to another episode of The Blucifer Brothers. I am your host, Kyle Polen, joined as always by my wonderful brother, Ryan Polen. Ryan, how are you doing out there today, buddy? We're doing good. You know, coming off a DU hockey game on my front. As you were there as well, we had a great time. It was just a wonderful evening.

[00:00:48] There was a great environment out there and something I highly recommend to anyone. If you're looking for something, you know, maybe the Avs game is a little pricey for you. You know, smaller arena, really good environment, really fun. Well, honestly, I'll tell you the story. Thank you to Ryan for bringing me out there with him tonight. That was great.

[00:01:10] I'll tell you the story. We peeked behind the curtain. We were thinking about the Avs game. They played the Wild tonight. My girlfriend's from Minnesota. I was like, oh, that would be a good, you know, activity. Why are you bringing your girlfriend into this? This is weird. Well, but I was – we were going to do that instead. She wasn't there with us tonight.

[00:01:36] I looked up tickets and in the 300s, it's like $100 to get into a Avs game. That's crazy. What's going on? What is the deal? I don't understand it. What's the difference between an Avs game and a Nuggets game? Honestly, like why is a Avs game so much more expensive? The ice. I don't know.

[00:02:05] And they need – they know that there's a lot more questionable racial tendencies, whites in Denver. Yeah. Well, I got a great deal on some DU tickets tonight. Oh, man. And then when the girlfriend got sick and you had to ask me, that was – Yeah, yeah. Made my night. Yeah. Worked out. Just a little bro time.

[00:02:37] Well, some guys who have also been getting some bro time, the Denver Nuggets. They have headed out on the road. Last – we last spoke, they were getting ready for the Lakers game on Saturday. That did not go as well. We're going to talk about that. And then – actually, let's just talk about them as they happen, okay? So, Lakers game. This is – I – we both said the Nuggets were going to beat the Lakers. We thought – we own that.

[00:03:05] However, I did say – I said, this does feel like a game that the Lakers are going to try, like, to throw everything at Jokic, right? And they did. And they played really physical. And they're the Lakers, so they got away with it. And they caught the Nuggets off guard with – they said, you can't double-team Jokic once he has the ball because he's going to pick you apart.

[00:03:35] But what if we make these other guys play four on two? Do you think they can do that successfully and we just won't let him touch it? And it turns out the answer was no. No, not terribly successfully. But it felt like kind of a one-off defense that the Nuggets were even starting to kind of figure some things out against it as time progressed that –

[00:04:01] I'm kind of glad that the Lakers showed it in the regular season. It felt to me like the game where Rui guarded Jokic. And everybody was like, oh, Rui's the Jokic stopper. Rui, nobody can possibly get anything done if Rui is guarded. Oh, Rui. And then Jokic was like, yeah, you actually are not that good.

[00:04:31] And if you're going to throw Rui Hachimura at me, like I'm just going to bring him in the post and I'm going to abuse him. Then you're going to have to double. And like at the end of the day, all that Lakers game was was the others not hitting shots. And like, yeah, that sucks. And it's – it does hurt to watch. But like if we make layups, we win that game.

[00:04:55] Like – and it continued into the – it bled into that Bucs game where like you're just missing easy shots. And you're missing shots that you should make. Well, hold on now, Ryan. We have a whole other game between that and the Bucs game. But staying on this, Nuggets, the thing that was frustrating to me about that was just the process in the first half especially.

[00:05:20] Like it took till right before the end of the half where they were like, hey – Aaron Gordon's like, hey, my guy is double teaming Jokic permanently with a front and playing behind. I'm just going to go set a pick for Jamal Murray and they can't possibly make him go backwards. He's just going to get to step into a three here. So, yeah.

[00:05:46] I think that once they saw that, that kind of ended that defense. And then the Lakers switched to old faithful of LeBron on Murray and being like, fine, we'll switch the pick and roll on this. And LeBron will guard Jokic and he's big enough and strong enough to like wait for help.

