The Blucifer Brothers
The Blucifer Brothers
Nuggets & Avalanche: Round 2
Well, the writing is all but on the wall. The guys dive into the Nuggets and Avs second-round series staying hopeful. Tune in to hear Nuggets fanfiction!
Threads @blucifer_brothers
YouTube @BluciferBros
TikTok @bluciferbrothers
This week on the podcast, the nuggets suck. What do we do? Why do we suck? Dan, play the funky music. Welcome in on a chilly, I would categorize it as slightly refreshing. Ryan, uh, Thursday here in Denver, Colorado. Ryan, how are you doing? Um, let's see, how am I doing? What a question to ask somebody in Denver right now. Um, Me, personally, Kyle, uh, I think we should maybe start with that. Cause maybe that's the, the most positive part of it. I'm doing well, you know, uh, got, got the move pretty much figured out, feeling a little more settled in the place. You know, we got, uh, we got some, uh, we got some decent weather. Uh, I've gone for a couple of runs this week. Uh, work has been going well, uh. So on that front, you know, our partnership with you feet is working out wonderfully And remember, if you have crackly toes, all right. Uh, just kidding for those, uh, I was trying to get a shorts joke off for, uh, Dan to edit into the YouTube there, but it didn't feel like it was coming together. It wasn't, but yeah, how dare you? I didn't need that much honesty at the top of the show. I'm going to need 50 percent odyssey for this podcast. If we're going to talk about the nuggets and a half. Um, the abs did just score a second goal in the third period. So if they do come back, this will be the funniest podcast to listen to. And, uh, immediately we will abandon talking about how the nuggets are getting embarrassed, uh, to just be excited and it will basically become a live watch podcast. And I can't tell you how much I'm rooting for that. Uh, but until then, Ryan, we have Timberwolves. Nuggets nuggets were up for in game one. They came out really slow. They got down 18 to four. Then it seems like they got it under control and then another kind of bad third quarter got to them. They got down six to eight and it never really felt like they were going to come back or make a move. Uh, and then game two, uh, it's been discussed ad nauseum at this point, but the Nuggets definitely quit. Um, that is we were at the game and they let go of the rope for sure, which people talk about like it doesn't happen in the playoffs ever with like some sort of hollowed ground and it happens all the time. And then the Celtics get jumped by the Tavis. Yeah, like I it actually it was really cathartic watching that game because it's so clear who the better team is and like Yeah, it's not clear who the better team is between us and the Wolves like we were tied for first place in the West so like The, the cab or the Celtics getting blown out by 25 at home to the Cavs, who are clearly a bad basketball team, uh, in relation to the Wolves, like made me feel really good, actually. So it was, it was cathartic in that, in that sense. So first two games we've gotten in game two, the other thing. It was clear that Murray was really annoyed. And although I do not like making connections between anyone on our team and Joel Embiid, it did make me think of how Embiid was just kind of pissy in the Nick series. And then you think about it and you're like, yeah, cause it hurts all the time. So when someone does something that mildly annoys him, he just elbows them. Like when the refs are admittedly terrible, uh, it annoys Murray a little bit more that he's getting bumped, that he's getting hit, that he's getting all this stuff when he has the nagging leg injury there. And then I guess I wanted to start there. I guess, what have you thought of the strategy for how the Nuggets have chosen to attack the wolves? Cause it seemed very weird to me, I guess. Um, like the Wolves have clearly made it a point to say we are going to pressure the Nuggets guards. Which is something teams have done, and had some success with. To just be like, the key here is to make it so hard to enter it to Jokic, that these guys just end up panicking and making decisions on their own. And then we just don't have to deal with it, which has been happening in an alarming frequency, or you get, this is not a new strategy. You get to Jokic at nine seconds left in the shot clock, and then it's, it's too late for him to really affect the play. Yeah, it definitely is. So I was talking about it with you, uh, at game two. I haven't seen the Nuggets run the play that was their ultimate security blanket. Yeah. It felt like last year during the championship run, where they would throw it, Murray