Chapter 373 Eliminate the Nuggets and advance to the Western Finals
(Let’s talk about updates. Some book friends may say that recent updates are not as diligent as before, but in fact I have compressed the number of words. Now the number of words in a chapter is less than 3,000 and more than 4,000 or 5,000. Two updates a day is almost the same.
Six thousand to eight thousand words. In the first two months, there were three updates a day and one update of two thousand words. In fact, it was six thousand words a day, so the total amount of updates was about the same.)
The Lakers, who swept the Mavericks in the first round, entered the second round, and their upcoming opponent in the second round is the winner between the fourth-place Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference and the fifth-place Utah Jazz in the Western Conference.
The regular season records of the Nuggets and Jazz are extremely close, both barely reaching 50 wins. The Nuggets have a slightly better record, so they are ranked fourth.
From this point of view, the strength of the two teams is relatively close.
But the Nuggets are obviously a little stronger, and this strength is mainly reflected in their leading star.
The signature of the Nuggets is center Nikola Jokic, and the core of the Nuggets at this time happens to be center Rudy Gobert. The strength of these two people is very different. Jokic will be the two consecutive players in the future.
He was elected regular season MVP for the second time and is a comprehensive insider who can help the team in all aspects during the game.
Although Gobert also has multiple best defensive player awards in hand, such blue-collar player awards themselves do not have much gold content. Gobert, who seriously lacks offensive ability, has always been regarded as a standard defensive player.
However, no one expected that the protagonist of this series would be the young guards of both teams.
The Jazz’s 24-year-old Donovan Mitchell and the Nuggets’ 23-year-old Jamal Murray.
In the 19-20 season, the scoring battle between Mitchell and Murray was a piece of news that was popular to see that year. Mitchell scored 50+ points in two games in 7 games, averaging 36.3 points, 5 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game.
Murray also scored 50 points in two games, averaging 26.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game.
In seven games, Murray and Mitchell scored 475 points together, setting a new record for the total points scored by opponents in the series. At the same time, the two also scored 50+ points at the same time in one game.
In terms of points per game and stability, Mitchell, who averages 36 points per game, is obviously better. However, the Jazz do not have a second strong scoring point, but the Nuggets still have star Nikola Jokic.
This led to the Nuggets finally defeating the Jazz in the tiebreaker and advancing to the second round with difficulty.
Putting aside the two young guards, Jokic averaged 26 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists per game, beating Gobert's 16 points and 11 rebounds, proving that the best defensive player award is just not worth mentioning.
small awards.
The Jazz successfully advanced to the second round and will play against the Lakers.
In this series, most people are still more optimistic about the Lakers.
Although the Nuggets have an advantage on the inside, they are completely different on the outside.
Murray was able to score 50+ points twice under the Jazz's perimeter defense, but facing the Lakers, especially Wang Feng, no one thought he could perform as efficiently as he did in the first round.
What's more, in addition to Wang Feng, Butler and Ingram also performed very well when facing Dallas in the first round.
These are points that are difficult for the Nuggets to fight against.
For the Lakers, they only need to deal with one problem against the Nuggets, and that is how to limit Jokic's performance.
It is recognized by the league that the Lakers' inside strength is weak.
Although Brook Lopez relies on his mid-to-long-range shooting ability and has a certain number of shots in the current Lakers' fast-paced tactical system, and his average data is maintained at around 12 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, his movement is slow and his ability to protect the frame is slow.
The shortcomings are always there.
For this reason, the Lakers signed veteran Howard Howard to serve as Lopez's substitute to improve his ability to rebound inside and protect the frame.
This signing was reached at Wang Feng's suggestion. The Lakers were originally interested in Howard, but when Wang Feng agreed, they simply went the other way and signed Howard.
As a time traveler, Wang Feng certainly knows Howard's ability in the past two years.
Although he is no longer as strong as he was at his peak, and in an era when small ball tactics are becoming more and more popular, it is difficult for traditional centers like Howard who are not good at long shots and slow to survive, but if he is used as a substitute center, he can still survive at a certain time.
He performed well.
In another time and space, in the 19-20 season, Howard played 69 regular season games for the Lakers, averaging 18.9 minutes per game and scoring 7 points and 7.3 rebounds. In the playoff Western Conference finals against the Nuggets,
The Lakers asked Howard to guard Jokic, and the old monster gave Jokic a good education in the paint.
Especially in the last two games where Howard started, Jokic averaged only 18 points, 7 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the two games, which was far below average.
Regardless of anything else, just looking at Jokic's defense in the 19-20 Western Conference Finals, Howard is better than Davis, the thick-eyebrowed brother.
Good steel should be used on the blade.
Since Wang Feng knew that Howard was miraculous in defending Jokic, he naturally would not miss this opportunity.