[00:06:16] And then we're going to throw a bunch at him. Which the Nuggets didn't execute against that very well, which was weird. But they were a little bit flustered. Yeah, it's a classic thing where it's like, yes, it worked one time. Try it again. Like literally, I mean, I would love for them to do it again because they're not – it's not going to be possible for them to replicate what they did and have it be as effective because Jokic is a computer.

[00:06:46] That's his biggest skill is being able to look at things and adjust off of them. And good luck. Try it again. Yeah, I just saw a video the other day too of Jokic working on four-on-ones with the Nuggets coaches. Like literally just being like, okay, run at me, all of you. So, you know, some interesting prep there.

[00:07:12] And then it was that hard trap game against the Pacers, which now kind of wasn't a trap game because you didn't – you know, you kind of got embarrassed by the Lakers. Jamal, you know, mentioned they just played with more intensity than we did. That kind of a thing. And they just went into Indiana and said, hey, do you want to play any defense? And the Pacers were like, hell no.

[00:07:40] And they said, do you feel like playing any defense? And we said, for a single quarter maybe. And we just had a shoot off. And then in that third quarter, the Nuggets locked in a little bit and got a big enough lead to where when they stopped playing defense again, it didn't get into the heart attack range that we dealt with tonight for a little bit.

[00:08:06] But, yeah, the Indiana game, I thought Indiana gave up a lot of just like, oh, that's instantly good offense. The only thing was I wanted to check in here about if you can remember where your Michael Porter worry meter was after the Pacers game.

[00:08:31] Because you talk about two straight butt cheeks performances. Whereas Michael, too thick Porter out there. He was terrible against the Lakers. And then he usually follows that up, you know, with a good effort. And he was like – I mean, he got some dunks. He got some rebounds. He got some stuff. But, like, he was bricking open threes. Like, they were just one man away doubling Jokic.

[00:09:01] And we haven't seen a team do that against Porter in years. I think it tells on Nuggets fans a little bit that they're so confident in Porter. Like, what the fuck makes you confident in this guy? Like, literally, what has he done in his career where it's like, oh, this is a consistent three-point barrage guy. Like, yes, he shoots 40% over the year.

[00:09:29] But that's going to be inundated by these three-for-11 attempts like he had the other night. Like, he's made four threes since he's come back from the All-Star break. That's not good. You're literally out there for one fucking reason. I bet it's higher now. He hits him tonight. Well, he did hit some tonight. Before tonight's game. No, it was ugly.

[00:09:57] Because I remember thinking I was like, I was going to go on the podcast and be like, Ryan, let's hope Porter's still not 100% healthy. And he's just playing his way back into something. Because it was that bad. To finish my point, I guess, is that, like, he is never going to be the guy where it's just 40% every night. He's going to have nights where he's 80% from three and hits eight.

[00:10:24] And he's going to have nights where he shoots 20% and hits two. Like, that's the Michael Porter Jr. experience. And it has been for the last eight years. Like, he's gotten hot at the right times, but it's never been a consistent thing. Like, I've never been like, oh, well, I can definitely bet on Michael Porter Jr. made threes tonight. Like, that's got to be the dumbest bet in Nuggets history.

[00:10:49] So, I think he's fine, right? Like, I'm not worried about him long term. But it's also a little bit of, like, yeah, this has kind of been what you've been this whole time. And it's, I mean, he hasn't missed as badly as he missed in these last couple of games. But he looked great tonight. So, yeah.

[00:11:17] Nobody's going to talk about it, I guess, is my point. Is that, like, this is such a thing of the moment that nobody's going to be talking about this if he has two good games in a row. We're going to forget that this ever happened. So, I mean, everything Michael Porter needs to prove or have his name put in limitless trade rumors this summer is in the playoffs, right? Right.

[00:11:44] That's where got a pooped bet against Minnesota. That's where, you know, like, so every, everything that needs to be said for the, you know, the legacy of Michael Porter Jr. One way or another is going to be said in the playoffs. You're right. I just, at that point, I was like, oh, man, did he rush back?

[00:12:08] Because the thing that was alarming to me was, like, it felt like Jokic was trying to get him going. Like, it wasn't like the old games were, like, you miss your first two as Porter and then Jokic and them are like, all right, well, we gave you an honest try here. And you just get no touches the rest of the game.