would go down, he would, uh, get a back pick, then he'd go and set the pick for Jokic on a cross screen, and we'd get Jokic a quick post touch, and we'd get it pretty, you know, early. It feels like this roving double has Us having a strategy where we're like, okay, we have mismatches elsewhere, which I don't think we do as much as we think we do. I think the Porter series might've fooled us a bit into thinking that like, Oh, we should play through Murray Porter. No, we very should not. Right? Like we should play through Jokic and even if it's a double. I saw Justin Holliday get a wide open corner three, um, I, we're just, the Wolves are an unbelievably good defensive team, but to me, it just makes sense to say, we're going to have you play five on four every time. And sometimes you might over correct or overdo something and we'll get some easy ones. But even if it's just in the yoke, it's kick back out in the yoke, it's deeper kick back out and we get to play five on four or four on three. Sorry. That seems to me to be better because the strength is everyone is used to having the ball in their hands on our team. So it's not bad for them attacking closeouts. I just think that I agree with you. I think it is strange, especially with Murray compromised, which I think is like. The biggest thing that I think people have talked about, but haven't really talked about that he's clearly, I mean, that two man high pick and roll that we're trying to run, like that only works when Murray is dangerous off that first step and his first step already. Isn't like of the elite, elite, Shea, Luca, like he's not that type of player, but he does have enough pace to put you on his hip and keep you there. And right now they're just not afraid of him putting them on their hip. And so they're able to sort of like stick closer to Jokic, that pick and roll has just been terrible essentially the entire season or the this entire series like they haven't really been able to generate really the quality looks that we're used to and when they are They feel so rushed because the, it was so hard to get there that yoic is missing these bunnies or, um, even the players that he's kicking it to, like they, they're not in the right. Everything just feels very chaotic because it's so hard to get out of that action into an advantageous position because Jamal is. So with all of that being said, I agree with you. It makes a lot more sense to try to get Jokic quality post touches and then open looks off of that. And you know, as frustrating as it is as a Nuggets fan, right. Which it is very frustrating. I was actually thinking about the bubble today, uh, because it was a little bit less visceral, right? Like when we got down to the clippers there, it was it because it was the bubble and because the world was on fire around the bubble, it was sort of like this, like this sucks, like I'm, I'm pissed. We're going to lose the clippers, but like, at least we were able to watch basketball right now. But we kinda got punked in those games like we got punked. And the problem here is that Anthony Edwards is on the other side. So, like, I'm not, I'm not predicting a Clippers ask meltdown here because I think Anthony Edwards is too good for that. But there are like 40 years of Minnesota sports history that would suggest that, uh, something like that could happen. Uh, so. I don't, I don't expect us to go, if this team goes down with a whimper, like, that's what they, what they were talking about with dynasty is like, I mean, you can't get pumped. You can't get swept by the wolves. Like that's, that's not something dynasties do. So I, uh, I hope that that's not the case. Okay, let's look forward now. If I told you one of these results happened Game 3, Nuggets Hard Fought Win, Nuggets Blowout, Nuggets Hard Fought Loss, or Nuggets Blowout Loss, rank those in Most Likely to Least Likely, in your opinion. Uh, that's a really good question. I would say, Nugget's hardflip win is probably the most likely. Um, I am a homer, so I'm gonna say Nugget's hardflip, er, Nugget's blowout win is the second most likely. And I almost want to flip those. Um, and I think I will actually. Because I think that this team is good enough to come out and just step on their neck. And be like, actually we are the defending champions. And then I think it's, uh, I don't think we're getting blown out losing. So then I think it's hard fought loss. And I think then it's a blowout loss. I just, this is too much rest and it's too much time to, for this team to think about. You look, you have a face like you disagree. I just have blowout loss as the second most likely. I like you have hard