On January 15, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued. The Lakers will be a guest at Denver tomorrow morning to challenge the Nuggets. Today, the team's coach Vogel was interviewed by the media, and he also talked about the team's pre-match preparations. Vogel said: "Jokic is the most unique player in the league and a lot of the work we did today revolved around how to defend Jokic. ”
Jokic, as the regular season MVP last season, has performed equally well this season. So far this season, Jokic has averaged 25.5 points, 14.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game. Speaking of the Lakers and the Nuggets, the two teams have met frequently in recent years, and the Lakers have encountered the Nuggets in the playoffs in the 19-20 season, and finally the Lakers won the Nuggets by a large score in the series and advanced to the finals and won the championship. An important factor in the Lakers' victory over the Nuggets at that time was Howard's limitation of Jokic's success.
Although Howard returned to the Lakers this summer, Howard has not won too many playing opportunities in recent games, and there is news that the Lakers are evaluating the value of Howard's trade, and it is expected that Vogel will not give Howard too much playing time in tomorrow's game.
Asked in an interview about whether the team would continue to use a small squad, Vogel said: "We will depend on the situation, I will not give us the lineup for tomorrow's game now, the team has a lot of players to defend, hope to keep Jokic as far away from the box as possible, while guaranteeing the team space on the offensive end." ”
Vogel has been putting James in the fifth position after the thick eyebrow injury, and the Lakers will play against the Nuggets with a big center tomorrow, if james is continued to be used as the fifth position, the team's internal problems may be magnified. Although Howard and Jordan Jr. now get playing time, they still have enough weight and height to limit Jokic.