[00:12:29] Like, it felt like they, Jokic and Murray were, like, trying to be like, or Jokic was like, hey, brother, remember when you scored 35 and we just ran this dribble handoff on the wing? Let's do that. And Porter was like, clink. And it was, so that's what was concerning to me was, like, it didn't look as fluid or, like, you know, as it did before the injury. No, Mike, he just hasn't looked good. I mean, that's the bottom line.

[00:12:59] Like, he hasn't looked good. I'm not worried about it long term in terms of, like, this season. Like, yes, of course, he's important to our playoff success. But, like, at the end of the day, he's either going to make threes or he's not. Like, he's fucking open. Like, we all know he's going to be open because Jokic is on the court and he's going to get doubled. He's going to make the extra pass. Like, all those things are true no matter what.

[00:13:25] My, I think what's been interesting post-All-Star break is that Jokic has been a little bit less aggressive. And I think it's a little bit on purpose. And I think it builds off of what you just said is that he's trying to get these other guys involved. He knows that, like, Jokic, at the end of the day, he can go get 25, 30 points, 15 rebounds, and 8 assists pretty much in his sleep.

[00:13:54] Like, but he recognizes that this team is not going to get anywhere if these guys don't have a rhythm. And nobody else has had a rhythm all year. So I think he's purposefully trying to facilitate more, which has kind of been to the win-loss detriment of the team. Like, I think we probably would win these games or might.

[00:14:19] We probably would have won that Lakers game if he would have just decided to take over and been like, I don't care if you're going to triple-team me, I'm going to score anyways. Like, these guys can't hit it. Can't hit the broad side of a barn. So I'm just going to score. But he's not that type of All-Star and he's not that type of superstar. So I think he's been, the first couple games back, he was pretty passive.

[00:14:46] The last couple, it's felt like he's like, all right, well, I can't just let us lose either. I don't know. So. I had a different read on that. I'm interested to hear your take on it. I kind of thought after the Lakers game, Jogic was like, we're on the road against all these Eastern Conference teams who just watched the team triple-team me off ball when I was playing in the middle, like at that high free throw line.

[00:15:16] I don't feel like we've had enough time to implement something that's a good answer to it. But I'm just not going to put us in that situation again. Like, that's been, that was kind of my read on it. And I don't think he's wrong one. And to your point, it is startling when you can't just get the like calm down basket of like, oh, like here, it's Jogic in the post. It's this and that.

[00:15:45] And the other thing that the refs did and the Pistons now, the Pistons took it too far tonight. When Isaiah Stewart just pushed Jogic in the back with two hands after the whistle, the refs were like, all right, we've let this go too far.

[00:16:07] Like, but like that after that Lakers game, everyone is just doing everything possible to hit Jogic all the time. And so Jogic also kind of constantly looks annoyed because he's like, stop hitting me. Like if I hit you back, they always call foul on me, but they let you hit me. Like he, so I do think those were the kind of the two factors I saw in why Jogic has been more at the three point line.

[00:16:37] And to be clear, I think Jamal's looked better driving the ball. And I think that's helpful when Jogic brings that big out. So it's another option that hasn't looked terrible. Yeah, I think the, the Jogic officiating is like, I mean, we've been talking about this for literally years on the podcast. He's the most difficult person to officiate because I mean,

[00:17:04] reportedly Isaiah Stewart is like one of the strongest people in the NBA. And on that play that you're talking about tonight, when he two arms shoved Jogic in the back, Jogic like barely moved. You have to be. Oh, Jogic went down. Oh no. Well, I guess maybe we're thinking about too. I'm thinking on the offensive rebound. Like Jogic was going to get the offensive rebound and Stewart two arms shoved in. Yeah.