fought win is the most. But I think if this team gets down early again, I think we have some banged up guys. I think we have some annoyed guys. I think we have some guys whose bodies do not feel good. It depends though. It, so I, what I'm cooking into this is that the refs are not going to let what happened in game two. Like it was not a good look for the league. What happened? Like. Yes, the wolves were swarming and they were like, they were unbelievable on defense. They were also fouling the absolute shit out of them. So I don't anticipate that them, they're going to get that, they're going to get that whistle in game three. So I think that is sort of what I'm baking into this is that I don't know that the league is going to let the Nuggets get blown out. Like we're going to, we have to start getting some sort of a foul call on the MVP. When he's being assaulted by three people like I I would prefer that I guess yeah, I too would prefer the foul calls but Speaking of that my favorite quote on that came from our good friend Haralobob who said I have to bake into the fact that there are the San Quentin prison rules, and which teams can function best under these San Quentin, uh, rules. I think the Nuggets might have sent 78 calls from the first half. Um, I think they might've matched Rick Carlisle. There was that report and I, I read that and was like, good for the nuggets for not leaking how many calls we've sent to the leak. Oh my God. Yeah. And I am a little concerned. With Mike Malone being like, well, we'll see, you know, like, and Jokic is always kind of cryptic. So I don't worry about him as much, but Malone being like, yeah, I mean, we've talked about it, but now we've got to go do it, which there is just some face value truth to it, but he also doesn't sound like, The Mike Malone who was like talking shit openly to the Lakers You know like, he doesn't feel like he totally believes in this team that they have it like he did last year. So this is sort of pissing me off a little bit like yes, we are We are bagged up. This Minnesota team is also really good So like they, they arguably could have given us this, this many problems last year, if Jaden McDaniels doesn't punch a wall and Nas Reed is healthy, like they're of, they were good last year. So I think we, I, I saw this sort of coming, like, not this exactly, obviously, but like, When, before the playoffs, I said that Minnesota, I think is the only team that can beat us in the West. And I still feel that way. And I'm actually not sure that Minnesota, like everybody is saying, Oh, it's either going to be Minnesota or whoever comes out of this Denver, Minnesota. I'm like, I think the Thunder or the Mavs could beat Minnesota, but they're a terrible matchup for us. We're there, we are their Superman and their Kryptonite, but Kryptonite doesn't work on anybody else. Like they're just big in the right ways. They're swarming in the right ways. They have cat and go bear to throw it. Uh, yolk itch. It's, it's like sort of this perfect amalgamation on top of just Anthony Edwards being superhuman. So I think in my, how I'm looking at this is sort of like, I didn't expect us to get beat the way that we got beat at home, especially like, I don't know. I don't think we've ever lost two home games in a row in the playoffs since the Yoko Chiro has started. So like, we're not used to that, but at the same time, I think this is going to be how these series play out from here on out with Minnesota, like this is, They're here to stay and yes, we're banged up and that's part of it But I do think that we would we would have had to be a pretty close to 100 percent to beat this team I guess is my point and I think Minnesota deserves that respect a little bit. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not just about us. You're 100 percent correct This has been a really impressive team Okay, I don't have too much else on this series, so I just want to ask you finally if I said hey Ryan create your dream Nuggets Fanfiction from here you're down. Oh, too. You've been embarrassed Shaquille O'Neal openly said he thought you weren't the MVP Stephen a said you weren't the MVP people are are saying some things about Jamal Murray You Val Jokic, about this Nuggets team, write your fanfiction, give us some optimism, and then tell me the percentage in which you believe it. To wrap up. So my number one fan fiction is Yo Yoic Going Nuclear. Uh, and oh, it's mine too. Absolutely. Matching and blow for blow, going for 50, 30 and 15 and just absolutely annihilating a game, uh, winning game three. So let's just play it out. That's how I see game three going. And then I want, if