Trailing 3-0, the Lakers really retreated to the brink.
Realistically speaking, I didn't expect the big points of this series to be one-sided, whether it was the configuration and game on both sides of the front game at the start of the series, or the content of the game shown by G1G2, the Lakers were not to the extent that they couldn't play. Back at home, it's 0-2 again, two buffs superimposed, it's hard to believe that there will really be a 0-3 result, and even in the first half to the early part of the third quarter, many plots are hinting that G3 is the Lakers winning, such as Jokic still hasn't cracked the Lakers' No. 4/5 position defensively, Murray scored 30 points in the first half too much C, and the second half of the state may not be maintained, Jokic made 3 fouls in the half, played 4 and a half points in the third quarter to get the 4th foul, even before that, Jokic's performance was a bit "dish" for his normal level, But everyone knows that the Nuggets can't do without Jokic, and he's there or no of these two teams.
The Lakers had a chance to take away the victory, and as long as the big score was not 0-3, the series had just begun. But the Lakers didn't grasp it, or rather, the Nuggets were far more decisive than people thought — you would think that Murray was more important to pack up his firepower and make strategic adjustments, and the Nuggets didn't think so, which is the same as the sweep they took when they went to the Suns' home court, and if they couldn't, they had to do their best. This is somewhat lacking in "design sense", but the Nuggets are the completion of the forced harvest in the case of strategic disadvantage. If you experience the despair of going to the home stadium of Los Angeles in the past, you will feel more and more - really awesome.
Compared with G2, Hamm did not make many adjustments in G3, still Vanderbilt started against Murray, initially with thick eyebrows against Jokic, waiting for Hachimura to play against Jokic, thick eyebrows and then to Gordon. Hamm can stick to G2's employment and strategy because G2 is a game where the Lakers' overall defense has no major problems, and Jokic can see the sewing of the decomposition defense, the Nuggets have a super three-line fast attack, and Murray completed the hard solution outbreak in the fourth quarter to respond to everything. If I were Hamm, after watching the G2 video, I would also think that continuing to be so anti-repeated, pulling the execution, waiting for Murray to cool down, the effect is expected.
As a result, Murray not only did not cool down, but added another fire. In the first half, Murray scored 30 points alone, and the Nuggets' second-highest scorer, Gordon, had just seven points. During Murray's break, Jokic led the team to attack constipation, which shows that the Nuggets' offense in the first half was completely supported by Murray. If the Nuggets can't play what they're better at, relying only on Murray to superpower, the Lakers shouldn't be afraid. If you recall how you felt when watching the live broadcast, do you think that as long as the Lakers maintain their existing defensive intensity, after Murray cools down, the Lakers will take the initiative in the game?
Murray scored only seven points in the second half, but the Nuggets' offense never lost power. In the second half, the Nuggets' puzzle pieces stood up one by one, biting the game in a variety of ways, and waited until the teacher who had rested for most of the quarter finished charging and returned to the field to harvest. Since the Nuggets are so resilient, they should win, and the Lakers missed two opportunities to ignite the atmosphere at home and dampen the Nuggets' confidence, and in the back, it was themselves who lost confidence.
The Lakers' missed first chance was to fail to grab the start.
Before this game, this year's playoffs, the Lakers averaged 7 points to win in the first quarter at home, which was very strong. Grabbing the opening game at home can cause great psychological pressure on the opponent, and chasing points away is very tiring. Murray's first-quarter performance was indeed one of the reasons why the Lakers fell behind in the first quarter, but it was certainly not the reason why the Lakers only scored 20 points in the first quarter. The Lakers offense played poorly because:
Russell and Thick Brow have some bad options. The former is pure in this round of the series, and the latter obviously plays no ball (blocking cover, empty cut) better, or will forcibly choose some one-on-one, and this round of the series basically proves that thick eyebrows one-on-one can't beat Jokic;
What's more, the Lakers can't shoot threes. While it's not surprising that the Lakers aren't accurate three-pointers, the problem is that the Nuggets' defensive execution has been improving by taking advantage of the Lakers' poor space. Both sides of G1 are a little bit unwilling for most of the time, both sides of G2 have groped for ways to defend each other, and G3 Nuggets have defended the Lakers, from strategy to execution are full - basically, all players step on the edge of the paint zone, the defensive circle is very small, and it is really difficult for the Lakers to get in.
