Nuggets are heavily favored to win 2023 NBA Finals vs. Jimmy Butler, Heat | NBA | UNDISPUTED

Shannon, do you think Vegas is still underestimating Miami? No, it's the number one seed versus a play in 8C that needed two games to make the playoffs. Is that how it works. I really don't know what you expected, you thought it was going to happen. to be tied, a number one seed that actually just made the playoffs on their side, yes, unlike a team that needed to play in the game, lost the first play of the game, was three minutes away from losing their second played in the game. and not reaching it and eating seven games to reach the final, don't skip it.

I think they bet your face, they bet they bet it right. Now the Nuggets are the second biggest seed in the last 20 years. You would have to go back. to the 2018 Warriors and we know what happened there, there were 175 models, yeah, plus 688 and the Nuggets seemed to be shooting right now between minus 500 and plus 333, so, yeah, I mean, it looks like the

nuggets

are four one plus two hundred, so Basically, all the money, although if you want to make some money, it's for the Nuggets, but the

heat

skips, this is not an accident. They are here, we understand that they are a good team, but Vegas sees it as if to say.

Wait, we get it and we're going to give them credit, it's not like they've made them underdogs like the Warriors and Cavaliers skip, but I think when you look at him you see Nicola Jokic as a two. -MVP of the time, you look at Jamal Murray, who is playing having the first series in which he shot 50 40 90. and he averaged 30 points in a playoff series, yeah, so now he jumps. I really don't think it's them. not devaluing or undervaluing, they're just looking at it saying this is the number one seed. They've been pretty much the number one seed in the West all season.

The Heat had to fight scratch and Claw to make their way. playoffs, so I think the money is where it needs to be. I don't think they're devaluing or undervaluing anything about the Heat, they're just looking at it the way Vegas does, saying, hey, this is the 1C, clearly this is the 8th seed, even though they made the

finals

, we think the Nuggets are the best team, okay, and I'm laughing out loud at the way Vegas and everyone else, including you, continue to underestimate and undervalue, if not devalue, the Miami Heat. Oh, they're just a cute little Cinderella story, they're like a March Madness team gone pro, this will end, they'll be about to be exposed, those pips will turn them back into pumpkins blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I love this because it's all wrong they are still being underestimated even though help me did I? I only dreamed this, did I imagine this? I think the Heat eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks in five games. I think Drew Holiday said I don't care who was trying to do it. defending Jimmy Buckets or Jimmy in the playoffs, he said LeBron could have tried Michael Jordan and his prime could have tried him, no one could have stopped Jimmy in the playoffs against Drew Holiday In The Box, right, yeah, okay, then they just quietly bore the crazy hot New York Knicks. the team on the brink the team on the rise the most popular team in basketball they just bore them and no one really noticed and then all they did in the previous series was would you believe the Miami Heat went to Boston and won? three games of seven in Boston, including game seven, they won three times that Boston is that impressive when you said you thought Orlando did it, that they came to Boston to win two games, that should have been your suggestion, yeah, yeah, but what I'm saying they were

favored

prohibitively, the Celtics were

favored

the same way, the numbers are more or less the same, in fact, I averaged the home point differentials of the four games between Miami and Boston and they averaged a eight and a half point favorite. at home ah guess what here we go again although this opened at seven thirty and it's already been bet until eight thirty because no one really believes in the Heat and I told you one reason you might devalue the Heat right now is who was tremendously disappointed in playoff Jimmy because he wasn't really a playoff Jimmy in the last five games he had a flourish at the end of game six that came up a tenth of a second short thanks to Derek White and he got hit and he missed but he missed more in the seventh game because he missed 16 shots, which was more than any Boston player missed 16 shots.

Jalen Brown has 15, but Jimmy Buckets missed 16 shots. He scored 28 points on 28 shots, which wasn't very impressive, so I think in his stats the last five games Jimmy Butler from the floor shot 39 percent from three 33 percent those aren't playoff Jimmy type numbers, obviously they were saved by this guy named Caleb Martin, another undrafted guy that they play in their rotation and people got fired. them because they got four undrafted players out of nowhere, but the point is that I thought Boston didn't do a good job. I thought they did an all-time great job with Jimmy Butler. They did it with Jason Tatum, who is taller and longer than Jimmy Butler and me.