Yoic has to go nuclear, and then I, if Yogic doesn't look aggressive. And just like, give me the ball. Let me get doubled. I am going at these guys. Fuck that. And then I'm going, uh, Jamal Murray. I'm going like Yoke, it's one of those steady games where he keeps us in it. And then like a 25 point Murray third quarter, uh, come back to Denver tied to, to, uh, let's see, what do I actually want? Um, and then I think I want a. A victory at home, and then close them out on the road, just win four straight, it'd be like, adios motherfuckers. Ha ha, uh. I agree with you with the four straight. I have two straight Jokic nuclear games. I want three Jokic nuclear games. And I want them all on the road. Like, I want Jokic to just be like, I've got you guys on the road. And then I want it to come out that Jokic kinda gave a speech before game 5. Like, he's like, Brothers, I got us two in Minnesota. I need you guys to get us one here at home. And Murray and them are like, Oh, fuck yeah. And Murray and Porter and Christian and Peyton and all of a sudden all the swag Of the wolves and the athleticism and all that aggression. I wanted to remind me of my favorite piece of uh, nba content Uh, the Avs have scored again. It's four, three stars are pooping their pants. I did bet, just so we're aware live on the podcast, I did take a tie, uh, in this game at the, for the 60 minute line at plus a thousand, about an hour ago. Uh, 10, well in a hundred. So if that happens, we, we just have to react appropriately for me. Thank you. Oh, we will react appropriately. Um, but so I think my favorite piece of NBA media is Larry Bird, a basketball legend, a recent birthday, Ryan burned it on to a, uh, DVD so it can live on. Not VHS form birdwatching. And there's a part in there where Larry Bird calls out his teammates and says, Hey, we're playing like a bunch of sissies. And they skewed to McHale who goes, I knew what guys were going to do after he said that he said guys were going to go out there and get in fights or guys were going to kill for a rebound. And it goes into a super cut of a McHale clothes, lining, Rambis bird, pushing the guy out of bounds while he's inbounding the ball. He intentionally throws his butt backwards and knocks him out. That's what I kind of want the nuggets to respond with here. Okay. To where now, Jokic has a huge game in game 6, he's the story, but it's kind of everyone's cooking now. It's like, oh, it's everyone's cooking now. I, uh, I'm gonna amend this to be, I want that game to be the AG game. I want AG to have 50 points, and have a shot chart like that game against the Lakers, where it's just like, Oh, yeah, like, he only dunked the ball. Like, he didn't do anything but dunk. So, uh, but he did have 25 of them. So And punked out Kat. Yeah. That would be true. That is the number one player, him and Gobert. Who are right now, just no one is collecting more flowers than those two. Those two are granting any and all interview requests. Uh, they are taking a victory lap deserved to be clear up to this point, but yeah, that's our fanfic. All right. What's your, what's your confidence level? I think Yoko is just going to go off the rest of the series. I'm pretty confident in that. Um, everything else I'm not very confident in. Uh, Yeah, I I kind of think this this team with uh, murray as healthy as he is is sort of a glorified Uh, faku compasso getting their ass beat by the warriors team like there's not a lot of depth here and Uh, everybody's banged up. I think kcp is really banged up, which is yeah. Yeah, very disappointed I mean he had just an unbelievable defensive season and He just doesn't look like the same player as he was. So it's, uh, I, I think our series and I think our season ends in this series. Um, but I do think that they'll put up at least as much of a fight as they can. Uh, um, yeah, I would say my scenario is 10%. Uh, I do think that this goes five at least. I don't think we get swept. Yeah. I'm going to sell my game five ticket if it goes five. That feels right. Unless it's 2 2. If it's 2 2, we're in those stands. Oh, I'm going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going and we will be pre gaming. Yeah. That sounds correct. Um, All right. Oh, we, hold on, hold on. We have to talk about Jokic winning his third MVP. Okay. What do you, you don't want to talk about it? I don't know that I I have tons of interesting things to say, if that makes sense. Yeah. No, I just So, I think that the criticism of Jokic so far in this series is valid. I think he hasn't looked as superhuman as he did in last year's playoffs, and that's okay. I think he's banged up. I think Murray isn't