The inability to make a fixed three-point shot is also the key to the Lakers' failure to take a second chance. The Lakers' second chance came after the third saving Kic 4 foul, during which time the Lakers failed to contain the Nuggets' offense, and their own offense was not very good, if not for James finally shooting two three-pointers, the Lakers may even be pulled apart without Jokic.
Simply put, the Lakers still died on the age-old problem of poor space. Some stolen chicken cuts can still be made, but this kind of ball is not good to play. The fast attack was also contained, the Nuggets' retreat was extremely fast, and there were almost no mistakes in this game, and the Lakers could not find an easy way to play behind the Nuggets. More often than not, the Lakers need to tear apart the defense from the front, one by one, and no matter how strong James' ability to pull the basket is, it is impossible to always finish when the opponent has the superior number of people at the basket. What's more, the Nuggets' ability to protect the basket is somewhat underestimated, except for Gordon's memorable contribution to the positive Daimao Hachimura, and when Zhan Mei does not have a position advantage, they are not very impulsive to move the teacher's basket protection.
Russell's poor play did have a chain reaction, and if he could no longer punish the Nuggets' contraction and had no containment on the weak side, the only space left for the Lakers to start was Reeves.
Another situation is that Schroeder has no positive presence in this series, he does not have much space to threaten, he does not play well and has no authority, and the defensive end is eaten by Murray's back, so he is not more valuable than Van der Biao. The Lakers were not short of guards, Russell and Schroder blew themselves up, which is another matter. Hamm's surprise soldier Lonnie Walker scored 2 3-pointers this time, but was hit 3 by Pop at the end of the third quarter (can't blame him, Pop had two dry shots too hard), which became a life-saving solution when Jokic was not on the floor.
In such a set, you will find that the Lakers who say that the depth is better than the opposite side, there are 3 rotations that are almost wasted (Van der Biao dragged too much space, Russell as a space point and ball carrier blew himself up, Schroder offensive and defensive did not contribute), a rotation is the X factor (Walker), it cannot always work. Then, outside of the Lakers' first three stars (Mei, Zhan, and Li), there is only one reliable rotation left in Hamura. Hamm did not use Hachimura to spit as expected after the G2 race, which was somewhat unexpected.
The plot on the other side seems to be a reverse version of G2 - from Jokic supporting the first three quarters, Murray bursting the fourth quarter, to Murray supporting the first three quarters, Jokic closing the game. Of course, the actual details are not the same.
Some of Murray's balls don't make much sense, and if you can score against thick eyebrows, it's not a defensive problem. But Murray's 37 points this time is not exactly the same as the explosion in the final G2 quarter - with the Nuggets constantly threatening the basket, the Lakers really dare not defend the three-point line.
The Nuggets' established rebounding advantage in G2 and G2G3's open-cut and misplaced upper-ball performance when he seized the opportunity scared the Lakers. Therefore, even if the Lakers know that the Nuggets are three-point strong, they do not dare to expand too much when they block and dismantle and hand over.
So how do you explain Murray's take-and-take in the two-point area?
I would say that Murray has one ability that may be one of the strongest in the league - acrobatic difficult shots, such as the same side of the hand and foot force, the twisting of the body, the turning of the body and the back, the lagging near the landing of the back, and so on, Murray driving these fancy shots to dodge the defense that is one set after another.
Murray's core strength is super strong, the confrontation after gaining weight is also very reliable, eating Schroeder alone is stress-free, and the effect of changing defensive fronts is also impressive. In '19, Murray struggled to defend the Blazers' linemen who didn't have the ability to hold the ball, and now he dares to switch to James.
So, why can't the effect of G1 James naming Murray be available in G3?
In fact, James G1 named Murray, in addition to increasing Murray's fouls, more benefits still depend on the play of coverers, and this is also the norm for him to name guards in this year's playoffs. In addition to the aging of the body and the loss of three-point feeling, the Lakers' space is not suitable for dotting is also a factor that cannot be ignored. In the fourth quarter, Murray against Schroder, Brown against Reeves, and James named the most suitable partner as Reeves, so he found:
The significance of naming Brown is limited, and the opponent's single defense is relatively hard;
Reeves is the most reliable space point for the team, and naming him means that the other three people can't pull away space at all, so the benefit can only be Reeves' external demolition. Because the Nuggets defended and changed, the opportunity to dismantle the outside cannot be obtained, and the roll call is not easy to play.