[00:17:32] Well, it's two different things then. But I'm just saying like, he tried to shove him and it was like, Jogic took a step forward and kind of like threw his arms up to the ref. And it was like, well, I mean, what, what are you going to, and they called it, but it's like, but it's like, he's so strong and so gifted that it's difficult to officiate. So I don't think it's that hard. Here's, Hey, Ryan,

[00:18:01] call me. You're going to be the head of officiating. I'll be David Stern. Uh, if he was still the commissioner of the NBA, go ahead. Yeah. David. Hi. Hey, uh, thanks for calling back. Um, Hey, why the fuck are we letting Jared Vanderbilt bump and grind the best player in our fucking league on national TV? If you don't throw him the fuck out of the game next time and tell him to get his hands off my Serbian sweetheart,

[00:18:32] I will butt fuck every single one of you. All right. I don't know if you knew this or not, but he had 35, 20 and 15 at the time. We have to, we have to not call fouls. That's the, but that is the true. That is the thing. Like he's so dominant without them calling fouls. If he got Joel Embiid's whistle, he'd be averaging 60 fucking points a game. They can't call all of the fouls. They can't do it.

[00:19:02] It's not possible. You absolutely. This is my point. You absolutely can on the ones that are really annoying. Yoke. Yoke is annoyed that these guys are allowed to just hit him in the chest. I like 12 feet behind the three point line. He's like, why do you have to hit me in the chest here? And I'm allowed to have freedom of movement. Why do you just get to throw your elbow into my chest? Like it, it's unbelievable.

[00:19:32] Like see. I'm just telling you. It's not going to change. I'm telling you the nineties NBA. That never happens again. They put in one call and Joey Crawford is like, listen, if you bump him way back here, I'm going to call foul every time. So you decide you can follow out in the first quarter tonight, or you can stop bumping him back here. I guess my point is like, as nuggets fans,

[00:19:59] we can either decide to be angry about this. Or we can decide to just like, it is the way that it is. And it's not going to change. It's been this way for four fucking years. Like, what are you expecting to change? Honestly? Like, what, what do you think is going to be the light bulb moment where they're like, Oh yeah, he has been getting restricted this whole fucking time. Like he's going to dominate more. If they don't,

[00:20:29] if they called every foul, it would be. Help to elbow him and to allow guys to cheap shot him on the way up the floor. What does that help? He's not shooting from back there. I'm saying if post and you're going to allow people to play physical, that's fine, but just don't let people maul him on the way up the floor, right in front of you tonight. When Malone got teed right away in the Pistons game, you could see him mouth to the ref. He goes, I mean,

[00:20:58] what the fuck? That's exactly how I feel often just watching this. Just like, hold on, dude. On this other end, you're saying, ah, there is a little marginal contact on this Luca drive. And then right in front of Vanderbilt, just sitting there throwing 12 to six elbows. That's just Jokic's eyebrow.

[00:21:26] It will always be the thing that makes me the most mad is when they call something on the other end where it's like, Oh, okay. That's like, yes, that's a foul. Like he was restricting his movement, but then you literally have the MVP getting assaulted on the other end and you're not calling anything. So what, like square the circle for me, make me understand how this is, uh,

[00:21:55] being officiated and make me understand what is, and isn't a foul. Wow. Cause I saw him just grab both of Jokic's arms as he was trying to grab, get the inbounds pass from, or, uh, whatever post pass from, and you didn't, there wasn't a whistle there. So I'm, I'm confused about how a touch foul on Harden 30 feet from the basket is, uh, is the same. It's just their favorite thing. Um,

[00:22:26] I've, I have a theory that, you know how high school refs love calling like minor shuffle steps, travels that it just, I don't know what it does for them, but it's, it's like a Viagra for them. They can't stop making the calls. I feel like the NBA version ref version is the rip through call. Cause if there is a finger on a wrist in the rip through,

[00:22:53] these refs are tweet tweeting out there and they are ripping through. But if you just straight two arm grip air hugs right in front of them, they're like, ah, it doesn't have the ball. So I can't call the rip through. So I'm probably not going to be whistling that one. It's, uh, it's alarming. Uh, but Jokic has been trying to get the call on the rip through three for forever. So he also doesn't get that call.