the same. I think KCP isn't the same. I think that's okay. I think it is incredibly telling that in no way, shape, or form would I say at any point in this season Jokic reached What I would call the peaks of Nikola Jokic performances. No, not yet. And it was still good enough to be an MVP season. Like, he's that insane that he can just kind of control a game so much. To me, it's, it's, this whole debate is so stupid. Like, I don't even want to talk about whether he deserves the MVP. Like, I think two right minded people can say SGA is the MVP. It's astonishing to me that you would say it to that man's face on live national TV when he's accepting the award, but I think you can have that opinion. I'm not upset about that. Like this to me is not like the MB conversation felt like. Where it's just like, uh, you, you just don't like the guy, so you don't want to vote for him, and you don't want to put him in this pantheon of people that you don't think he belongs in. And I think this award to me is more just another validation that Yoko is as good as we know he is. And what we're, I feel like we've been getting gaslit by like the rest of the NBA as Nuggets fans that, oh, like Yoic is okay, but he doesn't deserve all these accolades. No, it's fucking ridiculous, and he absolutely deserves it. Um, so, it was nice to see it again. I've got my card displayed. Proudly. Proudly. Um, I guess, and this, I don't necessarily mean this as a shade, but it is a little bit of a shade. Um, I find it hard to care as much about the Embiid, and like, the MVP, since we won a title. Oh, yeah. Because, I think So much of Jokic's legacy now involves getting another title. Another title automatically vaults him over Dirk. Like, you can say, oh, he's over Dirk no matter what, but I mean, Dirk played a long time. Dirk's peak was Yeah, that's gotta be You could have Pau in that conversation, he's won titles, and he was unreal skilled. But in terms of like he won that title for the Lakers talent and Titles, I don't think you go pow. No, no, no, but i'm just saying Like yeah, I think dirk is definitely the one right now, but i'm saying another one vaults him over him It probably puts him over Like KDs all these like there's a lot of people a second title gets you ahead of in the Pantheon and I want him to get in that Pantheon and I love watching this core guys and I Know that that means that one day we will be where the Warriors fan base is right now and the wheels will have fallen off And the guys won't have any tread on the tires and I'm okay with that. And so individual awards. It's tough for me to stomach the same kind of vigor when I don't think Jamal Murray's legacy is affected by an all star appearance or not. I think if the Nuggets win another title, people talk about Murray as one of the top point guards. I do think If we don't, then maybe he gets swept up a little bit. I'm all, I'm all for it on the Jokic MVP front. I think that's a great way to put it, is that the title sort of like, is like a balm on that wound, sort of. Uh, but I think, um, the, the Jamal thing to me is more, like, I think we should probably start advocating for him a little bit more. If he was healthy, it would be easier to do, obviously, but. I think, um, you know, those all star appearances mean something to the guys. And yeah. Oh, no, no, no. I'm not saying I don't want them. You get looked at differently from your peers when you get those sort of accolades, which I think is, is what those guys are craving more than anything we fucking say. So I, I think, uh, I want that for Jamal, just like I wanted, Yokech to win a title and shut up people who said he was just a regular season player. Like, I think that's, that's part of it. So not disagreeing with you, but I just think those things do matter. Yeah, no, for sure. Especially for some of our players, you bring up a good point who don't have any leg accomplishments. Like at this point, Yokech is going to have so many first or second all NBA teams, all star things, all that. That's my point. Like, his lining up his individual accomplishments are gonna be dumb. Lining up his numbers of rebounds, assists, and all that stuff, it's gonna be dumb. I know it's going to be dumb. I just want the second title to solidify that case, to put him in the air where I think he should be. Who do you, uh, who, uh, so let's amend, uh, your Western conference and Eastern conference title pick if you'd like, who do you got? Uh, I think I'm going to take, uh, Dallas and Boston and I'll take Boston. Yeah. I don't think anybody's beating Boston. Um, and like, yes, Boston got their behinds kick tonight, but they got good shots. Like