At 10:00 a.m. Beijing time on April 30, the first round of the NBA playoffs is in full swing, and the Denver Nuggets return to their home court to face the Los Angeles Lakers. Before this game, the Nuggets led the Lakers 3-1 and got the match point, to be honest, the Lakers have played well in this series, and after the first four games, they led their opponents even more, but each time they were overturned at critical moments. Compared to the Nuggets, the Lakers' disadvantage is that they may have problems in terms of fitness, and their efficiency will drop seriously in the second half, and they will not be able to keep up with the Nuggets. Of course, after all, the Lakers have a deep strong team culture, and they have a historical superstar like James in their lineup, and I believe they will not be so willing to be out of the first round.
Speaking about Jokic's performance before the game, Bushy said in an interview: "He's hard to defend, he can score on three levels, and his passing makes him more of a threat. He's got a good foot in the low post, he can shoot threes, he's got the ability to shoot in the high post. It's hard to defend, and I just try to make it hard for him, force him to make a difficult shot, and then accept the result. Of course, any team needs to defend as a team, and that is to accept the result. Before the game, Nuggets coach Malone also said: "Hopefully the loss in the last game can wake us up, we played lackluster for most of the whole series, playing very passive and lacking vitality." But I think they'll eventually take it seriously in the G5 game, so we'll see. ”
In this game, the two sides are in the starting lineup, the Lakers sent James, thick eyebrows, Russell, Reaves and Hachimura, and the Nuggets sent Jokic, Murray, Porter Jr., Gordon and Pope. At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, Jokic jumped the ball to win, the Nuggets took the lead in getting the ball, Murray hit a mid-range turnover jumper and scored the first goal of the game, Hachimura's ultra-long three-point shot also opened for the Lakers, Murray was not to be outdone, chased three points and immediately responded, Reaves broke through and threw a hollow into the net, raised his eyebrows in the restricted area to make a foul, stood on the free throw line and made two free throws, and then squeezed into the interior to score a violent dunk, Murray exploded three-pointers and continued to bloom, less than half a quarter in the first quarter, Murray had already scored 12 points.
Jokic shook off the defense with his dreamy footsteps, turned and scored two points on a layup, James scored a goal with a big stride meteor impact inside, Reggie hit a three-shot shot on the wing, and the scores of the two sides were tight, and the first quarter of the game ended, and the Nuggets led the Lakers by four points at 28-24. At the beginning of the second quarter of the game, Russell broke through the throwing and wiped the board to help the Lakers take the next city, Hayes jumped into the basket, made a strong foul and stood on the free throw line and hit two free throws, Russell and Reggie shot three-pointers at each other, James crushed into the interior and played 2+1, the Lakers began to take the initiative in the middle of the second quarter, Hachimura hit a jumper, Russell flew to the basket and scored two points, the Nuggets fell into a scoring drought of nearly 4 minutes, and the Lakers once extended their lead to about 10 points.
Jokic resisted an unreasonable three-pointer to help the Nuggets stop the bleeding in time, and Murray and Porter Jr. also scored four points in a row at the last moment, and the Lakers led the Nuggets by three points at 53-50 at halftime. At the beginning of the second half of the game, Yibian fought again, Hachimura took a bow and shot outside the three-point line in the bottom corner, pierced through Yang in 100 steps, opened the third quarter of the game, James accelerated the breakthrough, hit the basket and dropped two points, Murray stopped and turned over and scored another goal, Jokic hit a tough single, high throw, Reaves made a three-point foul, but unfortunately only one of the three free throws, Hachimura and Jokic shot each other three-pointers, the Lakers took the lead and expanded the difference to about 10 points, but the good times did not last long, and the Nuggets began to show their scoring explosiveness。
Porter Jr., Pope and others hit three-pointers in a row, and the Nuggets instantly tied the score with a wave of small climaxes, and after the third quarter of the game, the Nuggets overtook the Lakers by 2 points 81-79. In the final quarter, the scores of the two teams were stalemate until the last moment, Reaves scored a key three-pointer, but the Lakers lost consecutive offensive rebounds in the last minute, Murray seized the opportunity to score three-pointers, and the last offense, the score of the two teams was tied at 106-106, Murray turned over and made a jumper to kill the game again, and in the end, the Nuggets defeated the Lakers 108-106, and advanced to the Western Conference semifinals with a big score of 4-1, which will face the Timberwolves, and the Lakers were eliminated.
In terms of statistics, on the Lakers' side, James scored 30 points, 9 rebounds and 11 assists, thick eyebrows 17 points, 15 rebounds and 4 assists, Russell 14 points and 6 assists, Reaves 19 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, and Hachimura 15 points and 5 rebounds. On the Nuggets side, Jokic had 25 points, 20 rebounds and 9 assists, Murray had 32 points, 3 rebounds and 7 assists, Porter Jr. had 26 points and 4 rebounds, and Gordon had 7 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists.