This season's NBA playoffs are in full swing, and it is not difficult to find from the regular season that the NBA is quietly changing. The simplest example, the Celtics' double tanhua after getting the help of Holiday and Boshen, rode into the dust and entered the Finals with one foot in advance, and the East can't find a team that can put pressure on the Celtics, unless the Celtics themselves have problems. On the Western side, the Thunder and Timberwolves have risen super, and the young team is talented, based on defense, playing impact, and has been in the top three for a long time throughout the regular season. The rapid growth of young people means the end of the legend. Curry and his Warriors, who were out of the playoffs, are the best example of this, and the Warriors really can't believe in meritocracy anymore. In addition, although the Lakers entered the playoffs, they also saw the end.
I specifically checked that the last time the Lakers beat the Nuggets was back in December 22, when Wei Shao, Beverley, and Schroder were still on the team, and James scored 30 points in that game, and Wei Shao came off the bench with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists, leading the bench to a big win over the Nuggets. Since then, last season's regular season 1 game + 4 Western Conference finals + this season's regular season 3 games + the first 2 games of the playoff series, the Lakers lost all of them, 10 consecutive defeats! Especially when the Lakers defeated the Pelicans to lock in the seventh seed to anchor the Nuggets, many Los Angeles media also believed that the Lakers should also take revenge this season! But in the first two games of the playoffs, one Nuggets easily won by 11 points, and the other unexpectedly completed a 20-point reversal, killing the Lakers and seeing the gap clearly! The underestimated champions, you have to build a new dynasty!
Let's start with two sets of inconspicuous but terrible data! According to the statistics of the American media StatMuse, the NBA historical playoffs-regular season difference is ranked, and the Nuggets' Jamal Murray ranks first in history: 17.5 points per game in the regular season and 24.9 points per game in the playoffs, with a difference of +7.4! In fact, in the past few years, there are many stars in the NBA who can achieve an average of 30+ per game in the regular season, but there are very few who can achieve a positive playoff/regular season difference, and we are familiar with nothing more than Butler and Leonard. There are two key nuggets, directly occupying the top two in history!
The Lakers and Nuggets series is the best example of this. In the first game, the Lakers lost by 11 points, but from the second half of the third quarter, the Lakers were suddenly dumb and were unable to fight back; in the second game, the Lakers opened up to 20 points, but the Nuggets began to exert their strength from the second half of the third quarter, and Murray scored 6 points + mid-range shots in the last 1 minute to redeem himself. In fact, the Lakers are not afraid of anyone except the Nuggets this season, even in the face of the Thunder, which is the first in the West, it is also a variety of easy tricks, including playing the Clippers, and they can completely suppress the opponent this season, but why can't they beat the Nuggets?
In fact, the Nuggets have already shown their championship appearance in the bubble park in 20 years, and if it weren't for Howard upsetting Jokic, who was still young and vigorous at the time, the Lakers would have had a hard time getting through at that time. But it was just the Lakers who let go of Pope and became the last piece of the puzzle for the Nuggets to win the championship, the Nuggets were 16-4 in the playoffs last season, and only the Suns dragged the series to G6 with the singles of Durant and Booker, and the three teams, including the Timberwolves, Lakers, and Heat, did not create any pressure on the Nuggets. Bidding farewell to Bruce Brown and Jeff Green in the offseason, it seems that the strength of the bench lineup has declined, but the four of Bryan + Jordan Jr. + Reggie + Watson add up to an average of 25 minutes per game!
During this period, Porter's projection stability, Gordon's impact, Pope's various chasing three-pointers and chasing ball carriers, including Jokic's ability to carry the bottom, he can get 30+ if he wants to score, and the opponent will cover him. To put it bluntly, all this is to pave the way for Murray: a game of 48 minutes, Murray can be inaccurate for 45 minutes, but as long as the last 3 minutes find the touch, the Nuggets can crush the opponent, more than once, this season's regular season win Heat and win Celtics are the same, and Murray can't be sluggish all the time, the Nuggets' starting five have no shortcomings! But interestingly, the Nuggets' probability of winning the championship this season is only 5.1%, far less than the Celtics' 59.5%, and even lower than the Thunder's 15.6% and the Timberwolves' 8.6%!
I still remember last year's Nuggets championship parade, coach Malone said: we will not end here, we will attack again, we want two championships, we want to build our own dynasty! This is our Nuggets country! At the beginning, the establishment of the Warriors dynasty revolved around the Splash Brothers and Green, 8 years and 4 championships went down in history, and the Nuggets were very simple, Jokic couldn't limit this in the whole league, and Murray dominated the NBA playoffs The difference is worth the top two, and the three helpers all have at least 2-3 years of contracts, as for the role players off the bench, it is not so important. Jokic locked up this season's MVP, coupled with the playoffs, after the Warriors dynasty, the dynasty belonging to the Nuggets may really come.