On April 21, 2024, Beijing time, the first round of the NBA playoffs came to an end, and the Lakers lost to the Nuggets 103-114 away, and the series suffered a black start, falling behind the defending champion 0-1. Judging from the process of the game, the Lakers lost a pity, in the face of a team like the Nuggets, the Lakers did not focus enough on the whole court, and they were not calm enough when they encountered problems during the game, and head coach Ham did not help the team to give a reasonable response, resulting in a one-sided situation.
From the beginning of the game, you can see the Lakers' attitude towards this game, at the beginning of Jokic's defense, the Lakers arranged to use Hachimura to defend, as long as Jokic falls into the low post, the nearest players will go to help defend and pack, although it is difficult to limit Jokic, the overall effect is not bad. Including the defensive alignment of other players, the Lakers tried their best to pounce and defend, which greatly affected the opponent's shooting touch, which was the main reason why the Lakers were able to take the lead at the beginning.
The Lakers also have a big change, let James play the first and third quarters, rotate the lineup with Davis to play the beginning of the second and fourth quarters, the idea is good, Ham try to let Davis stagger Jokic, so that he can play a good offense during Jokic's absence, which can also solve the Lakers' offensive problems without James. However, it's beautiful to imagine, it's another thing to do, during this time, Ham used Russell and Reaves on the court, and rarely played a good match with Davis, and in the second quarter, he still relied on Davis to beat Jordan Jr. to score two points.
But from the second quarter, the Lakers' defensive intensity began to decline, the Nuggets regained their outside shooting touch, Porter Murray and Reggie both shot three-pointers, and the Lakers' defense was difficult to maintain, and more importantly, the Lakers' own offense had problems, Russell, Reaves and Hachimura and others missed three-point shots, and only James made a long-range three-point shot in this quarter.
In the second half of the game, the Lakers' performance was a disaster, continuing the poor offense, the defensive end allowed Pope to shoot 4 three-pointers in the third quarter, Jokic also began to exert strength, and Ham also used a small lineup for a while!
In the last quarter, the Lakers actually had a chance to chase points, at the beginning when Davis led the team alone, the lineup sent by Ham was incomprehensible, Russell and Reaves didn't feel good, and the defense was also targeted, he actually didn't let Dinwiddie and Vincent play, Davis was obviously not in shape in the first few minutes, and there were also problems with physical fitness, and he kept shooting three points on the outside, basically not going to the inside to play, Ham looked at this situation and didn't solve it.
This lineup is in the case of Davis without physical fitness, Russell and Reaves have hit iron one after another, it is better to replace the physical Hachimura and others, even if the offense is not good, at least their defense can match the Nuggets. But he didn't, and after the first timeout, he was replaced with James early. But James, who was overconsumed in the third quarter, made a breakthrough after coming on the court in the fourth quarter, and basically didn't touch the ball after that, let alone attack!
finally touched the ball, and made a mistake, was stealed by Jokic to complete the dunk, and then held the ball again to break through the single Gordon, and fell to the ground in pain with his own feet! During this time, Davis was able to attack, but the Lakers chose more to let Russell hold the ball and continue to play iron, and finally chased the point hopelessly and missed the game.
To sum up, the Lakers have Achilles' heels in three areas
First, role players collapse
Lakers starters Russell and Reaves had a bad performance in this game, Russell shot 6-of-20 from the field and 1-of-9 from three-point range to get 13 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, while Reaves shot 5-of-9 from the field and 2-of-6 from three-point range to get 13 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Relatively speaking, Hachimura and Pulis are in good form, but they do not have a high proportion of importance in the game, and Hachimura is habitually abandoned for a long time in the second half. Vincent and Dinwiddie didn't even make a single shot, and they did a good job of defending in the second quarter, but they didn't have much chance in the second half.
Second, James Davis's fitness problems
James and Davis fought fiercely in the first half, and by the second half, there were serious fitness problems. James basically did not participate in the offense in the fourth quarter of the game, and Ham let James play the first and fourth quarters, obviously giving Lao Zhan more physical challenges!
Although Davis played aggressively in this game, he didn't want to attack at the beginning of the fourth quarter, facing Jordan Jr. who had been shooting from the outside, and finally broke through the inside, and was interfered with by Watson and Murray, and missed the layup.
Third, head coach Ham! This is also the biggest problem for the Lakers!
The Lakers seem to have a nine-man rotation, which is actually similar to a seven-man rotation, with Hayes only playing 4 minutes in the second quarter, Vincent only 7 minutes, Dinwiddie 13 minutes, and only Prince playing 20 minutes off the bench. With such a high-intensity game and only a 6-point rotation, it's no wonder that James and Davis are running out of fitness.
More importantly, the Lakers have so many players, Ham will not make reasonable use of them, and it is obviously impossible to fight James and Davis throughout the playoffs. It is not good for the court to respond on the spot, the defensive tactics are not in place, and although Hachimura is difficult to defend Jokic, it will at least consume Jokic, and it can also interfere with the proper clamping. However, using Lao Zhan to defend Jokic in the third quarter was a big failure.
Similarly, when the Lakers entered a scoring drought, Ham had no solution, and still let Russell and Reaves shoot three-pointers, and if they couldn't shoot, they were beaten by the Nuggets to switch offense. On the other hand, the Nuggets, every timeout can always solve the problem and make a decision.
Overall, the Lakers seem to be trying their best throughout the game, but they just played a good start, and the stability of the Nuggets in the next three quarters is reflected, and the situation is also one-sided!
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