After the Nuggets and Warriors finished playing G1, the Nuggets actually lost a lot, almost 20 points behind at the end of the third quarter, and most of the time the Nuggets were chasing points. As the core of the Nuggets, Jokic played 34 minutes, shooting 12-of-25, 0-of-4 from outside the three-point line, and 1-of-2 from the free throw line for 25 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. If you look at 25 shots, Jokic's efficiency is actually very low, almost his 25 points are based on a large number of shots. But in fact, how hard Jokic played, it is estimated that only the Nuggets' head coach and Jokic himself and his teammates know that Jokic is too difficult.
In this season's playoffs, most teams should have two cores, or an absolute core, the other is a relatively weak second core, in short, each team at least has a ball-holding core, but the Nuggets are the exception, their core is only one, that is, Jokic, and Jokic is still an inside line. So the problem arises, and the Nuggets can only rely on Jokic. Jokic has a lot of work to do, scoring, rebounding, defending and organizing, these are his jobs. It's too hard, it's really too hard, it's not easy to bring the Nuggets into the playoffs, and now against the Warriors, Jokic seems a little overwhelmed.
The Warriors are very targeted at Jokic, when defending Jokic, as long as he tries to play back in the low position, a large number of bags and auxiliary defenses will come up, and the Warriors will drive him out of the box as much as possible to shoot, forcing Jokic to shoot a large number of outside three-pointers. On the Warriors' side, almost all the members took turns to train Jokic, all the breakthroughs looked for him, the physical confrontation was all looking for him, and the Warriors' strategy was also very clear, dragging Jokic to the point of not moving. The Warriors' strategy was successful, Jokic played very badly, one could not lead his teammates, the second could not show his dominance on the offensive end, and the third could not perfectly protect the basket, and the Nuggets were pierced.
But what's the crux of the Nuggets? It's not about how many points Jokic can cut, or whether Jokic can get a triple-double, it's just one thing, teammates have to shoot the open ball that Jokic passes out. The Nuggets lost on the other people's grasp of the empty position, why did the Warriors dare to unscrupulously pack Jokic? Because the Nuggets' outside line is not accurate at all, everyone is playing iron, and Jokic is very uncomfortable. Some people say that the data of Barton, Morris and others looks good. That's true, but the duo's stats exploded after they were 20 points behind, and no one continued when Jokic needed the firepower the most.
The Nuggets this season is different from other teams in the league, Jokic is the so-called single-core team, the second leading scorer around him, Gogo, has only about 15 points on the table, which causes the Nuggets' game to largely depend on Jokic's state. But in the playoffs, Jokic couldn't beat a team by himself, and the situation now requires others to step up and shoot those three-pointers in the bottom corner and the top of the arc. Jokic has already brought the team into the playoffs, and how far he can go is not actually the ceiling, the real ceiling is on Gordon, Barton, Morris and other people, whose state determines the future of the Nuggets.