The opponent who can really give Jokic a headache... Is it Coach Spoo?

The Miami Heat won Game 2 to tie the Nuggets 1-1.

Coach Spor: The first game to clip Jokic failed, today lock him to pass the ball?

The last time Jokic lost at home in Denver was almost three months ago: On March 12, Jokic had 35 points, 20 rebounds and 11 assists, but Murray shot 5-of-19 from the field and none of them at the basket. That day, the Nets used a lot of single defense + defense: Xujokic played super stats, held down the Nuggets team, and he could win in Denver.

- I know this, and Coach Spall must know it too.

Jokic lost 40+ games in the third playoff game of the season today – lost the first two and lost today. In the Western Conference semifinals in Phoenix, Jokic had 53 points and 10 assists in one game and a 30+17+17 game, both lost, that is: it is better to let Jokic get 40+ than to hold down others.

- I know this, and Coach Spall must know it too.

In the first game, Jokic had 10 assists in the half, 13 shots in the game, and the Nuggets easily won at the end of the fourth quarter.

Today, Jokic shot 9 shots in the first quarter and scored 41 points on 28-of-28 shooting — just four assists.

Of course, it's not just about taking Jokic's pass.

The first hot on the small ball starter, the first quarter was blasted by Gordon inside 12 points; Today the hot start with Loew, Gordon scored 12 points in the game.

In the first game, Strus shot 0-of-10 and scored 12 points in the first nine minutes of the day.

The hot start is a 10-2:

- Defensive end, single defense Jokic, empty Gordon, pile people in the box. Jokic went to the penalty area and only sent someone to clamp it a little.

- On the offensive end, Vincent held the ball to find a block, and Strus used the Nuggets to delay the ball carrier, and cut into the bottom corner to find an open basket: he had two three-pointers in the first quarter, because the Nuggets cared too much about Jimmy Butler.

With these two moves, the heat once led, but then Coach Spall made the wrong move:

Zeller came up.

Jokic went straight to Zeller to recover the difference, and then early in the second quarter, Braun's brave play: It's a bit weird to say, but today Christian Braun, overall, is the Nuggets' second-best player.

Braun is a man who doesn't excel – scouts report he knows everything but doesn't have a killer trick – but he can win; He played a double-double in the national finals in Kansas, and finally interfered with Caleb Löw's three-point finish with the championship strike. Positive, flexible, hardworking, brainy and integrated into the team. Murray missed the ball, he picked it up and threw it in; Breaking the ball and counterattacking to give Jeff Green a layup; A breakout three-point shot allowed Bruce to score a three-pointer, ran a counterattack to assist Murray a bottom-corner three-pointer, weak-flanked assist Gordon three-pointer, and then forced Lowry to pass the ball, allowing Murray to copy the ball and counterattack the dunk: the Nuggets played a wave of 27-6, 44-32 to lead the heat.

During that time, Murray seemed to wake up to take over the game, and Braun was his blade.

— but in hindsight, it was one of Murray's only two glowing moments.

The Nuggets were 27-6 in the second quarter, successfully pressing and expanding the ball, Braun's ubiquitous fast hand cut the ball, but this style of play will naturally miss the weak side.

After the heat timeout, the strong and weak side shifts frequently, Loew shot three points, Vincent's blocking, all played, and the offense was alive.

The good thing about the recovery of the hot offense: they didn't let the Nuggets frequently counterattack brush points, once they fell into positional battles, the hot single defense Jokic, forcing the Nuggets to find cover, the Nuggets' problem came:

The perimeter of positional warfare that can effectively play with the ball, only Murray remains; The low side of Porter's ball quotient is exposed. In the second half of the second quarter, Jimmy took over again for a while, didn't let the heat collapse, and even slowly regained momentum.

Jokic can occasionally find Gordon, but the passing window is getting smaller.

The third quarter heat continues to play strong and weak side transfer, combined with a large number of cross-cuts; The team, in turn, did not allow Jokic any passing opportunities; When Jokic spun for a long time and couldn't find a teammate and was forced to shoot a three-pointer 64-59, Coach Spoh on the sidelines showed a Tyrion Lannister-esque, smiling expression.

I can't tell if he is cursing, "This dead fat man ruined my plan again, but I can't show a losing expression, and I have to giggle as much as possible"...

Still calculating "everything is going according to my calculations, fine, but I have to make him feel that he chose it"...

The Nuggets called a timeout and defended out, but Adebayo immediately broke through with a basket to tie the heat at 66; Then came the Jokic moment: The Nuggets' offense at the end of the third quarter was purely Jokic's doing, and he scored 18 points in a single quarter to give the Nuggets an 83-75 lead. At this point, Jokic came down, probably, "I gave you an eight-point lead, how can you give me a four-minute break?" ”

But Miami didn't let the Nuggets rest.

Jokic's 18 points in the third quarter gave the Nuggets an eight-point advantage, supporting only 1 minute and 12 seconds:

Dunro made a three-pointer, then ran to the weak side to catch the ball and broke through Murray to hit a three-pointer, another three-pointer, and scored eight consecutive points in one go.

