The Lakers did their best, is there still a miracle?

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Edit |  Aunt Wang, Xin Yu

The data board reads 99-99, and the game time is fast moving towards zero, and Jamal Murray, the guard who was once afraid of being traded by the Nuggets, faced the defense with thick eyebrows, broke through the emergency stop and stepped back to shoot.

Back four years ago, in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, Thick Eyebrows killed the Nuggets with a whistle blow. At this moment, thick eyebrows, as a defender, tried to interfere with Murray's last shot, and there was no problem with his defense, but the balance of victory and defeat was tilted in favor of the Nuggets at this time.

The ball went in, the whistle blew, and Murray's sword sealed the throat, allowing the Nuggets to complete a 20-point comeback, and the Lakers did their best, and you could hardly ask them to do better, but the overall score was still 0-2. The Lakers will be back at home, can they still salvage this series?

Lakers close to the limit

After the first game of the Lakers-Nuggets series, Tony Jones, a reporter from theathletic, wrote a manuscript titled "The Lakers Can Only Beat the Nuggets if They Play Perfectly", the theme is that the Lakers and the Nuggets have a difference in strength, and they want to make up for the only way to play an unassailable game.

In the first game, the Lakers played well in the first, second and fourth quarters, only the third quarter was not played well, but it was a mistake in this quarter, which was caught by the Nuggets and collapsed directly. The Lakers had some detail issues that added up to a losing game.

1. Russell shot 1 of 9 three-pointers in the first game, and the Nuggets deliberately let Russell shoot, defended and dismantled James or thick eyebrows, or defended Shen and retreated to give Russell room to shoot, and the result was how Russell shot and how not, digging a big hole for the Lakers.

2, the Lakers used Hachimura to defend Jokic, thick eyebrows to Gordon, such a counterpoint can allow thick eyebrows to pull out their hands to protect the basket, after all, Gordon's three-point threat is not great, but Hachimura is too difficult to defend Jokic, Mr. Yoo easily took away 32 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists, and his personal singles and teammates were not delayed.

3. The Nuggets chased Reaves and Russell and broke the Lakers' defensive weakness.

The Lakers learned from the pain, and in response to the shortcomings of the first game, they gave adjustments in the second game, thick eyebrows to defend Jokic, and when thick eyebrows were needed to help defend the restricted area, James went to carry the teacher.

When the Lakers defended against the Nuggets, they used the tactics of thick eyebrows and retreat combined with teammates to chase around the screen, first protect the basket, challenge the Nuggets' three-point shot, and once the Nuggets can't shoot, they will immediately counterattack.

On the offensive end, activate Russell and Bushy Eyebrow's blocking and pick-and-roll first, and try to activate Russell's firepower. Russell's shooting can provide space support, the Lakers can switch to James Mei blocking, and the Nuggets easily dare not wrap up.

Hamm's adjustments basically worked, Russell rebounded strongly, made 7 three-pointers, you can't ask him to shoot better, thick eyebrows hit 32 points, although the fourth quarter "pulled" some, but he was single-handedly on both offensive and defensive ends of the league's best player in the league today, and couldn't be more demanding.

James 26 + 8 + 12 quasi-triple-double, reproducing the classic shot of wearing a "cape" in the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals, hand-to-hand fighting Jokic on the defensive end, and scoring 12 points alone in the fourth quarter on the offensive end, saying that "Thanos Zhan" may be an exaggeration, but it is indeed going all out.

The Lakers suppressed the Nuggets' shooting rate to 44% throughout the game, and only 8 of 34 three-pointers, leading the Nuggets by 20 points at most.

Never underestimate the heart of a champion

Murray and Jokic first teamed up in 2014, when two young men from Canada and Serbia represented the international team together at the Nike Basketball Summit, and the wheels of fate began to turn at that moment.

Murray is a player whose strength is greater than honor, he has entered the NBA so far, except for the All-Rookie team, there are no other individual awards, the All-Star and the All-Star team of the season are blank, but his hard solution is the first in the league, especially in the playoffs.

Murray went through a dark career when a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee cost him the season, and he cried out for fear of being traded by the team, and it was Coach Malone who told him that the Nuggets would not do it, and Murray was tied to the future of the team.