Before the start of the second round of the game, he talked to the head coach, hoping that the team could adjust the starting lineup and let Howard start to focus on Jokic.
Wang Feng's suggestion surprised Walton because he didn't think Howard could restrain Jokic very well.
In the first round of the series, Rudy Gobert, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and currently recognized as the strongest defender in the league, failed to restrict Jokic. Can Howard do it?
Although Howard won the Defensive Player of the Year three times during his peak period and his defensive ability was far better than Gobert's, that was after all, and Howard is old now.
Rather than letting Howard start and get beaten up by Jokic, it would be better to continue to let Lopez start. Even if there is no way to guard Jokic, at least the Lakers' offense will not be affected too much.
However, Wharton still has to take Wang Feng's opinions into consideration, because the suggestions given by Wang Feng before often turn out to be correct afterwards.
So after some discussions with the coaching staff, Walton said this to Wang Feng.
"Wang, in the first game, just to be on the safe side, we will still play with the original starting lineup. In the middle, I will replace Dwight to defend Jokic to see the effect. If he can really play a role against Jokic,
With good defensive effect, he was allowed to start in the following games."
Wang Feng also happily agreed to this outcome.
His version of the Lakers is only stronger than the James + Davis version of the Lakers in another time and space. Even without relying on Howard, it is not difficult to defeat the Nuggets with hard power. Howard's existence only makes the process of winning more difficult.
It was just simpler originally.
…
On April 30, at the Staples Center, home of the Lakers, the opening game of the second round of the playoffs began.
The Lakers' starting lineup continues to use the starting lineup from the regular season and the first round, Wang Feng, Butler, Ingram, Kuzma and Lopez.
The Nuggets have Jamal Murray, Will Barton, Gary Harris, Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic.
There was a jump ball between the two sides, and Lopez rarely won the battle for the ball. The Lakers had the ball.
Wang Feng leads the team's offense.
As most fans and media reporters think, the Nuggets do not have defensive players who can restrict Wang Feng very well. Because of Wang Feng's current passing ability, he does not dare to double-team casually.
Wang Feng frequently broke through and hit the basket with the ball, scoring 13 points in a single quarter, and another 11 points in the second quarter. He scored 24 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in the half.
What's even worse is that on the defensive end, Wang Feng was responsible for guarding Murray, who performed well in the first round.
Murray, who could efficiently score 50 points in two games under the Nuggets' defense, immediately withered against Wang Feng.
Murray, who is only 1.93 meters tall, is inferior to Wang Feng in terms of height, weight, strength and other aspects. Even in terms of speed, Murray cannot compare with Wang Feng.
With being suppressed in all directions, Wang Feng still has the bonus of the badge. How could Murray be his opponent?
The Nuggets can only rely on the inside scoring of Jokic and Millsap, and naturally cannot match the Lakers in scoring efficiency.
At halftime, the score between the two teams was 63:57, with the Lakers leading by 6 points at home.
In the third quarter of the game, the Nuggets, led by Jokic, launched a counterattack, successfully equalized the score and completed the lead. However, in the fourth quarter of the game, Wang Feng and Butler worked together to score a 12:0 victory.
Take the Nuggets away in one wave.
116:109, the Lakers got off to a good start at home without a fight.
For the Lakers, Wang Feng had 37 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists, Butler had 28 points, and Ingram had 18 points.
Nuggets Jokic scored a triple-double with 31 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Millsap also had an advantage against Kuzma in the paint and scored 20 points. However, it was Murray's turn to suffer misfortune and was taken care of by Wang Feng.
Murray made 1 of 7 shots from the field and 3 of 4 free throws. He only scored 5 points. Compared with his superb performance in the first round, Murray was completely different.
…
The victory in the first game gave the Lakers a great momentum. Then in the second game, Walton followed Wang Feng's suggestion and sent Howard to start against Jokic.
The effect was immediate.
Jokic, who scored a big triple-double in the first game, was overwhelmed by Howard's entanglement. In the second game, he only had 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
Even if Jokic performs like this, how can the Nuggets win?
124:100, the Nuggets lost the second game by 24 points, and the total score reached 2:0.
The Nuggets returned to their home court in the G3 series and finally performed exceptionally. Jokic scored 28 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists. Eight members of the Nuggets team scored in double figures. They finally won a difficult game and moved the total to
The score was rewritten to 2:1, but before Denver fans had time to be happy, the Lakers used another crisp victory in the fourth game to turn the score into 3:1.
The series has completely lost its suspense. No one believes that the Nuggets still have a chance to come back after falling behind 1:3.
This is also true.
In the fifth game, the Lakers, who returned to their home court, did not give the Nuggets any chance.
Won the game at 113:98, defeated the Nuggets with a total score of 4:1, and successfully entered the Western Conference Finals.