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For a top seed, there’s nothing more important than protecting his home court, especially the notoriously difficult Denver Nuggets.
After the relaxed and freehand game against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first game, everyone knew that the second game would be a fierce fight, because the Lakers absolutely wanted to win an away game first, so that the home game would not be so stressful.
Even though the Lakers learned the lesson of the first game and put pressure on the Nuggets in all aspects in the second game, in the playoffs that focused on individual ability, in the end, when the influence of the double stars was not as good as that of the Nuggets, they lost again by a small margin. In the game, the Nuggets were also able to secure two home games in a row.
The Nuggets didn’t get off to a smooth start. The Lakers changed their starting lineup of three guards in the first game and put on Vanderbilt to strengthen rebounding and defense, and continued to put pressure on Murray. The Nuggets were careless on both ends of the offense and defense. Many players got into foul trouble in the first quarter, and even Reggie Jackson, who had almost no chance to play in the playoffs, came to the rescue.
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Among them, Porter’s foul trouble is the most deadly. Anyone who is chasing the gold nugget knows that Porter’s touch is often hot in the first quarter, but this time he has to sit on the court before he has achieved success, causing the gold nugget to lose instantly. Losing the advantages of height and rebounds, he fell into a tug-of-war with the Lakers.
The foul trouble in the first quarter disrupted the rhythm of the Nuggets’ scheduling. They even put up a formation without Jokic and Murray at the beginning of the second quarter. The offensive end was completely out of order. Malone quickly called a timeout and replaced Murray to control the field.
In all fairness, the Lakers really played well in three quarters, whether it was restricting Jokic as much as possible, not giving Murray a chance to make a good shot, narrowing the gap between the two sides in size and rebounding, and the excellent performance of role players such as Hachimura, forcing the Nuggets to stay in the game. Under the pressure of chasing points. But all of these efforts were wasted because of one of the most important things, that is, the core stars did not perform well.
Davis did not have as good a touch as in the first game, and many shots close to the basket failed to succeed; and LeBron replaced Davis several times to defend Jokic and was exhausted. Finally, he exhausted his energy in the fourth quarter and used a lot of three-pointers. Split shots were used instead of the more efficient but more energy-intensive cut-in singles. As a result, none of the outside shots were scored, and layups were missed and key mistakes occurred, ruining the chance of overtaking the Nuggets in the fourth quarter.
Compared with the sluggishness of the Lakers’ double stars, Jokic switched to running the team’s offense to help the team when the defense was targeted, biting the score, and finally waited for Murray to explode in the fourth quarter. Murray scored 23 points in the last quarter, including several long-range three-pointers against defenders. The gap between the stars and the three-point line between the two sides finally allowed the Nuggets to overtake the score. This year’s playoffs have not tasted defeat home field.
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Comparing the first round and the second round, the Lakers are obviously a more disciplined team with better basic strength. The evidence is that the Nuggets can’t win a large number of victories even at home.
But what makes the Lakers feel desperate is that even though so much effort has been put into the team formation and strategy, the gold nuggets relying on the hard power of the original rotation lineup alone is tougher than the Lakers who have been fully prepared in the details. The Lakers, who will be drawn in the next defeat, are definitely under a lot of pressure.
I don’t know if it was too hard in the first half, or it was really hard to play at Denver’s home court. Obviously LeBron didn’t deploy his physical strength well this time. But the Nuggets can’t welcome the next away game with such a fluke mentality, because the Lakers who are fighting at home will definitely fight in a better physical condition.
In addition to not being able to rely on the Lakers to blew up in the fourth quarter to win the game, the Nuggets’ defense and offense can no longer be so rough. Although the current eight-man rotation is strong, it cannot prevent anyone from getting into foul trouble, especially the Lakers. It’s such a foul-making team again.
A large reason why Murray was able to break out this time was related to the Lakers’ laxity on his outside threat at the end. After experiencing this outbreak, the Lakers are likely to resort to stricter marking on him. Today, there will be fewer scenes where there is a gap on the three-point line with a screen, but for the air cut in the penalty area Opportunities will increase, and maybe Porter and Gordon will be the key players in the next fight.
The Lakers haven’t had the experience of going 0-2 back in the playoffs this year. Maybe LeBron and Davis have such pressure resistance, but a few young role players may not. Although the Nuggets are temporarily less pressured, if Being able to break the Lakers’ home court in one fell swoop will minimize the suspense of this series.
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2023-05-21 04:34:00
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