[00:23:23] I guess I would say it's absurd. Um, the Milwaukee game, uh, felt like they just wasted a good Jokic. Like when Jokic, Jokic had 18, like eight and seven at the half. And we were only up by, what was it? Three or four. I was like, Oh, we're fire. You're losing this game. Like, there is no way. Because, you know, to your point again,

[00:23:52] I was like, maybe a Porter spree, you know, could turn a game, but it was nowhere to be found. And, uh, they, everybody was just smoking layups instead of smoking threes. Just the amount of missed shots at the rim. Honestly, in the last three games has been alarming. It was tonight too. Like we won that game. Mike smoked three layups where he got it. He got the Jokic rebound, but it wasn't like,

[00:24:20] like Jokic is just drip off the rim. You know, it's like, he just tips it off. If Mike was like throwing it off the backboard, there's like a hard bounce on the rim. He's grabbing it at the three point line, bringing it back in, smoking another one. It doesn't even touch the rim. He's bouncing back out to the three point line, grabbing the ball again. And it, and then like Aaron Gordon tips it in. I know exactly what,

[00:24:48] I know exactly what play from the Pistons game you're talking about. Oh my God. It was, there was one where I was literally like, I was like, I swear to God, Michael Porter Jr. is a good shooter. Yeah. He's having a pretty good shooting game. And I just watched him attempt four mildly contested layups. I'm like, honestly, give me the ball. I don't like, I think I would have made one of those. I think I could have done as good of a job as he did.

[00:25:17] He got a Jokic deep sigh. It was like, it was a throwback to when Jokic always used to stink. I am when he did stupid stuff, which was like the fuck brother. Dude, I know you have championship ring, but Jesus Christ, Mike, how many layups you missing a row, brother? You need me to go on the pod again? What is wrong? Have you not talked to a porn star lately?

[00:25:43] Let's get that woman who got a hundred guys to run train on her on your pod. Make yourself feel better, dude. Yeah. Um, the, uh, so the Milwaukee game was interesting to me though. Um, in terms of,

[00:26:03] it just felt like they made a really concerted effort to not let the nuggets get cheap transition points because Giannis is a freak and is always back there. And it did feel like our offense suffered a little bit, um, with a constant. And obviously like Giannis is a one of a kind, like that you don't see that anywhere but there,

[00:26:28] but it did make me think of some like Jaron Jackson possibilities or, um, um, some of those where it, it did feel the eat up, uh, some of the, uh, easy role player shots. Yeah. I didn't, I don't know that I learned that much from the bucks game. Uh, uh, I think it was kind of an outlier performance from them. Dame looked like Portland Dame out there. And, uh,

[00:26:58] like Giannis has been having a good, but their others are the reason they won that game. You know, our others are the reason we lost that game. So I, I didn't read too much into it. I get what you mean in terms of like, just having a super athletic guy that Christian can't bully at the rim. uh, that does change things, but I don't,

[00:27:24] I don't think it made me rethink any of the Western conference matchups. Okay. Um, and then tonight, uh, a few quick things. All right. I'm just going to rapid fire a few things and then you, you talk about whatever, uh, speaks to you, uh, from it. Um, first off, uh, uh, the way that the first quarter was officiated was one of the wildest performances I've ever seen from an officiated crew.

[00:27:52] When she missed the Christian Brown getting raked across both of his arms, right in front of her. And you see her have the audacity to go, they were terrible. Um, two, Russ's energy. Absolutely. Got the nuggets back into that Milwaukee game.

[00:28:21] And like in the lead. And he just like changed the energy of the game for the nuggets. But the second half of the Milwaukee game into tonight, there have been some adventurous forays into the paint from Russell. Uh, there was one where he took off in the air at kind of a mid range point.

[00:28:48] And then was going towards the rim, tried to throw it backwards. It got deflected in the air. He jumped up, but it was too far out of bounds. And he came down out of bounds was a personal favorite tonight. Um, Russ, I think we need to keep him on a strict, you have to play a certain amount of minutes. Otherwise he has this pent up energy and it's, it's not good for him.

[00:29:18] We needed to keep him more active during the all-star break, but who, who I'm, I'm not asking this in like a click baity way. Like, I don't want this to turn into that, but another constant Lucifer brothers, viral moment. Who are you? Who are you starting? Like, cause I think it's a real question.