they just missed a lot of open threes. And I mean, part of that is, you know, they have Jalen Brown taking a lot of threes and some nights he's not going to make them, but it didn't look hard for them to get their offense still. Against the Cavs. There's, and the East is so clearly a JV league. It is, it's not even the same, close to the same level of basketball. It's, it is laughable. I think, um, yeah, I was, I'm on Dallas as well. I think that they, Kyrie and Luca, when they're cooking together in a playoff series, it is, uh, it is pretty filthy. So I. And honestly, if Porzingis can't come back, then that series, Dallas and the Celtics, I think it's closer than people want it to be. If Porzingis comes back, then I think it's a done deal. But, uh, The Celtics just fall apart, dude. Like, they look so bad tonight. Like, what are you doing? You can't have those games. I mean, they just don't care. They just missed wide open threes, and I think they'll still win that series in six or less years. Oh, they're definitely gonna win that series, whatever. Um, alright. Uh, Dan, is it officially final? Was it 4 3 as the final? 5 3. 5 3. Shucky darns. Um, so, let's get into the avs quickly here, Ryan. They Stole one in game one down three. Oh, in the first period claw their way back wood with a huge overtime goal. They then in this game, it felt like it swung in the middle of the second period. Uh, Dan had returned from his lifelong saga of attempting to get Buffalo wild wings and the abs were up 13 to 12 in shots. And so I was like, okay, it's two, nothing, 13, 12, we're going to be okay. You know, it seems like we're meeting, meeting their aggression. And then the next time we looked up, it was 26, 13 in shots. And they just had, and some of that was power plays, but all of a sudden it went from head feels like maybe we could sneak a goal here to one. You're real nervous. If you're the stars and you roll the dice, if you're the abs going into the third. Do you think that coming back, scoring those goals, do you think that this ass team is going to win this series? They were obviously the stars of the favorite they have. Home ice. They're the best team in the Western Conference all season. The Avs home ice hasn't been as unreal. Um, I mean, we got our asses beat by the stars in what was really effectively a play, a game for the one seat. And so I don't know whether to think about the fact that we've been down twice as a symptom, similar to like how it was a symptom with the nuggets and then all of a sudden it caught them. Right. Or if this is a, we came there, we did what we had to. The stars haven't looked unbelievable. They're kind of relentless and they're pretty disciplined, but I haven't felt like, Oh, wow, this is an overmatch team for Colorado, or we look slow skating here, and sometimes that happens against really good teams, especially when they're on their home ice. So, what's your confidence level headed back 1 1 coming off the loss? It's pretty high. I mean, I think they've gotten a lot of very lucky goals, it feels like. Uh, they had the first one tonight, bounced off the defenseman's stick. Gorgyev didn't even see it. Then they get a shorthanded goal because, uh, Nechuskin decided to bring the puck back in instead of just letting it roll down the ice. Like, I don't know what he was doing there. It was a terrible turnover and then it's three on one. Like, That's a terrible. So I think They haven't scored a lot in just like free flowing hockey Like the stars haven't they haven't they really have scored power play goals and they've scored goals that have felt very like bounce dependent and so I, I think that's got to give you a lot of confidence, especially coming home. Uh, but to your point, you have to sort of protect home ice here. You can't continue to rely on winning on the road. So, um, I think these next two games are really important. Is it 1 1 1? No, we get two now, so it could be just like Winnipeg. Yeah, that would be perfect. Except obviously it blew out in game one of Winnipeg and then, uh, Gone in two and three and four and five. If you win these two, if you win these two, it's, it's probably series over. So, um, Um, and the goaltending, you mentioned it. I thought Georgie had a good game tonight. I know there's five, there's the empty netter at the end. Yeah. You mentioned, I mean, there was some horrendous turnovers that he stonewalled. And then also, even the third goal on the power play was deflected right off a defenseman stick and then like at the point of the shot lifts it. And then there's two guys screening in front of him. He like, that's not a bad goal to give up. Yeah, no, I