On April 30, Beijing time, the series between the Lakers and the Nuggets will usher in a life-and-death battle, and the Lakers, who are 1-3 behind, will challenge the Nuggets away, which is a win-or-go game. The Lakers will fight hard to return to their home court to play G6, while the Nuggets will have to find a way to end the series and avoid being overturned by the Lakers.
After playing four games in a row, as well as the last two seasons of each other, the two teams are already very familiar with each other, and they know each other well, but this G5, the two X-factors of both sides, also adds more uncertainty to this game.
First up is the Lakers, Vanderbilt took part in the pregame warm-up and is likely to play in this game, and if he can get back to a good shape, he can obviously help the Lakers on the wing.
The second is the Nuggets, Murray suffered a calf strain after the last game, and it was thought that he would miss G5 due to injury, but just now the Nuggets officially announced that Murray will play in this game.
The Nuggets' official announcement of Murray's appearance means that his calf strain is not as serious as expected, after all, the Bucks' alphabet brother has not been able to play since the calf strain at the end of the season. And Murray's degree of strain does not seem to have reached even a first-degree strain, otherwise, he would have to be out of action for at least a week.
But it is not difficult to see from the pre-game warm-up picture that Murray's left calf is tied with a thick brace, and it is not difficult to see from the footsteps and movements of his training shooting that this strain obviously affected his movements, and he even dared not use his strength, and he was not able to jump during training.
Healthy Murray, the second most important figure for the Nuggets, the second scorer, and the team's second point of initiating the ball, his absence will affect the strength of the Nuggets, but because of the presence of Jokic and the stability of the team's lineup, the strength of the Nuggets should not be underestimated. But now, although Murray can play, he is playing with an injury, which is undoubtedly a better opportunity for the Lakers, because the Clippers and small cards next door are the best counterexamples.
Murray will be physically hampered by injuries that will cause his feet to move slowly, his legs to jump and not to make his moves, and his offense and defense will be affected. What's more, players who play with injuries will still have some psychological obstacles, for fear of aggravating the injury, and hamstring strain is one of the injuries that are most likely to aggravate the injury.
Therefore, the Lakers can take turns chasing Murray in this game, with James, Russell and Rivers taking turns to play and take advantage of the latter's weakness to destroy the opponent's defense. As the Mavericks did in G2 and G3 against Xiaoka, they grabbed Xiaoka and played with an injury and knocked out their opponents in two consecutive games.
This G5, if the Lakers can win, there is no doubt that the team's morale will be further improved, and the next game back to Los Angeles home, they are expected to win again and drag the game into a tie-break, at that time, with James's tie-break, there may be a chance to break the dusty 151-year-old record!