Sports Warm Winter Creation Season
Although the point difference is exaggerated, the Thunder and Nuggets did play an out-and-out offensive battle. It's just that in the mutual stabbing of knives and fires, the defending champions, who have always been famous for their offense, failed to stab the fledgling boys of the Thunder at home!Finally, in front of the hometown fathers, with a 26-point fiasco, 2023 came to an end. This seems to indicate that the Nuggets' road to defending their title will not be smooth.
The mutual stabbing between the Nuggets and the Thunder started from the first second of the game. It can be seen with the naked eye that the Nuggets can't prevent the Thunder, and Mr. Joo's mediocre defensive ability can't stop Holmgren's offense at all. Teacher Holmgren squatted in the pit, Holmgren hit twice outside the three-point line, Teacher Holmgren pounced outside the three-point line, and Holmgren was able to complete military training education one-on-one with the absolute advantage of flexibility. The Nuggets' rim protection was already unfavorable, and after Gordon's absence and Mr. Yoo was beaten by Holmgren, the Nuggets' interior defense was almost unsightly. The Thunder's Jalen Williams can break through the frame in one go, Alexander is getting braver and braver, and the two team up to turn the Nuggets' interior line upside down.
But in the first quarter, the Nuggets, whose defense collapsed, did not panic, because they were very sure, and the Thunder could not prevent them. On the one hand, Mr. Yoo is wide and fat, and the quality of the cover is extremely solid, which can help the shooter block vacant opportunities. On the other hand, all the insiders, including Holmgren, were afraid of the threat of Yoo's score, and did not dare to let Yoo break free from the defensive shackles by saving the shooter. The two factors were superimposed, and the shooter and the teacher played the pick-and-roll, and finally evolved into the shooter practicing open shooting, and in the face of those three-pointers shot by Porter, Pope and Murray in the first quarter, the Thunder's defense was more than capable of enough.
The coaches of the two teams still have tempers and bottom lines, and they don't allow their teams to rot like this. The 6:42 minute timeout in the first quarter was a marvelous one, during which the head coaches of both teams did the same thing in order to improve their defense – revise their defensive alignment. After the timeout, Mr. Yoo changed from guarding Holmgren to defending Josh Giddey, and Holmgren stopped defending Mr. Yoo and switched to guarding Watson. The Nuggets changed the alignment in order to eliminate the spatial and tactical value of Holmgren, while the Thunder changed the alignment in order to dismantle the two-person transfer cooperation between the teacher and the shooter through the method of "changing defense + Holmgren wiping his ass".
The ideal is very plump, the reality is very skinny, and the alignment adjustment of the two teams has failed to meet the defensive expectations. In the first defensive round after the Nuggets changed their alignment, Mr. Yoo let Giddey go, and in a blink of an eye, Giddey completed the reversal and counterattack by breaking through and throwing close to his face. In the first defensive round after the Thunder changed the position, Mr. Yoo faced the defense of Jalen Williams in the No. 4 position, opened it directly, crushed it with his back in the low post, and scored points in the frame strongly, penetrating the Thunder's defensive attempt. After just one offensive and defensive move, the two teams changed their defensive alignment back to a disgraced position, as if they had resigned themselves to their fate. But through this round, we can see the key to the decisive game between the Nuggets and the Thunder, which team can keep the final bottom line of defense, that team is the winning side.
It is the young Thunder who guards the defensive bottom line. How did they hold on?There are two points, the first point is that the "nuclear **" Thunder with the cooperation of the teacher and the shooter requires players with 45 degrees on the weak side of the line to carry out weak defense. What is "weak defense"?To put it simply, it is a "pretending" defense, through appropriate defensive selection, with exaggerated body movements, to "bluff" the Nuggets shooters, so that they dare not shoot. On the second point, the Thunder's No. 4 position let go of the Nuggets' Watson, ran to the basket to "really assist defense", blocking the Nuggets shooter's breakthrough and the next finish of Mr. Yoo.