felt like he's been okay. He's been fine. And to your, I think that just hammers home, like, I don't think Georgie has suddenly become an all star goalie. Like, I think it just underscores that the stars are just not as threatening. As even Winnipeg was, so I think it's, um, it makes you feel good, but it's also hockey is so weird. Like the playoffs are stupid, so I, I feel pretty good. Um, and just, I mean, literally not knowing really anything, but watching it again, enough hockey would be dangerous. Like. Just watching the games, it feels like we're the better team, um, right now, but it's, uh, still early, I suppose. Yeah. The only thing, well, I mean, I guess my top priority is. You talked about Natchooskin, but he was not alone in offenses, uh, this game that were just, Dan said it really well. He was like, it's just sloppy. Like, it just looks like it's a Tuesday in the regular season, kind of a back to back. Where you're just like, oh, the guys aren't all in mentally. They're trying to get themselves going, but, you know, it was a late night with the Dallas Stars ladies. Um, so, shout out those ladies. Um, they, uh. So this is what knocked the abs out of the playoffs. You talk about the COVID year, they lost the stars because they just scored a goal to equalize it or no, they scored a goal to go up and then Dan and I just watched them couldn't have performed a better pass. From our defenseman right to someone and you know, they tied up they go ahead. The rest is history, you know, the eliminate the Fs So there's something there where Dallas puts good pressure and I noticed during the power play the stars were able to Manage their kind of lanes that they were giving up and their rotations. They doubled McKinnon on a power play And the Avs did not get a good shot off of that. So I do think that's something unique that the Stars probably threw at them. But the Avs can absolutely have tape on that. They probably have seen it before. Just didn't recognize it in the moment. Maybe looked a little different. But there were some things where it wasn't super sharp from the Avs. Like it didn't feel like they were in attack mode the whole time. And it feels like, with the nuggets, uh, pooping the bed, it does feel like there's gonna be a little more desperation with the Avs fans. Because it's kind of like, Hey, we're not going to win both titles. It doesn't appear we should really cheer for this one. I got a, I got an email from Cronky Sports shout out. Uh, and it was the morning after we won game one and they were talking about how the abs fans broke the internet, which I took meant that they broke the ticketing software to buy tickets for this series and I was like, that's just classic Denver Cope. The Nuggets get their ass beat two times in a row, but then the Avs show proof of life and everybody's like, Oh, I gotta go to game three. I gotta go. I want game four tickets too. Let's go. Uh, so you gotta love that about Colorado, you know, always the optimist. I mean, and the Avs give you reason to be right. Like they do, they have looked a little bit better. I don't think they've looked at the. Dominant as they did in their playoff run with the Stanley cup. But I'm not sure that they can ever look that dominant one. It felt like kind of a perfect storm with the amount of free agents we were able to get for cheap. And two, it felt like the style with McCarren, that teams hadn't seen that style and that pace. And it just was blowing people off the eyes. Whereas now people have adjusted a little and, and obviously are picking up players to try to combat that style. So I am going to predict the abs in six. If you had to Ryan, and I'm about 60 percent confident in that, what would you say, and what's your confidence rating? I'm going abs in five, a hundred percent. Dang Ryan. Yeah. Bring in this optimism. I love it. Also, everyone know that if the abs went in five and the next time we record this series is tied at two. And Jokic has, um, had two monster games. Uh, Ryan and I are calling Shaquille O'Neal, uh, where you don't know his number. We have no way to get ahold of him, but it will just be an hour and a half of us attempting to get a hold of Shaquille O'Neal. And I feel like there's a non zero chance that we could at least. Get close, like you now are involved in athletic departments. Um, like you have some connections there from your DU days, which you're not involved in that directly, but then also you get in the running world. So like, honestly, I think we could probably get to an AD. No, I think, I think we could get pretty close to Shaq. I think, honestly, we might only be, we might only be about