I don't like the way Jason played offense for much of this season, but I loved the way he played defense because he took Jimmy Butler's challenge and just suffocated, maybe that's why his offense suffers, You could argue that he was focused. so strong and he's expending so much energy on the other end that you run out of three-point gas on your end of the court, okay, and then there was Al Horford on him, then there was Derek White on him, it was just a lot of long defenders , smart and very tough who made it very difficult for themselves, but very quietly under the radar, this guy, Caleb Martin, came out of nowhere.

I hit the table going into game seven, if he has a good game in game seven he should be the MVP and I think they agreed, yes he could have been the MVP, for me he has emerged as a star but Vegas didn't. values ​​like a star and yet I'm just going to remind everyone that I'm going to quickly show you what he did to Boston, this is the seventh game in Boston Garden with leprechauns lurking, leprechauns closing down every three-point shot and this is what Caleb Martin did to the Celtics that Las Vegas doesn't need, well that will work, huh, oh, yeah, up and down. oh yeah, remember this, the little spin that got him going and he shoots again and he's shooting three point shots and he's got that little extra push at the end of his three point shot.

Man, he is deadly in that mid range. In games, he and he beat people to the rim like crazy. He is going to be the Joker in the kingdom many times. He's starting to look like Kawhi Leonard in these trades. He is not indefensible. He shot the ball very well. I think it started 11-15. No I don't know what he ended up with, but I know he's off to a great start, he's good for the playoffs, the guy you just saw make that three point shot is 44 from three during the entire playoff run, they played 18 playoff games and Shooting. 44 Is it legit or is it Fool's Gold?

Is it just an aberration? Is it a mirage? I don't think so. I think it's legit. That's why they are legitimate. Because now they have three stars for me that you can count on in big games, including me. I thought you were out on Bam Are you counting Bam as a star who was a star for this reason he plays defense as furiously as anyone in this league plays defense? He sweats like crazy because he gives you every last drop of his sweat. You want to talk? about needing to hydrate in timeouts, this guy needs to hydrate because he's leaving everything, literally, all his fluid is on the floor, you said the rating, look what they did in the first round, Milwaukee beat them in five. they beat the Knicks and six they beat the Celtics in seven yes, they played very well during the playoffs, but what about the sustainability of the entire regular season?

What the Nuggets were able to do, you said at the beginning, they've been pretty much the best team in the west, basically, from start to finish, they haven't been influenced, they've got the guy who was a two-time MVP who finished second this year in the MVP race. , Jamal Murray is back, he's completely healthy and he's showing everyone that I'm not just a bubble player, they tried to put that title on him and said guys were playing strange, he's one of those guys and now since he had that injury , he's had a full year of basically two years to recover between jumps and he's playing. from his mind, so when you look at him, you look at the Joker and you look at Murray against the Heat and his two best players, it's not comparable now, if you're going to tell me, Benson Kayla Martin's gay guys who have played Kyle Lowry , yes We will continue to play that way, by the way, Duncan Robinson throughout the entire playoff run is shooting 45 from three, yes, that's Steph, yes, well, we know he's good, that's how it is, yes, he's on a roll, now it gets hot and cold because remember to skip the For part of the season, he didn't play much, he was fine, he had completely escaped the rotation, so basically, if you say they are the two best players, let's say it's bam and Jimmy and you have yolk and you have Murray, so now. you're asking Michael Porter Jr.

Aaron Gordon kcp Bruce Brown, that's your four best guys and Jeff Green two to somehow not be surpassed by Kayla Martin Gabe Benson Duncan Robbins, okay, so there's another big X Factor to be had looms here and he could be the hero of this series because his last name is Hiro as in Tyler, we're going to talk about this in a few minutes, but obviously they played the Eastern versus Western Conference twice in the regular season, Denver won both games, but in the first game that was in Denver, would you believe that Tyler Hero in the second half of that game, a very close game that went down to the wire, scored 24 in the second half?

