Today, the Lakers went to the road to challenge the Nuggets, opening the first matchup of the series between the two sides, and finally the Lakers lost to the Nuggets 103-114 and swallowed the first loss of the series. James and Davis did their best in this game, of which James scored 27 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists, and Davis scored 32 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists.
The Lakers lost this game because of the poor performance of their perimeter players. With the exception of James and Davis, no player scored more than 15 points. Russell was even more sluggish today, scoring 13 points on 6-of-20 shooting from beyond the three-point line. Hamm's employment is also incomprehensible to many fans. Russell and Reaves have been too trusting all season, but once these two guys get to the playoffs, their rivalry will be problematic.
The first is that the two of them are completely targets for each other on the defensive end. Any forward player on the Nuggets will be decisive when they encounter the defense of both of them. If the two of them are not effective on the offensive end of the court, then they are playing a completely negative role. It's worth noting that the Lakers have players who are tough defensively, but Ham didn't choose to use them. For example, Dinwiddie and Vincent both of them were very good defensively, but Dinwiddie only got 13 minutes of playing time today, which did not get a single shot, and scored 0 points. Vincent, on the other hand, only got seven minutes of playing time and didn't get any shots.
It can be said that the Lakers' current outside Ham trusts Russell and Reaves very much, and the status of the two of them cannot be shaken. Even though Dinwiddie has a very good resume with other teams, Ham still doesn't trust him. Dinwiddie had a very good playoff season with the Nets last season. Last season, Dinwiddie averaged 16.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game in four playoff games for the Nets, shooting 39 percent from three-point range. At the time, he was the absolute core of the Nets, but it was such a player who was used by Ham in the Lakers and scrapped under Ham.
Dinwiddie didn't establish himself as a team since he came to the Lakers, and his playing time has been very small. Many fans think that Dinwiddie is stronger than Reeves, but in Hamm's narrow understanding, Reeves is the most trustworthy. So that's why the Lakers can't make a break, and Reaves and Russell have proven that both of them are defenseless. And Reeves' offensive skills have been thoroughly studied by everyone. Hamm might as well trust Dinwiddie more, who at least has the ability to impact. It might have been better if Dinwiddie and Vincent had been given more playing time.