The Lakers lost three consecutive defeats to the Nuggets, all of which led in the first half, and the Nuggets reversed in the second half.
There are a lot of things that can be written about these three games, but there is one that I am more interested in. The bridging section generally refers to the time from the latter part of the first quarter to the early part of the second quarter, when the first break and the substitute come up to connect. Especially in the first half of the second quarter, usually only 1~2 people will be left in the starter "with substitutes".
The Nuggets' lineup is generally as follows: Murray rests first in the first quarter, and Jokic plays the full first quarter. Then in the first half of the second quarter, Murray was given a bench, and Jokic rested for five minutes before returning to the court.
For the Lakers, LeBron James rested first, Davis played the whole first quarter, and James played off the bench in the first half of the second quarter.
In the second round of the Yonghu match last year, Kerr also had a sniper break with Davis, and one game was taken away directly like this.
In the first round of this year's Western Conference playoffs, Lakers head coach Ham also made a move: let Davis rest first in the first quarter, and in the early part of the second quarter, Hayes put on a "twin tower" lineup to bombard Jokic to rest the Nuggets bench.
As we all know, the Nuggets have a strong starter, probably the strongest in the league, but the bench strength is much weaker than last year. Starting from the connecting section is a strategically good move for Ham.
However, this is very important, Nuggets head coach Malone saw that Ham rested Davis early in the first quarter, and he immediately made a corresponding move: Aaron Gordon, who has not played in the last five games, directly sent to the court at the beginning of the second quarter.
This move made Davis, who deliberately "staggered Jokic's playing time", not cheap, and Jokic rested for almost half a quarter as planned.
The Lakers didn't bargain too much in the first half of the second quarter, and when Jokic returned, a wave of 14-2 brought the game back to square one.
The change of lineup in the first game was useless, and Ham let AD rest normally in the second game, sending Hayes to play as a substitute center with James.
Malone let Aaron Gordon play as a substitute center, and his mobility made Hayes take care of one or the other, and in the second game, the Lakers returned in vain. Jokic couldn't stop Davis from being beaten to a -11 when he came back. But the Nuggets, who made a force in the second half of the second game, finally closed the game.
In the third scene, the ham once again changed the arrangement of the connecting section.
This time he put on a five-small lineup, James, Hachimura and Prince in a small-ball forward line, and Malone still let Aaron Gordon play as a backup center. This small-ball lineup that directly abused the Lakers in the connecting section, Aaron Gordon turned into a rebounding machine under the basket, how to catch it, the Lakers once again couldn't bargain in the connecting section.
There are certainly many reasons for the three-game losing streak. But no matter how the ham changed the formation and how he made the moves, he didn't play the results he originally wanted in the transition section. Malone quietly responded with one hand at a time. In the fourth game, can the Lakers still have a trick?
In this regard, fans have expressed their opinions:
- Anyway, how to change the formation is the coach's fault, and it is never the player's pot.
- To people but not to people, ham is played by Malone to the point that it can't work.
—— If it doesn't matter how it changes, it's actually just a lineup gap.
- Ham also has a dangerous move, so that Zhan can attack without the ball.