The Lakers took a lot of effort to catch the last train of the playoffs, but they still couldn't escape the iron fist of the defending champion Nuggets! Series G1, the Lakers once led by 12 points in the first half, lost by 14 points in the third quarter, and finally lost by 11 points;Series G2, the Lakers led by up to 20 points, but collapsed in the final quarter, and were killed by Murray in the whistle;Series G3, the Lakers played an 8-0 fairy start, taking advantage of the home court momentum to lead by 15 points, but they still collapsed in the third quarter, losing by 12 points in a single quarter, and finally lost by 7 points! Leading by double digits in 3 consecutive games, and being reversed in the second half of 3 consecutive games, in front of the powerful defending champions, the Lakers seem to have hope, but in fact have no chance of winning, feeling the fear of being dominated by their opponents, walking on the verge of collapse!
From G1 to G3, the Lakers have the heart to kill the enemy, but they are powerless to return to the sky, and the Zhan Mei combination cannot be said to be without hard work, but it has been reduced to a cookie-cutter best game! Take thick eyebrows as an example, he averaged 32.3 points + 13.3 rebounds per game in the three games of the series, and he scored at least 30 points + 10 rebounds per game, and he became the first player to complete this achievement after O'Neal in the 2001-02 season! Thick eyebrows' personal output is not inferior to Jokic, but the game influence is completely incomparable to Jokic. Especially as the game deepens, the physical fitness of the thick eyebrows will always turn on the red light, and the fatter will have 10,000 ways to dominate the game, and the BUG level exists! Perhaps, this is the gap between the master key and the MVP.
Take Lao Zhan as an example, Lao Zhan, who is nearly 40 years old, played an average of 40.3 minutes per game in 3 games, contributing an average of 26.3 points + 6.7 rebounds + 9.7 assists + 1.7 steals + 1.3 blocks + 2.3 three-pointers per game, with three shooting rates of 56.4%, 41.2% and 71.4% respectively. Lao Zhan took the lead in offense and defense within the scope of his ability, and reasonably distributed his limited physical energy, but it is undeniable that the aging James is no longer able to remain efficient throughout the court, and the Nuggets can always seize the gap between Lao Zhan's physical and mental exhaustion to give a fatal blow! There is a statistic that shows that so far in the playoffs, Zhan Mei has scored a total of 176 points, and the others have only scored 131 points, as a comparison, Yomu has scored a total of 147 points, and the others have scored a total of 180 points!
The Lakers fell behind 0-3, and Lao Zhan also set two shameful records. According to statistics from the NBA's official website, this is the first time in Lao Zhan's career that he has fallen behind 0-3 in the first round of the playoffs. At the same time, counting last season's Western Finals Lao Zhan was swept out by the Nuggets 0-4, Lao Zhan has suffered 7 consecutive defeats in the playoffs, continuing to refresh the longest record in his career! Shameful 7 consecutive defeats, helpless 0-3, Lao Zhan lost convincingly, he said frankly in an interview after the game: I have to give praise to the Nuggets, they are always able to hit one difficult shot after another, this Nuggets team has no weaknesses, they are definitely one of the strongest teams I have played in my career. That's right, Young Zhan was swept by the Spurs, and the peak Zhan was swept by the Universe Yong, but he never admitted defeat and completed his revenge; But now? In his twilight years, Zhan is likely to be swept by the Nuggets for two consecutive years, but Lao Zhan is "drawing his sword and looking around at a loss", how tragic and magnificent this is, how desperate is this, and how desolate is this?
Trailing 0-3, the Lakers will have a hard time pulling off miracles. According to the statistics of the NBA's official website, there have been 151 times in the history of the playoffs when teams have fallen behind 0-3 in the series, no team has been able to complete a big reversal, and there are only 4 times that the team that can drag the series into overtime, and the last team to complete this achievement was the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals last season! It is not so much that Lao Zhan has self-doubt, but that Lao Zhan has seen the reality clearly: the past, the number of romantic figures, and the present, the future will eventually belong to the younger generation, and the Lakers' championship window has closed!
Zhan Mei has teamed up for 6 seasons, they have had the success of winning the championship in the park, and they have also had the experience of winning the championship in the midseason, but it is undeniable that Lao Zhan has seamlessly dominated the playoffs as he did when he was young, and the thick eyebrows have never been able to take over the torch from Lao Zhan. What's even more difficult is that from Wei Shao to Russell, they seem to be the third big man next to Zhan Mei, but in the end, they are only the ones who are the backstabbers, who wants to come to this troubled water? Or is that sentence, if Lao Zhan is still the number one star of this Lakers team, then this Lakers team will only drift away from the championship! Fans and friends, what do you think about this? Come and leave me a comment to discuss.