Photo Of Dirty Man At Game Causes Uproar, Steph Curry Calls Him Over.

Did the Denver Nuggets commit ‘dirty’ plays on Stephen Curry? A complete analysis

Do Mark Jackson’s claims that the Denver Nuggets “tried to send hit men” to attack Stephen Curry in Tuesday’s Game 5 have any validity. We go to the tape to find out.

Doug Pensinger

Mark Jackson’s declaration that the Denver Nuggets “tried to send hit men” on Stephen Curry was both accurate and questionable. These are not contradictions. In order to judge Jackson’s comments, we must answer two fundamental questions:

1. Did the Nuggets do anything out of the ordinary with Curry?

2. If so, how do we classify those actions? Are they in any way justifiable? Is Jackson’s own team engaging in similar behavior, as the Nuggets allege?

OK, so that’s four questions. (There’s also a fifth: was this the appropriate tone and timing for such comments, especially the ones where Jackson implied there was a mole telling him of the Nuggets’ plans). But in order to even get to Part II, we must first answer Part I.

Are Jackson’s comments coming from a legitimate place, or is he concocting them out of thin air?

I re-watched the entire game late Tuesday night, focusing only on Curry. From the opening tip, it was clear: the Nuggets were doing something coordinated, beyond normal defensive maneuvers, to throw Curry off his rhythm. That something could go anywhere on the spectrum between “physical” and “dirty” play, but we must accept that it belongs in the first place. And the effort most definitely centered around Kenneth Faried.