Tyler Hero averaged 20 points per game for this Heat team and it's amazing to me what they did. I've made it through three rounds of the playoffs and broke my hand in the first game of the Milwaukee series. He broke his right hand to shoot well. Our man Chris Haynes reportedly reported this on TNT on track to potentially return for the first game, but definitely for the first game in Miami, the third game, which is what they're targeting, but they left open that he could be available such time for the first game. My point is that it's 20 points per game.

This is a guy who screams, "I'm a bucket because I can be a bucket, this is a guy who during the regular season, oh wow, he put up big numbers because he led the entire league in free throw shooting at 93 percent, don't you think?" make it a valuable weapon that you can You could have that thing that you add to the mix and all of a sudden you say wait a second, maybe they have four stars, but most of the time what people do is attack because, like you said, the yolk doesn't He plays no defense.

He plays a little too much, no less than me, that's true, so that's the way you have to attack him, you have to attack Duncan Robinson, okay, because he's a problem on the defensive end, but they found out in the sixth game that they could split back into two. three zones to a two three I guess this is a two three seemed like a good kind of matchup yeah it's a showdown zone and they played a lot, they played it smart, they played hard , it wasn't like they took it like, oh, this is our pit stop where we can take it easy, they played hard and it started to look a lot better than their man defense.

Look, I think the big deal is that what the Celtics didn't accomplish is I couldn't put someone in there who wasn't afraid to shoot and from the 15 and who could also make plays. Robert Williams was no threat to you at the free throw line. Well, Al Horford isn't looking to shoot that shot, yeah, it's more of a rebound ball put it back on your three-point shot now you put your yoke in that spot or you put Aaron Gordon in that spot or let's just say, for the sake of the argument, you put Michael Porter Jr in the spot at the free throw line who can turn catch and shoot, he can also be moved to pass to the corners and make plays for others, but that will probably start to be a yoke, I won't. what do you do when you put him in there because we know there aren't many pastors that have ever played the game that's better than him okay I'll give it to you but if we're talking about strategy help me here okay would you take Pat Riley Would you cut Eric Bolster or Michael Malone?

I mean, obviously, the coach, um, leans toward the Miami Heat, but I. I'm taking yolk while you train on the court, yes, I'm taking a joke, okay? What is the answer for him? Well, I got a lot of responses when he goes and tries to play defense because, as Rui Hachimura said in his interview with ESPN at halftime of the second game in Denver, they don't have a rim protector, well, they just don't, you want to talk about basket attackers. I have like eight of them, they all love to attack, even bam loves to attack, they're going to do it. be attacking the rim, crazy about the lack of rim protector, well, you know, bam, go, miss about half of those shots that attacked the real one, you could go, the other one still won't attack the rim, but I think the thing is that I think Kcp is a better defender than some of those guys that are in Boston.

I think Bruce Brown is a better defender. I think Aaron Gordon is a better defender. Yeah, I don't think you hear Derek White on the second team, the wholedefense, so you can't understand it. range, you're talking about a six-three guy trying to play defense against a six-seven guy Aaron Gordon is a big six-foot-eight frame playing defense kcp is a six-four and a half six-five guy who plays defensive against someone Bruce Brown doesn't Do you like Bruce Brown? Say you love Bruce Brown's defense. I love him and he's a guy who can jump and he's a guy who can make timely shots because at the end of the day the game will come at some point. you making shots and if you watch the Laker Series, yeah, every big shot they made They needed to make it in two minutes, they made it, whether it was Aaron Gordon, whether it was Bruce Brown or Yoko, I wouldn't do it with no time on the clock and he threw one of those Larry Bird drinks while wishing, okay, help me how many? of these

nuggets

have been on this stage during their lives, Casey kcp, did he win a ring?

