A thrilling 2-point kill, an unexpected 27-point victory! The championship-winning giants have quietly fallen, and the NBA era has really changed

Lao Liang commented

2024-05-11 22:32Posted in Shandong Sports Creators

This season, the NBA lasted from the regular season to the playoffs, and many unexpected situations occurred, and many championship teams could not play dominant, but some super dark horses, led by young talents, all the way forward. The Warriors were out of the play-offs, the Suns were swept in the first round, and finally coach Vogel was dismissed; The Lakers lost 1-4 to the Nuggets in the first round, and Ham became the scapegoat (in fact, he also has to take responsibility), including Leonard, who can't be supported, and his Clippers, the NBA pattern is becoming more and more incomprehensible, and it only takes 1 year for the original legendary superstar to end, or even only a few games. Of course, when these giants say goodbye to this season, the defending champion Nuggets should be the biggest candidates, but the first three games against the Timberwolves are 1-2. At the end of the day, the Nuggets only have five starters fighting, and they are not as strong as they thought.

In the history of the NBA, only 5 teams can complete the comeback after losing their own two home games first! Of course, the defending champion Nuggets, who were in the bubble park, fell behind the Jazz 1-3 in the first round and won three games in a row to advance; In the second round, he fell behind the Clippers 1-3, won three games in a row to advance, and lost 1-4 to the Lakers in the Western Finals. In the words of coach Malone, Murray and Jokic have been through the playoffs, and they are not afraid to fall behind. So where can the Nuggets' ceiling go this season? Let's talk about a statistic first, among the remaining 8 teams in the East and West in the playoffs, the Nuggets can only average 17.1 free throws per game, ranking first from the bottom, which is the main premise! It can be simply understood that the Nuggets are a team that is very good at relying on passing the ball to find space, and it does not have such a strong confrontation advantage. Thrilling 2-point lore, upset 27-point victory! The championship-winning giants have quietly fallen, and the NBA era has really changed!

Here are two examples. In the first round of the series against the Lakers, the Nuggets were behind almost two-thirds of the time, in the words of the American media, the Lakers can play 30-35 minutes of good play every game, but unfortunately a game is 48 minutes. The problem for the Lakers is that James only has 35 minutes of efficient physical fitness, and so does the thick eyebrows, they are really not very good at attrition wars, and the slightest mistake will be seized by the Nuggets. In the game where the Nuggets eliminated the Lakers, the two teams fought from the first quarter to the end, Murray's horseback archery killed the Lakers, and the Lakers lost by 2 points and left tragically. In the third game of the series between the Nuggets and the Timberwolves, the Nuggets beat the Timberwolves by an unexpected 27 points in the first two games when they were completely powerless. These two games are a true reflection of the Nuggets' playoff performance.

Back to the previous big premise, although the Nuggets have Jokic, although they have full-size Porter and Gordon fronts, they prefer to use Jokic as the axis to respond to the air cut, and Murray as the fulcrum for directional blasting! When the Timberwolves won two games in a row at the Nuggets' home court, and the balance was heavily tilted in favor of the Timberwolves, there will be some changes from the league to the Timberwolves. The league didn't blow so tightly about some of the Nuggets' mobile covers, but instead tightened the Timberwolves' confrontation scale, the confrontation is a foul free throw, to put it mildly, the league doesn't want the series to lose suspense too early, but it doesn't mean that the Nuggets have found a way to crack the Timberwolves! And the key point, here is Murray!

In the series with the Lakers, Murray averaged 23.6 points per game + 40% shooting; In the series with the Timberwolves, Murray averaged 16.3 points + 37.7% shooting per game, which is far from Murray's average of 26.1 points + 47.3% shooting per game when the Nuggets won the championship last season! If the combination of Reeves + Russell can't bring Murray back to last season's form, it is even more difficult to expect Murray to break through the pincer defense of Edwards and Madan! The Nuggets had an overall record of 16-4 in the playoffs last season and didn't encounter much obstacle along the way, but they were 5-3 in the first 8 games of the playoffs this season, and they were behind for most of the time! In the five games they won, Jokic played an average of 39.6 minutes per game, and the key Jokic's own shooting efficiency is declining, and the biggest difference between the Timberwolves and the Lakers is that the Timberwolves have the No. 4 position to expand the defensive area, Towns and Lee Kyle.

That's how the Nuggets really did in the playoffs this season. The league can influence the outcome of one or two games, but the opportunity for the Nuggets and Timberwolves series is that the NBA has finally found a post-James era, and a new façade is expected to raise the banner, which is Edwards. In the past few years, whether it is Jokic, Brother Alphabet or Embiid (which nationality he belongs to, he himself can't tell, even if he joins the U.S. men's basketball team), to put it bluntly, they are all international players, compared to Jokic's laziness, Brother Alphabet's projection shortcomings, Embiid's center guard heart, is a little bit worse than picking up the flag. Not to mention Tatum, who has been praised for nothing but has always been praised, including Doncic, Edwards is better suited to everything from playing style to dominance in key moments, and he has it all at the age of less than 23.

In Downs' words, if you want to make it to the end, you're bound to experience some adversity, and we're all set! The NBA era has really changed! As the defending champions, the Nuggets have no longer the goal of continuing to win championships this season, from the depth of the roster, to the real performance of the playoff duo, to the general direction of the league's future. Of course, the league must not allow one-sided situations, which would make the game unattractive. The best way is to give Edwards room to get on the top and add some twists and turns, too smooth the journey is destined not to be impressive. The Timberwolves' lower limit is based on defense and confrontation, which is also the real hole card of their rise this season. If Edwards rises to the top this season, he will be the future of the league.

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