So Jokic had to come back with 10 minutes and 48 seconds left in the fourth quarter and start the decisive battle.

hot on the joint defense, and limited Jokic from taking away at the free throw line; On the offensive end, Dunroe took Braun and gave Vincent a three-pointer:

He then cut inside for a layup to make it 10-0.

The heat then continuously asked Potter to block and dismantle, hitting him with a sense of position; When the Nuggets expanded, Adebayo blocked the inside cut and ate Porter to play a three-pointer: 104-95 lead, and within eight minutes, the Heat played a wave of 29-12.

Fantastic reversal. Murray scored eight points in the final half, but it was too late.

How successful was Coach Spoh's scheduling?

In the fourth quarter of the first game, the heat started 11-0 to stop the Nuggets.

Two minutes into the first quarter today, the Heat led the Nuggets 10-2 and stopped.

At 2 and a half minutes in the third quarter, Coach Malone was stopped.

With 1 minute and 12 seconds in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets' 8-point advantage has been cut and Coach Malone is suspended; Another minute, another pause.

——At the beginning of each quarter, Coach Spor can always play a wave of climax, and Coach Malone can only follow in a regular manner most of the time.

The Nuggets' offense today actually only followed the wave of defensive counterattack when Braun was on the floor at the beginning of the second quarter, and Murray's pursuit of 8 points in the half at the end of the fourth quarter; Other times, the game is just Jokic's mighty power.

The worst Nuggets played today was obviously Porter.

In other words, his trick of "no matter where the opposite defender is, just step towards his sweet zone, young Durant-style strong three-pointer", is a high-risk and high-reward gamble; Shot, ignited the team, led a wave of 8-0 small climax and the like; If the shot is not hit, it is easy to counterattack from the opposite side (because he likes to throw this in the bottom corner and flank); And today he eats cover, defensive communication mistakes are too many to count. When it comes to the heat, both he and Murray have big problems with their offensive choices:

Murray would dribble inefficiently, and Porter simply didn't know where the ball should go; Defensively, Porter doesn't confirm the details of the defense when he faces the cover of the ball, while Murray gets lost in space when he encounters the cover without the ball - today they were put together by Lowry and Dunroe, respectively.

Braun, who played bravely at the beginning of the second quarter, was attacked head-on with the ball in the fourth quarter: his co-defense was excellent, but the single defense was not so powerful.

In turn, Coach Spall made one brilliant plan after another today:

Loew started and had 10 rebounds in 22 minutes.

Strus's open-cut three-pointer in the first quarter made the last game.

Vincent's cover three-point play is magnanimous; Adebayo's mid-range shot and block-and-block interior play changes.

Dunroe's elusive open cut and ball-carrying attack variation in the fourth quarter, true and false inside and outside cuts.

——The tricks hit the flaws of the Nuggets.

Jimmy shot just 7-of-19 today — Gordon defended him extremely hard — but held the game in the second and fourth quarters, as well as nine assists, including five three-pointers. The last game that broke the team's attack on Strus and Martin was fed by him today. He excelled as bait: perfectly judged the Nuggets' jealousy of him.

The only flaw is probably that Zeller simply shouldn't have played.

Of course, think the other way around: Jokic beat Zeller for the advantage gained in the half quarter, and Dunroe was able to save it in a minute.

The weirdest thing is that Coach Spall didn't use Dunro much in the first half, and was forced by the Nuggets' second team and Braun's fast hand to push and counterattack, and a wave opened up the point difference; In the second half, he used Dunro when the Nuggets came up to the second team, plus kept looking for Braun while holding the ball, and directly recovered the score.

It is difficult to guess whether he thought in advance that "Dunro did not need to stay as a surprise soldier in the second half in the first half", or observed on the spot, and suddenly decided that "Dunro is very suitable for engaging in the Nuggets of this second team", no matter what, it is a magical layout.

In the 13 games the Nuggets have won in the playoffs this season, Jokic is averaging 27+14+10 per game and shooting 60% from the field.

In the four games the Nuggets lost, Jokic averaged 42+11+10 per game, shooting 69% from the field.

Of course, it's not the so-called "let Jokic change from a playmaker to a scorer, the Nuggets will lose", it's more like "strangling Jokic to other people's passing routes and openings, forcing Jokic to score points to fight us".

Dallas used a similar strategy in the 2005 Western Conference semifinals: after Nash scored 27 points and 17 assists in one game, Nash shot as far as he could for 48 points but only 5 assists in the next game, and Josh Howard happily thought that "we succeeded defensively".

So today is nothing more than proof again:

Jokic is so strong that it makes a relatively good deal to cut off his organization at the cost of 41 points on 28 shots — just as Dallas Ken gave Nash 48 points to cut off his organization.

And of all the oppositions on both sides of the series, the biggest matchmaking advantage... It's Coach Spoh vs. Coach Malone.

Coach Malone is a good coach, but Coach Spoo, with all the performances since the start of the playoffs to today, is really in another dimension.