When this season's NBA East-West Finals showdown was just announced, some nostalgic fans may be looking forward to another "brilliant" battle - Lakers vs Celtics. As a result, after five games, the Lakers have trailed the Celtics 3-0 and have been statistically eliminated.
Gave you the opportunity, you...
Nuggets guard Murray
For the Lakers, yesterday's matchup with the Nuggets was a backwater battle, and if it didn't succeed, it would be a success. In NBA playoff history, no team has survived a 3-0 downfall. The Lakers' players naturally know it. And judging from the progress of the game, the Lakers do have a chance to win back a city at home.
With just over 7 minutes left in the third quarter, the Nuggets got Jokic into foul trouble, received his fourth foul, and had to watch from the sidelines. And Murray was also under the Lakers' targeted defense, falling into silence. It seems that the scene of the 2020 Western Conference finals of the park will be repeated. At that time, the Lakers targeted Jokic to foul, which brought the Nuggets' entire system to a standstill, and finally won the game. It was the same yesterday, the Nuggets looked stormy, and the Lakers chased 71 at one point...
Rivers, a reliable role player on the Lakers' team
But then the Nuggets showed what they showed to show fans why they were number one in the West! Role players Porter, Brown, and Pope fired one after another. Without Jokic and Murray frozen, the Nuggets' mixed lineup steadied the situation, leading 84-82 by two points to end the third quarter. By the time Fourth-Saving Kic was back on the lineup, the Lakers had lost a great fighter. The Nuggets took the game victory with another strong 13-0 run midway through the quarter.
Looking back at the three games in the series so far, the Lakers have had a chance in every meeting, and the gap between the two sides seems to be just one or two rounds to handle. For example, in the first game, the Lakers trailed by 21 points at one point, and coach Hamm then adjusted the three guards and replaced Hachimura to defend Jokic, which was effective. With 2 minutes and 18 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the gap narrowed to 3 points.
In the second game, Porter and Pope in the Nuggets' starting lineup were in foul trouble again, the team's rotation rhythm was disrupted, Murray also fell into a scoring drought, and the Lakers led by three points in the third quarter. In the third game, as I just said, Jokic committed 4 fouls in the third quarter. But in the end, the result of the game, without exception, the Nuggets had the last laugh. Why?
Role players: Nuggets> Lakers
The Nuggets bench Bruce Brown performed well, contributing 15 points, five rebounds and five assists per game without turnovers. He also became the first player to record 15+5+5 numbers and zero turnovers in the playoffs since Iguodala in the 2015 Finals.
In every game, the Nuggets don't rely on the performance of one or two superstars to decide the game. Admittedly, in the second game, Murray scored 23 points alone in the fourth quarter, much like the star players determined the direction of the game, but fans who watched the game know that in the third quarter, the Nuggets' explosive three-point rain of role players was the key to survival. Similarly, in the last 2 minutes of the first game, who is solving the siege? Pope hit 2 points. The same was true in Game 3, where Jeff Green and Brown both hit 3-pointers at 13-0 in the fourth quarter.
The Nuggets are a team built on the inside and outside twin stars of Jokic and Murray. On this basis, it is supplemented by Porter, Gordon, Pope, Brown and Braun. When the team's star players are in the doldrums, these role players are able to deal with the pressure from their opponents as a whole.
The Lakers' role players, with the exception of Rivers and Hachimura, have not been able to provide an equal amount of contribution. It is interesting to take a look at the salary tables of the two teams. Russell has a salary of $31.38 million, which is not as good as the contribution of 14 million Pop. And in the Lakers team, Beasley, who paid fourth, and Bamba, who was fifth, did not get a chance to play, and the other was injured and suspended so far. The good steel of the Lakers did not use the blade.
Star combination: Lakers < Nuggets
Jokic vs James
Let's take a rough comparison of the main players of the two teams. In the first game, Zhan Mei was 66 points, 22 boards and 12 assists, and Lei Rou was 65 points, 26 boards and 19 assists; In the second game, Zhan Mei was 40 points, 23 boards and 14 assists, and Lei Rou was 60 points, 27 boards and 17 assists; In the third game, Zhan Mei had 51 points, 25 boards and 13 assists, and Lei Rou had 61 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists. Except for the first match, the Nuggets duo performed better than James.
It has been three years since the park was separated, and one of the two Lakers owners is old and the other is injured. The Nuggets duo, despite Murray's severe ligament tear, recovered well, averaging just 1.2 fewer points per game this season than before the injury, without a major slide. And Jokic has become more and more mature, and has gone further and further on the road of the most versatile "triple-double" in history, and is now in full swing.
In contrast, the Nuggets will outperform the Lakers, and the six- and seven-man rotation lineup is also more combative than the opponent, and the 3-0 result is a reflection of the overall strength of the two teams. Even if Lakers coach Hamm does not put three guards in the first round, the chances of the Lakers winning the series are slim. It's just that fans may not want to see the end of James' "aging", just as the so-called "free heroes like beauty, do not allow the world to see white heads", may be an embarrassing sweep.