Nuggets vs Timberwolves, the battle of Tianwang Mountain. Jokic's third regular-season MVP award game.
Jokic took over the MVP trophy and then faced the league's strongest defense, facing four-time Defensive Player of the Year Gobert, with 40 points, 13 assists and 0 turnovers. Nuggets 3-2.
"I'm going to give the MVP a sample."
In the first quarter, the MVP scored 12 of the team's 24 points; When Murray + Porter went down, the MVP copied Edwards' balls again, covered Lee Kyle, and fed Reggie Jackson two balls. Scoring, defending, organizing, it's all there.
In the second quarter, when the Timberwolves overturned, the MVP tied the game with a layup, then jumped to the ball, and a three-pointer opened up for seven points, scoring 19 points and eight assists at halftime — and with Murray's performance on 2-of-8 shooting in the first half, the Nuggets were still ahead.
In the third quarter, the Timberwolves had a magnificent 11-3 start and were about to overtake. Coach Malone called a timeout urgently.
In the first 9 minutes, the MVP fed his teammates 3 assists and at least two assists to his teammates for layups; Then he scored 16 points in six minutes — and the Nuggets led by 16 points.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the MVP daydreamed for a while on the bench and thought about his foal for a while. Then when the Timberwolves were in the final pursuit, a three-pointer from the top of the arc scored his 40th point, and the whole court boiled and locked the game.
"On the day of my three-time regular season MVP awards, in the face of the league's strongest defense and four-time Defensive Player of the Year, he scored 35 points in the third quarter, 40 points, 13 assists and 0 turnovers in the game, what was the experience?"
Jokic muttered after the game, "We played great team basketball. ”
Edwards still scored 18 points in the game, but shot 1-of-8 from the field in the first half. Undoubtedly, the worst game of the playoffs this season.
He still worked hard, but after the third quarter, Coach Malone admitted, "Anthony [Edwards] is a special player...... We protected the penalty area and we threw a lot of people at him. ”
Edwards' nine assists today are a career-high playoff high. He worked hard to pass to his teammates, but in the past two games, the Nuggets have tried out: they have fallen into a positional battle, and Madan, Walker, Lee Kyle and Gobert can all be released. Then flank Edwards!
There's also a brain factor here: the Nuggets vs. Timberwolves Game 3, pinching Edwards; In the fourth, take away Edwards' passing window and let him burst; Let's go back today.
Ice → fire→ ice, mental and physical torture, no matter how strong a young man is, he will start to lose his hair.
The Timberwolves' forte is not giving up. At the beginning of the third quarter, he counterattacked at a speed, 55-53. At that time, the Nuggets were extremely dangerous. After the first shot of the timeout, Gordon found Jokic to block one-sided, but Gordon was blocked by Gobert: At the time, it seemed that the momentum was on the side of the Timberwolves.
However, Gordon insisted on playing Gobert one, 55 draws.
The Nuggets made a bet, letting Walker go, Jokic rebounded in the backcourt, held back in the high post, and Murray made a layup.
Walker missed another shot, Jokic pushed back and sent Gordon for a dunk, and then countered to find Pope's long-range shot, 62-57. Walker missed his third shot in a row, and Jokic delivered the best assist of the game: a rebound in the backcourt followed by a long pass, and Murray dunked directly.
It was the turning point for the game:
In 5 minutes, Riokic had 4 assists, Murray fed alive, Pope fed away, and Gordon was confident. Walker conceded three goals in a row.
Jokic: Okay.
From then until the end of the third quarter, Jokic scored 6 minutes and 16 points, but missed the pass. Shoot two, pass one to Murray, pass one to Gordon - a back-to-the-ground pass that gets Gordon fouled for a dunk can tie the best pass of the game with a cross-court assist, but it doesn't count as an assist.
Then came Jokic's tech show:
Facing Gobert, a big dream step followed by a hook shot at the board; Facing Downs, a pick-and-roll inside cut hit the board throw. Naz Reed came, Jokic accelerated to the inside to catch the ball, and hit the board: 70-63.
The three elders of the Timberwolves were all played by Jokic.
The Timberwolves tried to use Kyle Lee against Jokic again, but Jokic knew how to deal with him: the defensive end let Kyle Lee go to block Edwards' breakthrough space, forcing Edwards to shoot too flat and still miss his 9th shot; Turning around, Jokic burst past Kyle Lee in the basket, giving Gordon a chance to dunk Gobert and make another free throw.
Edwards, who shot 1 of 9, tried to ignite the fire again, first breaking Murray on the left wing, and then breaking through Pope on the right wing to play 2+1; Gordon quickly pushed through the halfcourt, Jokic cut inside, turned around after receiving the ball, and threw his foot on the ground, 78-68, "Did Gobert see it?" - Teasing you. ”
Lee Kaier tried to use the strategy of the first two games, tilted to the side to copy Jokic's ball, but was broken by Jokic to make a free throw. In turn, Braun used an early change of defense and a pinch to force Downs to make a mistake; Jokic broke through, leaned over, and threw an awkward shot to hit Gobert for a three-pointer. The MVP resounded through the arena. Goebel's expression at the time was, "I just became a dad at home, how can I be like a kid here?" ”
Then came the cutest moment of the game: Lee Kaier pressed the whistle in the third quarter and didn't have time to shoot. The lesson is, "Don't give the whistle ball to a slow-motion youth nicknamed the Human Creep Essence to throw!" - One of his shooting feints could be over! ”
In the fourth quarter, the cunning of the Nuggets was revealed.
