Denver Nuggets coach David Adelman credits defense for road win vs. Boston Celtics

4 days ago 1

The Denver Nuggets were down a Most Valuable Player-caliber candidate in Nikola Jokic, and the Boston Celtics without their own in Jayson Tatum. But if you ask Nuggets head coach David Adelman, neither of these two absences proved critical in Denver stealing a win off Boston on their own home court despite playing with a number of key players on the sidelines for both ball clubs.

"I thought we went to the 1 through 5," he explained postgame. "We were switching everything, and just had to sit down and guard from there. I thought our defense was really good. Just individual, sit down defense, very simple, but, they only had 16 assists, and I think a lot of that was the fact that we made them play one on one, and sometimes it doesn’t go well."

"They’ve got talented players, but I thought that flipped the game, and I just want to keep saying it’s like, Jamal (Murray) has been so patient with these games, and he had 17 assists, and I wonder how many hockey assists he had, with the double team."

"So, offensively, we just kept taking shots, and the third quarter, we couldn’t make a shot early," he added. "They’ll end up with 21 points in that quarter. We only held them to 24 so we’re in a good spot, but I was just proud of the way the game was being played."

"We took open shots, we got back, we defended. It’s hard to rebound against that team, especially right now with (us being) downsized right now. They kill everybody on the glass, but yeah, it was just a defensive effort. And then, like I said, just guys being confident in each other, making the right pass and letting it fly."

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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Nuggets coach David Adelman credits defense for road win vs. Celtics

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