James's deterrence wasn't enough, which caused another chain reaction:
The Nuggets dared not to pay attention to James.
In the third quarter, Jokic, who committed three offenses, could not match the thick eyebrows and changed to the position of Van der Biao. Then the player with thick eyebrows becomes Gordon, who will defend James?
Pope - James did not destroy this counterpoint.
In the fourth quarter, instead of using Gordon, Malone insisted on using Jeff Green - the elder Green made a three-pointer in the quarter, which would be a greater space threat than Gordon - and with Jokic's defense thick eyebrows, the player defending James naturally became Green. Green's matching ability is not as good as Gordon, but Malone doesn't care, after all, no matter who is against James, James will eventually go to find the misalignment, and it depends on whether the misplaced player can prevent James. And the answer given by Malone is that everyone tries to change defense, and even Jokic dares to change the defense of James. The Lakers didn't punish the Nuggets enough in the process.
These things that the Lakers didn't do well, the Nuggets did almost all of them.
The Nuggets play better than the Lakers. The Nuggets' shooters are high-quality, running into the two bottom corners to fully open up the fast attack space, and Jokic grabbed the rebound and advanced in the middle like a trident, which is really difficult to prevent. But the Lakers' poor retreat is also true, 3 defense 4, 4 defense 5 pictures are not uncommon - the Lakers fall more in the basket round, once they fall or stumble and can't come back, others fast attack is more play less.
The Nuggets' weak-side shooters responded better than the Lakers. Not to mention the chances created by Jokic attracting pincers, Murray suddenly changed the formation. The most impressive thing is that when Jokic was not on the floor, Brown's sudden score - the Nuggets knew that the Lakers would miss the three-point line, Brown was very patient, and Porter did not let his patience go to waste.
Brown played calmly, composedly, with a big heart, which was great.
The Nuggets named guards who performed far better than the Lakers. In addition to Murray's single-handed eating of Schroeder, in the fourth quarter, Jokic became the man who repeatedly named Schroeder.
There was a strategy change – in the fourth quarter, Hamm changed the alignment again. Since Malone didn't use Gordon, under normal circumstances, thick eyebrows should guard against Jeff Green. But Green scored a bottom-corner three-pointer and preferred to stand on the three-point line more than Gordon, which may have made it more difficult for Hamm to defend Green with thick eyebrows.
This may not be the only reason Hamm changed his position, after all, he did not adjust immediately after Green scored a three, but after Jokic played two rounds of reverse blocking with Murray to find Schroeder, Hamm couldn't stand it.
Does Hamm think that this kind of reverse blocking can destroy the defense outside the thick eyebrow defense zone? After all, Hachimura and Schroeder can't directly change Murray and Jokic, and Hachimura's ability to prevent and dismantle is not enough, and it is likely that the upper line cannot prevent Murray, and the lower line Schroeder cannot be stuck in Jokic.
However, the thick-eyed defense Jokic has proven to be a dead end in this series - as soon as the thick eyebrow leaves the basket, the Lakers' defense will explode.
So, this alignment adjustment ended up pushing the Lakers to the execution ground — Jokic didn't give the Lakers any more chances.
In the three games of this series, the Lakers have seen the hope of winning every game, and have mastered some effective defensive Jokic's strategies, but no team can turn the tide when trailing 3-0, with a tolerance rate of 0 and cannot withstand a little wave, not to mention that the opponent is already stronger than them.
The Nuggets proved that they didn't just become number one in the West because they had MVP in hand. Jamal Murray and Russell have close regular-season statistics, but the latter only fulfills the fate of the Lakers to have a weak side of Russell in the playoffs, while the former can repeat miracles and make those incredible goals the norm. So, we have to say that it's Murray's domain, he's Mr. Big Spectus, born for the playoffs, he's not a satellite around Jokic, he has the shine of not losing to the MVP next to him.
Jokic finally waited for Murray to come back, waited for Pope and Brown, and saw Porter's health and growth. They formed a team that was not rich enough but strong enough to strive for the top, and came to the stage where they should have been welcomed long ago. Patience and perseverance have once again paid off in this era, and it is too early to say congratulations, but the premonition can no longer be suppressed.
Would you still not believe in the Nuggets?
Perhaps, for years to come, you will be able to trust them unconditionally.