But the real problem in G2 was the shot-making disparity. Kawhi missed shots that he’s gonna make most of the time. The Nuggets made 7 threes in the first quarter. Sometimes that’s just how it goes.

Steve Kerr: stepped into his 1st HC job with a historic dynasty
Nick Nurse: again, got his 1st HC job in a great situation and only has 31 games coached
Erik Spoelstra: got to coach the LeBron big 3 dynasty
Pop: got Duncan’s whole career
Gentry: only 30 playoff games coached w/ just 3 appearances in 17 seasons as a HC

Then a bunch of guys in the Doc range. Doc also has 16 appearances in 21 seasons, so he’s making the playoffs more often than other guys. It’s a tough metric to use. Carlisle has a below-.500 playoff win% despite being regarded as one of the best coaches in basketball, since he pulls more mediocre rosters in to the playoffs where they lose in the first round. Like should our 4 losses vs GSW last year be held against Doc when it took a great coaching performance to bring us to the 8-seed at all?

I agree with most of your analysis, though. Kawhi was hot garbage tonight, and HE CANNOT CONTINUE TO DO THAT. Like EVER. I’m not expecting him to be 100% perfect. But he can’t be an abysmal 4/17, not defend all that well, and just basically do nothing for most of the game. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt this time since this was a complete rarity for him. But please don’t let it happen again. Without Kawhi, we’re not winning any games.

Regarding Montrezl, I think not being a part of the bubble has just hurt his game. And the rebounding, I think it’s not just a Montrezl problem. It’s a team problem, and I see it WAAAAYYYY too much with NBA teams. I don’t understand why these NBA coaches don’t drill offensive rebounding drills AND keeping players near the rim until the ball gets into a players hand into players heads until they explode. It was a common problem with the Big 3 in Miami, it’s a common problem with the Rockets, it’s a common problem with the Hornets, and it’s a common problem with us. There are other teams who don’t have this problem, but they aren’t exactly a majority. All I know is I’m sick of NBA teams not emphasizing offensive rebounds and staying at the rim until the ball gets into a player’s hands. And I’m sick of players running away once the ball somehow hits the rim. All of those things need to be eliminated from the game entirely. It just shows a lack of effort by players and coaches, which hurts the overall product AND it hurts the kids that look up to these players because it warps their mind of not having to worry about offensive rebounding or just defending overall.

Clippers need to take a good, long look at themselves for the next day and a half and figure out how they’re going to win this series AND the rest of the way forward.

Nuggets came out with energy and aggression and we came out passive and tentative, Game got out of hand within the first few minutes of the 1st Quarter and while we chipped away the rest of the game the hole was dug too deep giving up a 44 point 1st Quarter.

Clips defense was good enough the last 3 Quarters that they should have been able to take the lead but their offense was just too horrible They had an inexcusable 17 turnovers versus just 20 assists. YIKES!…

Kawhi had his worst playoff game in forever with only 13 points on a putrid 4-17 shooting with 4 TOs and at one point even missed back to back free throws. What a stinker. So much for the Terminator. I guess his software needs an bug fix.

Trez continues to be a huge liability whenever he’s on the court. His offensive game is just not there. Seems like he has lost his hops. And he just cannot secure a rebound such that when he’s in the game Denver gets second and third chance points by the boatlaods. In 17 minutes he only secured a mere 3 rebounds vs. Zu who had 9 in 20 minutes. And Zu also had 15 points to Trez’s 10. No way they should be splitting minutes evenly.

PG13 was one of the lone bright spots for the Clips, but even he had 4 TO’s and missed some easy layups early in the 1st Quarter which got Denver’s momentum started. But PG13 stayed aggressive and kept the Clippers within striking distance considering that Kawhi was missing in action.

So, just when it seemed like the team was rolling after game 1 domination we get a stinker like this. Not sure why this team just cannot maintain focus and take care of business. Let’s really hope this was a wake up call and whatever the hell happened to Kawhi this game gets fixed quickly. You just can’t let inferior teams hang around like this and build confidence and momentum.

They cannot play that bad defensively on the first quarter. Kawhi will play better but defense has to better on Jokic and Murray. Make them suffocate.