[00:29:47] I think I'm starting Ross. No, the more, the more minutes Christian understands how to run within the nuggets system. Russell Westbrook does not give a fuck, but if you put him on the court with Nikola Jokic, he recognizes talent. He, and he understands that Nikola is the sun, the moon and his stars.

[00:30:12] And so I think the more that you put him on the court with Jokic, the more that energy is unlocked in a positive way, as opposed to him literally throwing the ball to the other team, which he's been apt to do the last five games or whatever. He's, he has been, I mean, I rooted for us when I rooted for us when I was going to Oklahoma, like, yeah, Russ and I have a long history together. Yeah. And this has been, on the record is pro Russ.

[00:30:42] This has been his entire fucking career. It's like, yes, yes, yes, yes. No, no, no. What are you doing? That's all he's, his entire career is a roller coaster of emotions. And we are in a down period right now. Russ is, he's forcing things. He's shooting 30% from the field. Oh, yikes. He took some quick fire threes versus the bucks. Oh my God.

[00:31:11] Stuff where like Jokic doesn't cross half court. Yeah. And it's like, oh no, no, no, brother. No, no, no, no, no. You do not take that shot. Like you're, and at a certain point, I, you just have to hope that he understands that he's open for a reason. But I think the more that we can play him with Jokic, the more he's apt to understand that.

[00:31:39] Like Jokic has this extra pass quality. You got nothing to prove to me. No need to be taken off from the free throw line, you know? No. And that's the crazy part. I love you no matter where you take it. Take off from. Yeah. He, he fits so well, which I think we've seen glimpses of.

[00:32:04] And he doesn't need to do too much to fit in to that role. Like all we need is energy on defense and him to sort of like be aggressive towards the rim. Yeah. If he wants to shoot three threes a game, like, I don't care. If you make two of them, you get two more. Like, what are we talking about? Like, that's the rule. You know, you get three a game. And if you make two, you get two more. I like that.

[00:32:33] I like that as a rule. Um, and then the other big takeaway from tonight was, uh, good Lord is Christian Brown, not scared of anyone, uh, on Detroit. He, there were some ones where we were just, when they went on their first run, uh, they were just throwing it ahead to him. And he was just like, yeah, I'll Euro from here. Like I'm going up with this. Yeah.

[00:33:03] There are three guys back, but no worries. I got it. All right. Uh, and then Beasley is not going to get in my way. Yeah. And then also that Pistons team just has an absolute shit ton of good role players. They're on. They loan us one. Like for the love of God, you're going nowhere. Like we should get to take one from the Pistons.

[00:33:34] Like, and you know, obviously they have their young guys with Cade and with Thompson. Um, but every other guy they were bringing out, I was just like, Oh, that's a pro. Oh yeah. That guy's been around a while. Like you see why they went on a low wind streak and why they've been effective. Um, it was, it was cool to see. Um, they're, they're alive. Eastern conference betting, uh, team.

[00:34:01] Like that first round of the Eastern conference playoffs, that team is going to give somebody the business. No, who are they going to play? They'd still, they're still in like the seven to 10, right? I don't think so. I think they're like the fifth seed right now. Oh my Jesus. The Eastern conference. Oh, Joel. Well,

[00:34:29] all RIP, man. We can't, all George, you guys ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Yeah. They're the, well, they're the six right now. Uh, but they're, they're only a game back of Milwaukee in the four. Like that's a race, dude. It's crazy. I mean, they could play Indian, Indian in the first round.

[00:34:57] Like you don't think the Pistons could beat Indianapolis. Yeah. They could definitely beat Indianapolis. Do you think they could beat the box? No. It's a tough matchup. Uh, what about, well, they got to get out of that. Like the Knicks. Yeah. The Knicks. No. Celtics. No. Cavs. No. I'm not as big of a believer of the Knicks. Knicks as I probably should be.

