In other words, in this battle, the Lakers and the Nuggets, the old enemies, met again on the court. It feels like the Lakers have a chance of winning, but the Nuggets smiled slightly and easily took away the game, and in the last two minutes, they played a wave of 10-2 offensive, and the championship style was undoubtedly displayed.
The Lakers understand this game, if they want to wrestle with the defending champions, the twin towers tactics are inseparable. When trailing by as many as 15 points, Coach Hamm decisively changed the lineup and switched to a two-tower lineup. Hayes's crucial 5 offensive rebounds in the final quarter really bit the score and reborn the suspense of the game. If it weren't for the twin towers, the Lakers would be the first on the court.
The second and third heights can be uncomfortable, and the Nuggets only need to throw the ball into the air, and Gordon and Porter Jr. can catch it firmly and score easily.
On the Nuggets' side, Porter Jr., Mr. Yoo, and Murray teamed up to cut 20+, and their starting style was stable. Murray and Mr. Yoo's blocking and pick-and-roll, that is the magic weapon of the Nuggets' seven-game winning streak against the Lakers. In this game, Mr. Yoo got 24 points and 9 assists, and Murray scored 29 points and 11 assists, with a total of 53 points and 20 assists in the double core.
The Nuggets' shooters weren't idle, shooting 14-of-32 from three-point range and shooting 438%！Murray and Jokic blocked and dismantled in the middle, drove the inside cut and the weak side to set up three-pointers, and blossomed more, and the Lakers have not been able to limit the Nuggets' three-dimensional and diversified offensive system since the Western Conference finals.
On the Lakers' side, the basic plate is still on Zhan Mei, but.
The consistency of the No. 3 and No. 4 scoring points is a little less interesting than that of Porter Jr. and Gordon. Moreover, the Lakers' three-point shooting is the third-to-last in the league, and every shot depends on luck, and the vacancy response rate is not as good as the defending champion. They can only rely on reckless baskets to maintain the court, fast breaks, interior scoring, free throws, and everything, so that they can barely bite the score.
But as a result, in the last two minutes of the game, the Nuggets went on another wave of 10-2 offense, which directly destroyed the game and took away the game. The difference in strength between the two teams is really reflected in all aspects of finishing, discipline, and quality. Lao Zhan's close layup failed to score, but Murray directly counterattacked and threw to score, this kind of high-end game decisive moment, really not allowed to make any low-level mistakes.
These two teams are like old acquaintances from last season's Western Finals, and their offensive and defensive strategies have maintained playoff-level intensity. The Lakers still resolutely let go of Gordon's big empty three-point shot, Lao Zhan walked around to assist in defense against Gordon, and the Lakers put pressure on the ball in five clips and four pairs, preventing Mr. Yue from easily 1v1 to eat raw. And the Nuggets are also the old way to deal with Zhan Mei, one dozen and one single defense outside the three-second zone, and acquiesce to Zhan Mei's double star in the middle and long distance to face the defense for difficult strong shots.
At the beginning of the game, the Lakers were still slow to heat up, and Zhan Mei's double strong point explosion could change the defense to create open opportunities for others, but the whole team started with a total of only 1 of 9 shots. The Nuggets took advantage of the Lakers' downturn to set off a wave of defensive counterattacks, Mr. Joo took the lead in speeding up the fast attack, Porter Jr. resolutely made a chase for a dry jump shot, Gordon fancy dunk and abused the basket, and the Nuggets took the lead in starting the game 10-2.
The two teams made mistakes with each other, and the Lakers also took advantage of the consecutive mistakes of Porter Jr. and Gordon to counterattack, push the tempo quickly, and run and bomb the Nuggets. The Nuggets positional battle used Porter Jr.'s height advantage to punish the alignment, and the teacher's single as the axis also forced the Lakers to make a choice: if you don't hit it, you can pick it, and if you hit it, you can go out to find an open position to cut inside or a three-point point on the periphery. The Lakers' defensive end and Yoo's guessing puzzle was toyed with applause.
The biggest advantage of the Lakers is still in the strong point of thick eyebrows, sitting on the top with his back and not moving about the teacher, and the thick eyebrows have to use a lot of basket attacks: three threats to shake the right and left, catch a breakthrough layup or a pull-up jump shot, all use guard moves to run the basket to hit the teacher, and in case of a pinch, he also looks for Wood to cut inside and the outside of the empty three-point. Mr. Yue and thick eyebrows are the two major axes of the two teams' positional battles, each supporting the team's basic plate.
The Nuggets' second lineup obviously lacks depth, Jordan Jr. + Watson + Braun + Braun + Reggie + Murray This group of Watson and Braun were all empty by the Lakers, and Jordan Jr. was on the court to eat space, and the Lakers dealt with the Nuggets' second lineup directly laid out the joint defensive contraction line, and did not give Mr. Murray room to operate at all. Fortunately, Braun, Watson, and Reggie hit open three-pointers to relieve the pressure, and Murray single-handedly took over and carried the team's offensive banner.
The Lakers rotation group asked Lao Zhan to punish Murray, Braun, and Watson by name for their small size, and played until the Nuggets used Jordan Jr. to help defend. Both teams are thinking the same way, not allowing the aces in the rotation phase to play comfortably, and encouraging role players to shoot to finish offense. Prince scored 13 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the bench, but the starting group folded three: Hachimura once made 0 of 4, and Christie once 7 NBA spit conference