I'm telling you there's a guy named Kyle Lowry for the other team who was there and did that and he might be on his last legs at 37 years old. but it seems like every time he comes into the game in key moments he makes some shot or makes some pass or some play where you go oh yeah, that was great, yeah, well, you know he comes into the game and he's looking to create a blitz. If someone is going to run him over, he will be fine. I say he'll write off Bruce Brown and I have nothing but respect for Bruce Brown, but I say that's rightly written off, which is why a lot of people think the Nuggets are one of the great offensive teams in the world. history of the game because they put up those kind of numbers so I look at their 15 game playoff numbers they've won or played 15 games and they're pretty extraordinary because from the floor they shot 49 that's pretty good 14 yeah yeah for a team that I'm talking, for a team, yes, uh, let's look at the Heat and the shot of the playoff game 18 47 now look at the pips of three, they are 39 in their 15 games as a team that is tremendous hmm

heat

39 to 18 games that is a cancellation and then a free throw line hmm 82 for the Nuggets that's very good for a team that will win a lot of playoff games except the heater 80 so they are right behind them and then rebounds there are no rebounds there are no rings said the famous Pat Riley and you say well the Nuggets especially with Joker he only plays volleyball on the offensive glass he likes tips, plays volleyball with him it's like solo volleyball tip for me tip for me tip for me tip right yeah okay I got it , except if I look at the rebounding totals for this playoffs for this 15-game playoff series and the Nuggets averaged 44 rebounds per game, uh, in the heat of averaging 41.

So there are no mistakes on the board. I'll give you that the Nuggets are a slightly better rebounding team, but not decisively better, true, they won't have a dominant advantage on the glass, yeah, I think the thing is to skip that when it comes down to it, the question is: Come on to get into this a little later, you won't, you trust the yoke or you trust Jimmy Buckets. I mean, because in series and games like this your big weapons must appear now we need the auxiliary parts to also support their weight. you also need a kcp to do what he did, you need Aaron Gordon to skip a 4th game to do what he did against the Lakers because for the first three games he pretty much didn't show up, yeah he was the reason why they finished.

I'm going to say it was a sweep, yeah, I'm not going to maybe a gentleman's suite, yeah, the way he played the big shots he made, rebounding and even the defense is good, so for my part, I'm analyzing it. I'm going to trust Michael. Porter Jr beat Bruce Brown and Aaron Gordon over Caleb Martin's Vincent Kyle Lowry Duncan Robinson, so it's four, so it's four against four. I'm going to try, I'm going to take my four wheels because you know the two big guys that got the advantage. Yoki Murray is better than Jimmy Buckets and Bam.

I don't think that's true in this series over time because I think Jimmy Butler is about to be a lot better against the Nuggets than he is against the Celtics because I don't think Aaron Gordon can. bother him almost as much as those three Boston defenders, I think because of the weight, I think he can lean on him a little more now you ask, will Jimmy guard him on the other end because he's a big body that can post up, yeah, just no I think he's as fast as Jason Tatum or Derek White or even Al Horford.

I think it's a little more conniving and I think Jimmy will take advantage of that and I think Jimmy also classics through the regular season pacing I've never seen a star pace the way Jimmy does during the regular season, reason why which did not even make the All-Star team, but did make it to the NBA second team. I think he's keeping up even during the regular season. first three rounds, but now you can see the finish line, now you're going to get every ounce of Jimmy Butler, where he's not going to hold it back, he's just going to give you everything he's got and we'll talk more about this, but I also like the fact that this team He has a cultural role where they have unity, chemistry and momentum that they are bringing as a force field to Denver for the first game, so I like their chances to warm up against Denver.

It's been 10 days, now nine days, nine days feels like ten and that's a long time to have to sit and watch when you've never been on this stage before, okay, they'll be very rested, I don't even know if they will. Being rusty is just a lot of time to sweat and think about God, we're in the NBA Finals, yeah, and now we're the prohibitive favorite against eating and yesterday we had Michael Malone complaining and crying because he normally does what he complains and cries about. about us giving each other our damn respect, give the Joker his damn respect and then yesterday he said don't call them 8th place, that's not fair to us, they're not really an 8th place, look what they did to Milwaukee, look what they did to Boston. oh please leave me alone, don't bring me eight seeds, don't pressure me please, or the ace, they are AC, yes, but like you said, this was the second time, this is the first time in a whole year no strikes. that 8th seed made it to the NBA

finals

player and they did it from the play-in, I mean, Chicago could have prevented all of this from happening, they could have, they almost did, you almost called it off and now they've called your Bluffs, now, now, yes, here they are, they are, in fact, the heat is on, if the Heat were to win, it would be their fourth title in franchise history and of course this would be Denver's first thank you for watching to Undisputed fans.

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