The Nuggets and their leader Jokic gave Murray the greatest support, when Mr. Jokic won the regular season MVP for two consecutive years, but because of Murray's injury and lack of help, he could not make a breakthrough in the playoffs, he never complained, did not leave, and did not ask the Nuggets to bring in reinforcements, but patiently waited for Murray's return.

Such a wait, waiting for the 2023 championship, they are on the way out of the West, and the last opponent they eliminated is the Lakers.

The Lakers are a typical playoff team, they have the basic talent of James Mei and the advantage of size allows them to suppress most teams, with the exception of the Nuggets, because they have Jokic and Murray.

Thick eyebrows are the top defenders in the league, but Jokic can directly point thick eyebrows without blocking and dismantling, and Murray is a direct stab at the shortcomings of the Lakers' outside defense. The Lakers' defensive strength can cause problems for Jokic, but it is difficult to completely trap Jokic, and their defensive weakness is targeted by Murray.

In the second battle between the Nuggets and the Lakers, Jokic faced Zhan Mei and teamed up to encircle and suppress, but still handed over a big triple-double of 27 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists.

With a center like Jokic with both tonnage and technology, the Nuggets can suppress the Lakers in rebounds and restricted area scoring, and they grabbed 7 more rebounds than the Lakers in this game, and scored 16 more points in the restricted area, which is why the Nuggets shoot very badly but can still turn the tables.

Murray actually didn't shoot well in this game, 9 of 24 shots and 5 three-pointers were missed, and if the Nuggets lost, Murray would definitely be pulled into the "conference room", but he scored 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the fourth quarter of the showdown and completed the kill.

The Nuggets didn't do any complicated tactics for the final shot, that is, Jokic and Murray's high-post blocking, which was the cooperation they played when they first met 10 years ago.

Never underestimate the heart of a champion, especially this kind of champion team that refuses to take shortcuts.

Is there still hope for the Lakers?

Counting both the regular season and the playoffs, the Lakers have lost 10 straight against the Nuggets, with their last win coming on December 17, 2022. It is not too much to say that the Nuggets are already the demons of the Lakers.

The Lakers can't beat the Nuggets, in the final analysis, the staffing is not a breaking point for the Nuggets, the Lakers are big, the Nuggets are big, the Lakers have Zhan Mei, the Nuggets have Yomu, the core duo PK, the Lakers can't take advantage. Hachimura + Reaves + Russell, can't fight the Nuggets' Gordon, Porter Jr. and Pope, this Russell broke out, but Porter Jr. also threw in 6 three-pointers, when the Lakers concentrated defensive resources on Jokic and Murray, Porter Jr.'s indiscriminate pulling made the Lakers quite a headache.

Although the 0-2 overall score is not a desperate situation, the Nuggets have a lineup against the Lakers, which greatly increases the difficulty coefficient of the Lakers to reverse this series, or in other words, the Lakers' more realistic pursuit is to win one game first.

Although this game was lost, it still provided the Lakers with a template for winning, Zhan Mei and Russell should attack the line with all their strength, and give strength to their bodies on defense, even if they can't stop Jokic from killing the basket, they must try to control the bombardment of other Nuggets players on the inside, and create counterattack opportunities through defense.

The rules of winning are easy to say, but difficult to do, the Lakers basically did it in the second game, but by the time they fought in the fourth quarter, they were exhausted, which is the inevitable problem when your lineup can't restrain the opponent, and the physical slots are empty.

Another major reason why the Lakers are so tired is that they shoot fewer free throws, they only made 13 free throws in Game 2, the Lakers averaged 24 free throws per game during the regular season, second in the league and first in the league after All-Star weekend. The fundamental reason why the Lakers hit the Nuggets with few free throws is that they can't establish a size advantage, and the Nuggets don't need a lot of fouls to block Lakers players.

James brought up the referee issue after the game, arguing that a decision like Russell was slapped in the face by Porter Jr. without a foul was a stupid decision. The Lakers will return to their home court for games three and four, and they may have a dozen if they can boost their free throw production by more basket punches or other means.

Otherwise, I'm afraid this series will end soon.