DENVER \u2014 He says he wants everything that comes with guarding Anthony Edwards.<\/p>\n
The potential for being embarrassed by a dunk. Or burned by a stepback 3. Of absorbing the inevitable trash talk when Edwards is rolling, and the predictable elbow and push when it is not.<\/p>\n
Give it all to Christian Braun; he\u2019ll wear it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my job,\u201d the Denver Nuggets guard said. \u201cI mean, I don\u2019t really have a choice \u2026 (but) it\u2019s what I want. I want the assignment. I want that challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday, Denver coach David Adelman singled out Braun as the unsung hero of the Nuggets\u2019 116-105 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of this first-round series. Edwards, the Timberwolves\u2019 explosive and showy superstar, had a rather quiet debut.<\/p>\n
And it was Braun who was holding the mute button after Edwards finished with 22 points on 7-of-19 shooting. Adelman called Braun\u2019s defensive performance \u201cgreat\u201d in large part because Braun took it upon himself to switch his own defensive coverages on Edwards. On the Timberwolves\u2019 pick-and-rolls, the Nuggets were playing up and chasing over the top of the screen. Braun, at times, would deviate and change the gap between the ballhandler and the roller.<\/p>\n
By doing that, Adelman thought Edwards never got the same looks at the basket throughout the game.<\/p>\n
Allowing a defender to stray from the principles of a team\u2019s defense is not common practice in the NBA. Only the special, game-changing talents have that kind of freedom. Adelman said Braun earned that flexibility last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can trust CB and what he\u2019s doing, because there\u2019s a reason for it,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cI realized this last year, in the playoffs, when he really had an enormous role guarding the better players with (James) Harden, and then on to Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander). He has that ability, so you can trust him. Not all players are like that. CB does things for the right reasons. You can trust that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Nuggets begin the pursuit of their second NBA title, there are few questions about their offense, which was the most efficient and prolific operation in the NBA this season. Their defense? Wellllll, let\u2019s just say it has left Adelman red and screaming at times this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish you guys would come in there at halftime when we\u2019re struggling and hear from him personally,\u201d Tim Hardaway quipped. \u201cBut yeah, he gets fired up, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defense \u2014 or \u201csitting down and guarding,\u201d as Adelman likes to say \u2014 figures to be the challenge of the playoffs for the Nuggets. And it\u2019s why the 25-year-old Braun has become such an important facet to this team in his fourth season.<\/p>\n
He says he first took to defense at Kansas, where he helped the Jayhawks win the 2022 national title.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get on the court at Kansas my freshman year, that was kind of a big thing. To get on the court, you have to guard,\u201d Braun said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of where I embraced it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nuggets took him with the 21st pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, and he observed how Nuggets veterans Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown not only accepted but also thrived at taking defensive roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose guys carved out a role playing defense,\u201d Braun said. \u201cOn the offensive side, it was easy for them because of how good everybody else is. So I understood that. I understand defense is what was going to get me on the court. And it\u2019s kind of wonderful, you know. It\u2019s what\u2019s going to keep me on the court, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last season during the playoffs, Braun graduated from a reliable defender to an essential defender. It started in the opening round against the LA Clippers, when he was tasked with checking future Hall of Famer James Harden.<\/p>\n
Game 1 did not go well. Harden had 32 points and 11 assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kicked my ass that night, for sure,\u201d Braun said.<\/p>\n
But Denver won. And while Harden played 43 minutes and finished with an even plus\/minus, Braun played 45 minutes, during which the Nuggets were plus-5. In the aftermath, Braun studied and made calculated adjustments.<\/p>\n
In the final six games of the series, Harden averaged 16.5 points and 8.9 assists while making only 41.7 percent of his shots. The topper: In Game 7, Harden went 2-for-8 from the field and finished with 7 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cGame 7 was a completely different story,\u201d Braun said, smiling. \u201cAnd that\u2019s part of what\u2019s fun about going up against those guys. I love taking those challenges. But it was a really fun series for me. I learned a lot, and I think me and James obviously respect each other a lot more after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next series, against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Adelman put Braun on Gilgeous-Alexander, the league MVP. The Thunder won in seven games, and Gilgeous-Alexander was a big reason: 29.7 points and 6.6 assists while making 53 percent of his shots. Braun could take solace, however: In the Western Conference finals, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 31.4 points against Minnesota, then 30.3 against the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n
The Game 1 explosion by Harden and the success of Gilgeous-Alexander were humbling reminders to Braun that, oftentimes, good defense in the NBA isn\u2019t rewarded with a stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you understand you\u2019re guarding great players, and they are going to score,\u201d Braun said. \u201cI said that earlier about Ant \u2014 especially in the West, you know you\u2019ve got a good player every single series.\u201d<\/p>\n
He figures this series will be a lot like last year\u2019s playoffs, where he learns a little about his head-to-head opponent each game, then makes adjustments on the fly. Braun certainly wasn\u2019t resting on his Game 1 laurels, repeating several times that the playoffs are not one game but a series of games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m gonna learn what Ant does throughout the series \u2026 and it\u2019s a series for a reason,\u201d Braun said. \u201cBut I love the challenge. I love being able to guard the best players every night. I take pride \u2026 and obviously, it\u2019s my job. So I gotta do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Nikola Joki\u0107: \u201cI think he is accepting his role: just being annoying the whole game, guarding full court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minutes before, as he was getting dressed, Braun pointed to his left ankle. His malleolus, the area by the ball of the ankle, is swollen like a cue ball, the residual from a sprained ankle in November. He says he hasn\u2019t become used to the pain or lack of flexibility the swelling causes. He has only become used to treating it.<\/p>\n
Later, Joki\u0107 would poke fun, noting that Braun has been good all season \u2026 before catching himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cOK, maybe after the injury he was (so-so) a little bit,\u201d Joki\u0107 deadpanned. \u201cBut he is doing a good job now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adelman and a sellout crowd thirsty for Wolves blood would concur. The Nuggets have some of the best offense this league has ever seen. And now they also have a budding defender to help slow opposing stars and do the little things that turn into big things in playoff series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really proud, honestly, of his eight rebounds also,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cWhen you guard the best player on the other team and still get back into the fray and come up with defensive rebounds, that wins playoff games. It\u2019s not sexy. It\u2019s just the facts. And to have eight of them while guarding that guy is very impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 He says he wants everything that comes with guarding Anthony Edwards. The potential for being embarrassed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,1662,5665,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-616689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-denver-nuggets","11":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}