[00:35:26] But like, if that was a series, I think I would take the Pistons. I think the Garden just wins you. The value is there on the Pistons though. You're not getting good odds on the Knicks in that series. I mean, I guess there's somewhat, it just feels like the Knicks have a lot of defenders to throw a Cade. And that, but, uh, I digress. And then, uh,

[00:35:51] this was a wild game. In terms of Yogic's stats are absolutely ridiculous. And I don't think he tried to score at all. Um, and to your point, I kind of like your, um, you know, your insight is as a, you know, maybe he's trying to get some guys going,

[00:36:19] give some guys some space knowing that, you know, Hey, the two star system when other people were out injured worked pretty well for us. I need to kind of let Jamal and Porter get going and I'll get mine as I need to approach. Plus maybe not having a great answer with not having a break here. Um, it's, it's something to think about. Uh, what do you expect in this Celtics game now? Now they have, uh,

[00:36:49] a few days off. Uh, I think it's Sunday though. Uh, it's Sunday afternoon in Denver. I think it's like Sunday, 10 a.m. Um, I expect, uh, what do I expect? It's, it'll be close. I think it's going to be a close game. These, these typically aren't.

[00:37:14] So I wouldn't be shocked if we blew them out or I think we kind of got pissed because the, the narrative coming out of Milwaukee has been like, okay, this team can't beat good teams. Right. Like that. Yeah. We're not, we're 50, we're 500 essentially against teams that are over 500. Like it's not good. No.

[00:37:39] So I'm hoping that they take that a little bit personally and are like, we need to show up for these next couple road games. Yeah. But I think it's going to be a close game. The Celtics are also filthy. Like really good. And they're going to be pissed after that. Cause they just leave a win game. Yeah. And the start that they got off to in that game to blow that game is.

[00:38:07] The nice part about playing the Celtics and why I think they're not as dangerous this year is like, if they're not hitting threes, like I watched, I can't remember who they were playing, but they were, they were missing threes and they did not stop shooting. Like it was just a barrage. And so they can shoot themselves out of games a little bit where it's like, all right, you shot that three with three seconds left on the shot clock.

[00:38:37] Like Jokic just gets another possession. Like, I don't think that's going to end up well for you in the, in the old plus minus. So unfortunately I've watched the defensive integrity of the nuggets closing out on shooters this year. So that does give me pause. No. And that, that will be the thing that kills us, right? Like we're, they're going to live and die by the three. And you can't have brain farts against the Celtics. We will let them live and die. See if you go down,

[00:39:06] like that's how you get just smoked out by the Celtics on national TV. So I think it's a good defensive test. Like you said, it's not that the Celtics run crazy complicated stuff or any of that, but if you fall asleep for a second, they're going to put up a three. And if, you know, the percentages say they make enough that it's, it becomes pretty hard to beat them. So I, I think to your point,

[00:39:35] this is a game where if it comes down to like a, Hey, we're making both teams execute. I, I like the nuggets in that, but if it's a like, Oh, we're both going to play a little loose out here. You're going to lose. It was by 18 to 20. If you're the nuggets, like this has to be a disciplined effort here. Yeah. Barring obviously really bad shooting from this other switch to your point, like does happen to them every so often. Um,

[00:40:05] but I, I think that's a good, it's a good test. And I mean, if you, if you win that game, all of a sudden you did everything we wanted you to do. Right. Like, yeah. Well, it wasn't the way we thought it was going to happen. No, you dropped one on this, right. On this Eastern conference road trip. Like, you're pretty okay with that. Um, I mean, if, if we beat the Celtics and the Pistons back to back,

[00:40:35] that's pretty good. Yeah. So I, uh, I, I'm, I'm still optimistic about the team. I don't, I'm don't feel any differently than when we recorded pre Lakers game. Yeah. It's, it to me is just like, yeah, they still have to show us more, but it's not that we haven't seen glimpses and it's not that they don't seem capable of showing us that. It's just, do you do it? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:41:04] It'll be interesting to see. Um, but we will be back next week. We have lulled professor Dan into a state of deep serenity. And so we must go. For he is one with the podcast and the podcast is one with him. So I'm in this place in you and you are in this place in me. We are one. When you're right, you're right.

[00:41:33] Please like subscribe and five star reviews to all your friends. We'll see you next week on the blues for brothers. Bye. Lucifer brothers is a crab shell media podcast. Pussy boy.