At 8:30 a.m. Beijing time on April 21, the matchup of the first round of the NBA playoffs is in full swing. The Denver Nuggets are at home against the Los Angeles Lakers. In the regular season, the Lakers ranked 8th in the West with a 47-35 record, and finally entered the playoffs as 7th in the West through the play-offs, while the Nuggets ranked 2nd in the West with 57 wins and 25 losses. In the past two years, the Nuggets can be said to be the super nemesis of the Lakers, counting the regular season and playoffs, the Nuggets have won 8 consecutive victories against the Lakers, swept the Lakers 4-0 in the Western Conference last season, and swept the Lakers again in the regular season this season. From the perspective of the lineup, the Nuggets players are tall and big, with outstanding single defense ability, and although the Lakers have also introduced a lot of forward players, they will definitely not have an advantage in the position.
Speaking about the Nuggets' defensive strategy, Anthony Davis said in an interview: "It's going to take our team's defense, doing everything we can to suppress the opponent's offense, putting pressure on the ball carrier, and we're going to take a different approach and try not to give them any easy shots." Since last year, we've had an ongoing problem with the games we've played against them, which is that it's too easy for them to get offensive rebounds, and we often don't get back to defense in a timely manner, you know, they're a transition powerhouse. So, we need to get rid of some of the problems. If we focus on defending, limiting their easy scoring and trying not to make them transition but fall into positional battles, then we've given ourselves a great chance. ”
In this game, the two sides are in the starting lineup, the Lakers are sent: James, thick eyebrows, Hachimura, Reaves and Russell, and the Nuggets are sent, Murray, Pope, Porter Jr., Gordon and Jokic. At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, Jokic jumped the ball to win, the Nuggets took the lead in getting the ball, Mr. Jokic scored the first goal of the game under the basket, Gordon also scored two points under the empty cut basket, the thick eyebrows were not to be outdone, the two-handed hammer dunk helped the Lakers open, Reaves accelerated the breakthrough and threw and scored, Jokic strode the meteor gliding and slammed the dunk, James hit the back single, and made a layup without hesitation, Russell fast-break pushed the counterattack lightning layup to score, and then scored a mid-range emergency stop, James raised his hand on the wing and scored a three-pointer。
On the contrary, the Lakers took the initiative and took a lead of more than 5 points. Watson made a quick shot from an empty three-point position to help the Nuggets stop the bleeding in time, James hit the basket and wiped the board to score, and the Nuggets missed the three-point shot in the opening stage, and only Watson made a three-point shot. At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers led the Nuggets by eight points, 33-25. At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, Murray stepped back and scored three points at a 45-degree angle to help the Nuggets take the next city, Russell immediately chased the high-arc three-point shot and also colored, the thick eyebrows turned back and threw it down to score easily, Jordan Jr. made a tough killing in the penalty area, stood on the free throw line and made two free throws, Prince stayed in the air to fight the layup and hit the board, Dinwiddie strode the basket with a low hand and scored a goal, James steals and fast-break a dragon and wins steadily.
The Lakers took a 12-point lead in the second quarter, and the Nuggets called two timeouts in a row. After the pause, the situation on the court changed abruptly, and the Nuggets broke out with a wave of 14-2 to erase the point difference instantly, and the two teams returned to the same running line. James' long-range three-pointer stopped the bleeding for the Lakers, and at halftime, the Lakers led the Nuggets by three points at 60-57. At the beginning of the second half of the game, Yibian fought again, Pope hurricane three-pointer opened the third quarter of the game, Russell slipped the bottom line and responded with a layup, Porter Jr. accelerated to break through and squeezed into the basket to cut two points, Reaves ultra-long three-point shot directly blossomed, Murray was not to be outdone, and scored 5 points in a row, thick eyebrows turned around and continued to score a slam dunk, Porter Jr. confidently shot a three-point shot through the heart of the basket. In the first half of the third quarter, the scores of the two sides were still very close.
At this time, the Lakers suddenly collapsed, the Nuggets were another wave of 13-0, Jokic's personal ability was successful in consecutive singles, Porter, Reggie, Pope three-point blossomed, the Lakers instantly fell behind the Nuggets by 14 points, Prince's key three-pointer helped the Lakers stop the decline slightly, and after the third quarter of the game, the Nuggets overtook the Lakers by 11 points 89-78. In the final quarter, the Lakers did not give up, biting the score tightly, but Russell was too pulled, giving the opportunity to shoot repeatedly, the Nuggets consumed time to laugh to the end, and in the end, the Nuggets reversed the Lakers 114-103, and the Lakers really couldn't beat.
In terms of statistics, on the Lakers' side, James had 27 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 7 turnovers for a quasi-quadruple-double, thick eyebrows 32 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks, Russell shot 6 of 20, including 1 of 9 three-pointers and got 13 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, Reaves had 13 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, and Prince had 11 points. On the Nuggets side, Jokic had 32 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists, Murray had 22 points, 6 rebounds and 10 assists, Porter Jr. had 19 points and 8 rebounds, Gordon had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists, and Pope had 12 points.