seven calls away from Shaq right now. Let's go! I'm not sure we could get all of them to get made. Right. I think if everybody made the call, I think we're about seven calls away from Shaq. Okay, that's great. Maybe even less, honestly, now that I'm thinking about it. I love that. It might be two. If everybody made the calls that they could make, it would be two calls. Wow. Let's go. Uh, Jokic, do your part. I want to try to talk to Shaq. Um, yeah. Actually, I'm positive I don't want to talk to Shaq, because Shaq will be unbearable. Somehow with this he'll be like you see that's what I do I just motivate these young fellows sometimes sometimes I throw something out there see how they're gonna respond You see me you put you put a pepperoni pizza from papa john's ahead of me and i'm gonna eat it every time But some of these young fellows, they're not a beast like shag like shag gets very hungry combined right now Well, it's like shack with this jack's at chuck's accent uh I think Yeah I don't want to talk to Shaq at all. And honestly, but we will be unbearable. It'll be a truly triumphant podcast. If, uh, if that by some miracle happens, if the abs are up three, one, and the nuggets are tied to, to listen, I'm, I'm telling you, I mean, and I'm officially finished with grad school. Well, for the summer, still have two more. Yes. Still have two more weeks of like, I'm going to finish out the internship. I'm going to. Uh, stay on with my current pair of position, uh, through the end of the year, of course. But the, the Knights are a little less occupied. Yeah. And so if we need to get dangerous in order to make the Nuggets get dangerous. Oh, we can get more equipped to do that. We can get dangerous. That's all I'm saying. Yokich to get dangerous first. Lead us, lead us in the path. Lead us Yokich. Alright, well, this has been a great episode. Sorry to Zach Wilson and Bo Nix's jersey change. That was really sweet, guys. And we wish we could have talked about it more. Um, but we just ran out of time. And so I'm sure we'll leave with that next week. No, you're not allowed, not allowed. I'm making an executive decision. You're not allowed. I don't want to cheer for this team. They say they're the least, no one wants to cheer for this team. You sound like he's 11 year olds. This team's good. Now I'm a Celtics fan. Oh, the timber wolves are kind of fun. Yeah. It's not fun to watch the nuggets lose by 40, but I do it. It's not fun to watch these terrible things happen to the Broncos, but I do it. Because it will make it sweeter when, like a phoenix, Bo Nix and Zach Wilson rise from the ashes, like a phoenix. Yeah, uh, that's not gonna happen, um, the Broncos are gonna suck in perpetuity. I honestly believe that it's the Walton's fault at this point. I'm blaming, I'm blaming Walmart. Um, and yeah, that's what I'm going to continue to do. That's fine. And I'm not sure if you're mad at the ownership, as long as you, you still go to Rockies games, like that's incompetence on a totally different level. I haven't been this year. They are extremely bad. You are also dodging lose 126 games. Yeah, I was just about to look. Excellent work by them. I saw something when they were like 31 games into the season, that they had trailed in every game at some point during the year, and that is just like, I mean, chef's kiss stuff. Uh, yeah. But, Monfort still believes that Chris Bryant is going to bring us that ring, so, uh, I just, I've got breath. I've got that quote framed in my office. You can't see it, but it's over there. Um, good. Good. Good. Just it's motivational. So we, we never forget that the, it's that ring is right around the title, right around the corner. I can't wait. Can't wait. Nuggets championship and Avs into Rockies. That's going to be, wow. What a summer, summer of parades, summer into fall, baby. Oh, like a Taylor Swift call or a concert. Love it. Um, alright, well we will be back next week. Hopefully not talking about the funeral of both of these teams. Hopefully talking about fun, meaningful things. And What are we going to talk about if we can't talk about these two teams? Uh, it's just going to be me having an hour long therapy session with you. Uh, talking about how I feel about each Nugget player. And why I need to learn to forgive them. I think it'll be very therapeutic. I think we should do that. Whether we win the title or, uh, that just sounds like good off season content, honestly. It's not going to be bad. Uh, all right. Well, thank you to our super producer, Dan. Uh, thank you, Ryan, and like and subscribe to the podcast. See you next week. Bye! Blucifer Brothers is a Crab Shell Media podcast.