After Edwards was hot at the end of the third quarter, the Nuggets resolutely let Maidan go to flank Edwards. Even after Porter and Braun pinched Edwards, they used fouls to stop Edwards from passing the ball to Naz Reed in the open space, "Sporadic fouls can be had, momentum?" No. ”
Then Pope returned two three-pointers, 96-80, and turned back Pope to defend Downs' back-to-back single.
The defensive essence of the Nuggets in the whole game is probably these moments:
- Walker and Maidan, who were emptied, kept striking iron; Edwards was pinched to 1-of-9 shooting; Holiday carried Gobert with a small defense, and Pope carried Downs with a small defense.
- It's completely off-topic: Two years ago, when Downs scored 60 points in a single game, I made a small statistic at the time, 9 basket wins, 7 three-pointers, and I didn't eat alone in the whole game.
- In the fourth quarter today, Pope stuck to Downs from the three-point line, and Downs sat on the edge of the box and brushed the bottom edge of the front basket with a hook hand.
- In the next round, Pope blocked Edwards' counterattack, Murray caught the ball, and Jokic dunked.
The game should have ended here, but Edwards was still chasing: a mid-air shot, 92-10, half a quarter, and a chance.
Jokic then faced Gobert with a three-pointer, 106-92.
The game is actually over.
Nuggets 3-2.
Of course, I have to give Coach Malone a credit. After being 2-0 down......
- Clear the one-sided block for Murray and Jokic, so that Murray is no longer interfered with by the defense.
- Flanking Edwards → letting go of Edwards' transformation, making Edwards physically and mentally exhausted.
- In the third game, he gave Murray a lot of cover and let him lead the whole team to stare at Downs.
- Vacate the Maidan, Walker and Gobert one after another.
- Ultra-high cover pulls space.
- In the fourth game, Gordon got the full shot to stunned Gobert.
Just today, after being overtaken in the third quarter, Walker was released to speed up and chase after him; Multi-player inside blocking Edwards; the unwinding of Walker, Lee Kyle, Maidan and Gobert; Small defense big cuts the space for the twin towers to get the ball.
Of course, all of this is thanks to the offensive adjustment ability of the Nuggets team.
and MVP Jokic.
Today, Jokic played the second time in NBA playoff history that he had 40 points, 10 assists and 0 turnovers in a single game — the last being Paul in 2018.
Paul is the most skilled playmaker of all time, and he's got a lot of age to play like that — and Jokic is a giant.
Jokic's 40 points were still impressive today. As mentioned above, against the Dons, the inside is thrown. To Reed, to be low-handed. Against Gobert, big dream pace + sky hook, diagonal throwing of the basket, three-point shot at the top of the arc. Kaleidoscope performances.
But the most amazing thing was his two passes in the third quarter: a long pass across the court, and a back pass to the ground. Atmosphere and details, there's all.
The biggest difference between a player and a spectator is the field of vision.
The player with the worst vision will be shouted by the audience, "This is a chance not to be passed?" ”
Players with good vision, the audience will be satisfied, "as soon as the opportunity comes out, it will be passed." ”
For players with excellent vision, the audience will sigh, "I didn't even see the opportunity, he passed it." ”
Jokic in today's third quarter, "How did he pass this ball?" ”
In the fourth quarter, Porter had a missed right-wing three-pointer, and Jokic's pass was not out of the box at the moment, and it was Jokic who judged the rotation of the Timberwolves to pass it.
In the next round, Jokic made a long pass to Braun, who dribbled a step and found himself in a big open position, stepped back, and made a three-pointer to make it 101-84. Braun smiled and nodded to Jokic. The expression was like, "I thought you gave me a $100.00 tip — and when I looked closely, I realized that it was $10,000!" ”
It's a strange ability: Jokic can even spot big openings for Braun — who is already a very smart player — that Braun himself is not fully aware of.
After Braun made this three-pointer, he began to grab rebounds in the backcourt like crazy. Every time he grabbed a rebound, he gave it to Jokic as soon as possible.
We're probably used to seeing this meeting:
The entire Nuggets reassuredly handed over the ball to Jokic and then ran aggressively. They know they're going to get a pass from Jokic when they have space. The whole team loves Jokic and learns how to pass the ball. The whole team is desperate to do something for Jokic and repay him for all he has done for the team.
That's what MVP is. When you need to hold alone, all kinds of tricks play all the inside lines of the Timberwolves. When you need to pass the ball, try your best to pass the ball to your teammates. When the score difference doesn't matter, start fishing, daydream horse racing, and let the whole team play together. After the game, he also said that it was "great team basketball". Is there anything else to find fault with?
Yes: Jokic has only seven rebounds in each of his last two games.
But those of you watching the game will know that he is often involved in blocking Edwards' breakaways, stealing the ball (eight steals in the last three games), and playing Gobert with a bench. "Gordon, Porter and Braun will be in charge of backcourt rebounds anyway."
“那你就不想顺便刷点篮板凑三双吗MVP？”
Jokic-style stall .jpg.
Old topic: Nuggets aren't naturally able to play like this. This "excellent team basketball" was slowly raised by Jokic as the core.
That's what MVP is. Regular season MVP for the past four years, three seasons.
Of course, MVP doesn't necessarily need to be defined by Jokic, and MVP can be something else — for example, last season's MVP Embiid......
Finally, as I just said, this is the second playoff game with 40 points, 10 assists and 0 turnovers.
Today Jokic vs. Timberwolves, 40 points, 13 assists and 0 turnovers. Timberwolves Center: Gobert is the fourth Defensive Player of the Year.
Paul vs. Jazz in 2018, 41 points, 10 assists and 0 turnovers. Jazz center: Gobert won Defensive Player of the Year for the first time.
Goebel: Merde! Are you polite?!