The Nuggets were "crushed by IQ" by the Thunder. Their outside shooters, whether it is Murray, Pope or Porter, are supposed to be "cold-blooded killers" who have experienced the big scenes of the Finals, but they were bluffed by the Thunder and a bunch of hairy boys!Murray didn't dare to shoot in front of the Thunder's weak defense, he wanted to shoot with a sudden substitution, patiently looking for better opportunities, but broke through to the basket, but instead fell into the Thunder's more ferocious encirclement, he played 2 against 3 with Mr. Yu under the basket, the pass was broken, and the offensive frame was attacked. In the same way, Pope and Porter were also scared by the Thunder!In the second half, in the face of the "mental attack" of the Thunder's weak defense, they couldn't shoot a three-pointer.
Although the Nuggets' outside shooters were very good in the second half, they should not be responsible for the biggest loss. This pot should be carried by sophomore rookie Watson!It's not hard to see that as long as Watson can respond on the offensive end, he can completely dismantle the Thunder's defensive setup. For a sophomore rookie, it seems a bit embarrassing for Watson to temporarily put out the fire and let him shoot a three-pointer to become the focus of the whole game, but the offensive output response does not have to rely on three-point shots. Look at Giddey on the other side, people are not good at shooting, but they can also play output by relying on one-handed breakthrough throwing, what can Watson do within his ability?
For example, Watson's talent is just an ornament?He was let go by the Thunder, can't he slap the Thunder defense by cutting the basket in the air and showing athleticism?In fact, as the Nuggets' No. 4 position, shooting ability itself isn't that important. Aaron Gordon, the Nuggets' No. 4 position, is not even as good as Watson's shooting ability, but he can show strength by playing low back and bouncing ability by air cuts to play a positive offensive impact. At 5 minutes and 25 seconds in the fourth quarter, Watson played a decent air cut for the first time in the game, but at this time, the Nuggets were already 20 points behind the Thunder, and it was too late to wake up.
Watson, can be involved in the Nuggets' biggest problem this season, their bench lineup is really terrible, they are all rough rookies who can't live up to expectations, and some abusive veterans!The Nuggets can only play a tough battle, only the starting five players, but whenever these five players have some physical problems, no one on the bench can step up. As for the substitute for the shrimp soldiers and crab generals, Coach Malone of the Nuggets, even dared to play the rotation routine of "five up and five down", with three or four minutes of connection between the two halves, and the Nuggets were on the court by a full bench lineup, self-reliant, and no big guy came to lead. This all-bench lineup, which met the rotation lineup led by the Thunder Alexander single-core, became a major reason for the Nuggets' fiasco.
Watson's ability is not good, and the Nuggets bench lineup is too bad, these are all facts, but it is only by bringing away these players that they are not at a good level that they can prove the ability of the star boss. Mr. Yoo, as the star boss of the Nuggets, is the hidden factor of today's fiasco. On the surface, Mr. Yoo was 9 of 10 in the game, with 19 points and 10 rebounds, but focusing on the content of the game, Mr. Yoo obviously failed to play the role of a star. The starting lineup, about the teacher paddling, faced Holmgren, he had the advantage in tonnage, but he chose not to paddle and delegate the offense to his teammates. In the second half, Watson was let go by the Thunder, and Mr. Yoo faced the double attack on the inside, and was able to score points under the double encirclement, so as to show the true colors of the supergiant. With this kind of play of the star, it is difficult for the Nuggets to have the confidence to stab each other!
In the NBA, it has always been more difficult to defend the country than to fight the country. First, those powerful brothers who have laid down the country will be poached by other teams, resulting in an emptiness in the depth of the lineup. Second, the huge physical exertion of playing the country will cause the players to be exhausted when defending the country. This season, whether it is Mr. Yoo, or Murray, Gordon and Porter, they are all in a state of residual blood, giving people a feeling of being very tired and unable to play. In this situation, it is difficult for Nuggets fans to have the confidence to shout "Nuggets Championship" loudly.