On April 30, Beijing time, in the fifth game of the series between the Lakers and the Nuggets today, Murray beat the Lakers with a mid-distance stunner at the last moment, and eliminated the Lakers with a score of 4-1 to advance to the second round. Judging from the process and results, there are five major failures behind the Lakers' defeat in this game.
Failure 1: Thick eyebrows are not treated after being injured. It may be an afterthought to say this, and there are actually some side effects on the court after the thick eyebrows are injured, the offense does not receive the ball, and the defense does not dare to grab rebounds with both hands. Let's just say, if Thick Eyebrows had gone down for treatment when he was injured, and then his state could have returned to his appearance in the fourth quarter today, would the result be different?
Defeat 2: Russell's ball handling is reduced. I don't know if this is Hamm's tactic or the players do it unconsciously on the court, but Russell's possession of the ball in this game is significantly reduced compared to G4, and he is back to the role of catching and shooting in previous games.
Defeat 3: Second challenge. One might think that Ham was right to use a second challenge, and the Lakers successfully challenged, avoiding two free throws from Jokic while still getting the ball. But he ignored that the second challenge, whether it was successful or not, needed to be suspended, so that although the Lakers succeeded in the challenge, they did not pause, and they could not make more adjustments in the future. Ham is also a talent, in the last game James frantically asked for a challenge but it was useless, and the players on the field in this game picked it as soon as they asked for a challenge.
Defeat 4: Not on Dinwiddie. When James made a free throw in the final moment, Ham also knew to replace Russell with Upper Prince, so why didn't he take the defensively bad Reeves off at that time and replace him with the taller Dinwiddie. If it was Dinwiddie, he might be able to interfere with Murray's killer shot.
Defeat 5: No foul at the last minute. After James hit both free throws to tie the score, the Lakers had one more foul to give in their final defensive round, so why not foul Murray before he started or shot. Interrupting the Nuggets' offense with a foul could also force Malone to call a timeout, which would give the Lakers a chance to rest and set up their game.