By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
In a 1-0 deficit, the Los Angeles Clippers take on the Denver Nuggets in Ball Arena to continue a best-of-seven series.
After team practice on Sunday, following a 21-point, 13-rebound double-double in Denver on Saturday, Ivica Zubac opened up facing Nikola Jokic in the 2025 NBA Playoffs presented by Google.
“It’s fun going against one of the best players in the league,” said the 28-year-old Croatian center in a media session, “I like physical matchups, and he always brings it. He plays hard. Every possession, he’s physical. It’s a big challenge for me.”
The Clippers and Nuggets finished the 2024-25 Regular Season with identical 50-32 records, but a tiebreaker decided homecourt advantage in the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
“We had a really got chance to get the game on the road and kind of messed it up on our own. A lot of turnovers. A lot of offensive rebounds at the end. It felt like we kind of gave it away,” Zubac talked about the series opener, “We’ve seen the way we can play when we are at our best. We’ve seen what we can do. There’s a lot of positive stuff we can take away from Game 1.”
“It’s all about mismatches. You just have to be locked into all coverages. It’s way different than the Regular Season,” he focused on a different approach to postseason games, “You have so many coverages and got to be focused on a lot of things at the same time.”